Software engineering is a core subject in computing education. Today, there
seems to be a consensus that teaching software engineering requires students to
perform practical experiences that simulate the work in the software industry.
This represents a challenge for universities and instructors, because these
experiences are complex to setup and involve considerable time and effort.
Although there are several experiences and proposals reported in the
literature, there is no clear solution to address this challenge. Aim: Being
knowledgeable about the several approaches reported in the literature for
dealing with this challenge is the first step to proposing a new solution.
Counting on this knowledge allows instructors to reuse lessons learned from
other universities. In order to address this challenge, we conducted a
systematic mapping study that intends to answer the following questions: What
are the main approaches used to address the practical experiences in software
engineering education? Is there an emerging tendency to address this challenge?
Which software process models are used to support the practical experiences in
software engineering courses? Have the universities changed the way of
conducting these experiences over the years? What are the main forums to seek
information on practical approaches for teaching software engineering? Method:
We used a systematic mapping study to identify and classify available research
papers that report the use of practical experiences in software engineering
education.