Improving Delivery of UML Class Diagrams Concepts in Computer Science Education Through Collaborative Learning

This work-in-progress paper aims to understand hard-to-comprehend class diagrams concepts (a standard in Unified Modeling Language (UML)) by CS students and to improve their understanding of these concepts. Fresh graduates have been reported (by the software industry) to face difficulties in solving real-world problems with class diagrams (one of many problematic areas). This incompetency affects software development negatively in the software industry when they join the workforce. Lack of proficiency in modeling knowledge leads to fault-prone software designs, which require additional testing and time for the developers in software development. To fill the skill gap, this research intends to develop a systematic pedagogical approach to help students understand these concepts better through checklist-based intervention and pair programming. Our proposed approach, in accordance with the SoTL (Scholarship of Teaching of Learning), in this study aims at conducting an empirical study in a software design course at North Dakota State University to (a) conduct a pretest to identify students' basic conceptual understanding and (b) post-tests to evaluate the impact of pair programming and checklist-based interventions. We will analyze the data collected from this session to find how much intervention and pair programming helped improve the learning concepts of software design in students and to meet industrial expectations by building skill setups for workforce industries.