DISTRIBUTED GROUP WORKING IN SOFTWARE ENGINEERING-EDUCATION

Distributed group working of software engineering teams is increasingl y evident in the 'real world'. Tools to support such working are at pr esent limited to general purpose groupware involving video, audio, cha t, shared whiteboards and shared workspaces. Within software engineeri ng education, group tasks have an established role in the curriculum. However, in general, groups are local to a particular university or in stitution and are composed of students who have a significant shared h istory (in terms of technical background and social interaction) and w ho are able to meet face-to-face on a regular basis. This paper report s on work undertaken by three UK universities to provide students with the opportunity to experience group working across multiple sites usi ng low cost tools to support distributed cooperative working. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V.