A Study of the Use of a Reflective Activity to Improve Students' Software Design Capabilities

This paper contains a description of a follow-on to a pilot study in which students performed reflective activities as part of the design process in an advanced programming course. Students produced an initial design for their programs that was due within a week after the program was assigned. Along with their projects, students submitted a document reflecting the final design and an analysis of the changes between them. Requirements for the analysis were made more explicit than those in the pilot study. The format of the document was specified and the task was described to the students as a technical writing activity. Results of the work are reported and a comparison with prior work that did not have a specified structure for the student analysis are described.