A design for team peer code review

Abstract

The software industry needs our graduates to have significant and meaningful experiences with teamwork. A new design has been developed for a teamwork exercise based on peer code review. This design uses the three Ss of building assignments for cooperative learning: Same problem, Specific choices, and Simultaneous report. Students perform peer code review individually, and within and between stable small groups. The code can be sanitized student work or may be altered by the instructor to meet specific course learning objectives. The review is done in three phases. First, individuals answer yes or no to questions that evaluate the quality of the design and code. Then each group answers the same set of questions. When the groups have completed their evaluation, the class joins together to reveal and discuss the answers. This design was successfully implemented during the 2003-2004 academic year in an introductory programming class. This design is applicable to more advanced classes with significant programming assignments. Future work includes extending this structure to give students experience with other software engineering artifacts early in their academic careers.