ACCESSING PROGRAMMERS COLLABORATION SKILL - A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Good programmers must be versatile. They need to possess various programming (technical) skills and knowledge, but also appropriate personal traits and soft skills to fit into the work environment. Perhaps one of the most important soft skills in this context is collaboration. Unfortunately, this skill is often overlooked in education, especially in the context of programming. And since diplomas and certificates for collaboration are not issued, the employers must themselves test applicants on a job interview (they often use personality tests) and later train them to work in teams. This paper presents a case study that deals with organizing a programming course in Java. The course, in addition to technical knowledge and skills in relevant technologies, fosters the development and assessment of students’ collaboration skill. Special pedagogical rubrics and indicators were developed to support these processes and were used along with software tools for collaborative programming. Digital open badges were used as means of acknowledging the achieved skill level – both for technical skills and collaboration skills. These badges, in addition to the skill level achieved and badge issuer data, contain digital evidence of the work performed, as well as the assessment criteria. Therefore, they may be useful for both employers and job applicants.