Practice and Study of Training Model for Professional Master Degree in Software Engineering

Yi Zhang, Xinyi Yang, Jun Liao, Junhao Wen, Qingyu Xiong

Abstract: The culture of professional degree graduate students is a new form of postgraduate education in China. It focuses on cultivating high-level and applied talents compared with original academic degree graduate students. Considering about the source of full-time professional degree graduate students in domain of software engineering and the current college educational system,this paper makes a few beneficial explorations about curriculum, practice teaching, process management and puts forward the mode and method to improve full-time professional degree graduate education in domain of Software Engineering.

Key words: professional degree graduate students; training mode; software talents; quality assurance

1 Introduction

Since the Ministry of Education has decided to expend the enrollment of full-time professional degree graduate students based on fresh graduates in 2009,the structure of postgraduate education in Chinese universities has changed significantly, and enrollment has increased year by year. However, the training mode of professional degree graduate students has not been adjusted in time. There are still some problems in Chongqing University as following[1].

1.1 There is little distinction in course setting between academic degree graduate students and professional degree graduate students

Since postgraduate education in software school started from full-time academic degree postgraduate education which has been formed a relatively mature education mode after 10 years of development. So that training programs and mentors' ideas for full-time professional degree graduate students still remain in the training mode for academic degree graduate students. In the courses actually offered, there are very few differences between full-time professional degree graduate students and academic degree graduate students. Even two of them above are both in the same curriculum system,and do not emphasize the characteristics of cultivating high-level, compound and applied talents culture[2].

1.2 There is no change in teaching content,teaching methods and means

Some teachers still adopt traditional teaching methods and focus on single lectures, lacking of interaction with students. And they continue using the textbooks for academic degree graduate students which emphasis on theoretical research. Some of the contents are obsolete and do not meet the requirements of professional degree graduate students already.

1.3 Practical teaching steps r emain perfunctory not implemented

The practice teaching procedure is the key and lifeline for the full-time professional degree postgraduate training. For many reasons, some students do not really come to a software company or practical base in the procedure of professional practice teaching. The training mode is still implementing the practical form of tutor's laboratory which is in accordance with the academic postgraduates. Some are even worse. In this way, professional practice teaching exists in name only.

1.4 Regulations and management system ar e inadequate

Now that full-time professional degree graduate education is a new thing, regulation and management system is still in exploration. And there are lots of deficiencies in some aspects such as professional practice, base construction and thesis type. It is badly in need of a cultivation quality evaluation and guarantee system which is consistent with the characteristics of professional degree postgraduate education.

2 The Training Goal of Full-T ime Professional Degree Graduate Students

The training goal of full-time professional degree graduate students in domain of software engineering is not only to support the construction and development of national economy information, but also to the needs of software engineering and management talents. It aims to cultivate high-level, compound and applied talents. Students are able to master the solid foundation of software engineering basic and professional knowledge, strong engineering practical ability,international vision , good occupation accomplishment,and specialize in the field of software engineering research and development, engineering project organization, implementation and management. The specific training goals are as follow[3]:

(1) Supporting the basic line, principles and policies of the Chinese Communist Party , loving the motherland, observing laws and disciplines, being honest and dedicated, courteous and considerate,physical and mental health, good professional ethics and quality, and actively serving China economic construction and social development.

(2) Mastering software basic theories and systematic professional knowledge, having strong practicality,team cooperation and innovation ability; skillfully using software engineering methods and technology to complete work to analysis, design, development,maintenance and management of system software and application software , and undertaking technical or management work of large software engineering projects independently.

(3) Being skilled in reading and writing foreign materials, conducting international communication and cooperation. With enough strong learning ability to continuously track and grasp the current situations,development trends, new technologies and methods in this field.

3 The Curriculum System for Full-Time Professional Degree Graduate Student Education in the Domain of Softwar e Engineering

The full-time professional graduate degree education system has designed and implemented an international software engineering knowledge system in the software engineering field curriculum system. It has properly reconstructed the full-time professional graduate degree curriculum system, breaking the basic curriculum,advanced courses, mathematics classification courses and non-technical courses .The system endeavors to emphasize on the development of students software engineering idea and software system construction capability, and form a flexible curriculum system and dynamic teaching plan which is oriented demands of towards enterprise and in accordance with international norms[4].

Not only the establishment of full-time professional degree postgraduate curriculum system focuses on the characteristics of software engineering in software engineering, but also its overall planning and specific curriculum design，which are based on the integration of professional foundation and industrial needs. The curriculum system includes basic quality education,public basic courses, software engineering courses,professional direction field courses, professional practice courses and so on[5].

The whole curriculum system considers the cultivation of students professional foundation and thinking mode. At the same time, it makes modular design in accordance with the professional direction,adheres to the principle of combining theory teaching with practice teaching, setting up varies of practice courses at different levels and ways in professional curriculum modules, such as software skills,software project practice, training, internship and entrepreneurship education, which can strengthen the cultivation of students engineering practice ability.

The curriculum system for full-time professional degree graduate student education in the domain of software engineering implements a credit system, the total credits are not less than 32 credits,including 8.5 credits for public basic courses, 7.5 credits for specialized basic courses , not less than 8 credits for specialty courses, 4 credits of practical courses, 4 credits of occupation and the literacy courses , 6 credits for professional practice, 1 credit for thesis proposal,and 1 credit for the academic professional reports.

The course design for full-time software engineering professional degree graduate student education is as shown in Fig. 1.

4 Practical Teaching is a Significant Link in the Training of Professional Degree Graduate Students

Practice teaching is not only the key and difficult point for the full-time professional degree graduates , but also an important guarantee for the quality of the full-time professional degree postgraduate education[6].

4.1 Professional practice and time

Professional practice is an essential part of software engineering professional degree postgraduate training.Professional practice methods of professional degree postgraduates can be any of the following.

(1) In a lab where the supervisor has a practical project with an enterprise.

(2) In a practice base on or off campus, which is established by a college and enterprise. With the application of the students themselves and the approval of the tutor, professional practice is organized andimplemented by the college.

Fig. 1 The curriculum system of full-time software engineering professional degree graduate student.

(3) Students can contact with IT enterprises at home and abroad by themselves. It is necessary to apply for the application of the students and the consent of the supervisors.

A professional degree graduate student should apply for professional practice before the end of the second semester, make clear the content and way of professional practice, fill in the “professional practice plan of full-time professional degree graduate students”. This plan is supposed to be approved by his or her supervisor, and submitted to the college’s office of educational administration. Through unified organization and implementation, a college collect and summarize professional degree graduate students information of professional practice, then deliver to the postgraduate training management of fice within 2 weeks after the third semester begins.

4.2 Requirements and assessments of professional practice

The time of carrying out professional practice teaching for full-time professional degree graduate students should not be less than half a year. Moreover, the assessment of this link adopts the credit system. After completing the professional practice, a full-time professional degree graduate students should submit a professional practice report and fill in the " Registration Form for Professional Practice Teaching Examination for Full-time Professional Graduates".

The professional practice of professional degree graduate students is examined by the experts organized by a college. A way combined with student explanation and expert on-site inquiry is taken in the examination.The content includes the background, purpose and significance of practice, corresponding requirements,technology solutions, implementations and so on, and also shows its practical results, such as engineering design, software or product implementation and its implementation details. The grade evaluation of practical course is rated by the experts，which is divided into five grades, including excellent, good,medium, qualified and unqualified. Six credits are distributed to those who are qualified and above, but 0 credit is available to those who are unqualified and who should supposed to retake the professional practice course[7].

5 Strengthening the Process Management of Dissertations

The dissertation work of full-time professional degree graduate students in the field of software engineering is an important link in the training of graduate students practical innovation ability and professional comprehensive quality. In the procedure of work,theoretical knowledge is innovatively applied to solve practical problems, and the advancement of technology or management in the industry (professional field) is the academic value orientation of the dissertations.

Dissertations are supposed to highlight professional characteristics such as the "practicality", "exploratory"and "technicality" of dissertation work, providing professional support for the existing or future occupation of professional degree graduate students,which is combined with theory and practice, focusing on the applying the theory and solving practical problems. Therefore, it is important to strengthen the process management of full-time professional degree postgraduate dissertations ,which is an important link to guarantee the quality of training[8].

5.1 The requirement of topic selection in dissertations

In the field of software engineering, the topic selection in dissertations of full-time professional degree graduate students should be derived from practical project or with clear engineering technology background. Certain technical difficulty, progressiveness and workload ought to be reflected in the topic selection, as well as the author's comprehensive skill of using scientific theory, method and technical means to solve practical problems in projects[9].

5.2 The format and standard of academic dissertations

In the field of software engineering, full-time professional degree postgraduate dissertation types can be divided into 4 categories: product development,engineering design, application research and software project management. All kinds of research papers should have clear technical requirements, certain workload and theoretical foundation, progressiveness and practicability, reflecting the author's comprehensive skills of using scientific theory, method and technical means to solve practical problems in projects. A dissertation is supposed to be completed independently under the guidance of a supervisor.

5.3 The evaluation of dissertations

In the field of software engineering , full-time professional degree graduate students’ dissertations should be evaluated by two experts (one intramural expert and one extramural expert with secondary senior position and above) in double-blind mode. If there is some disagreements on evaluation of one’s dissertation, his or her oral defense should be postponed for half a year or more.

The evaluation of dissertation focuses on examining the postgraduates’ comprehensive skills of using scientific theory, method and technical means to solve practical problems in projects, estimating technical difficulty, innovation and workload of thesis research,examining novel ideas, methods and means for postgraduates to solve practical engineering problems,as well as progressiveness and practicability of the research paper to solve problems.

5.4 Thesis oral defense

In the field of software engineering, full-time professional degree postgraduates must complete all the links stipulated in the training plan, complete all credits and get qualified grades, so that they can apply for a dissertation defense. The paper respondent committee should be composed of at least 5 experts,including experts with high professional and technical positions from a company . Postgraduate tutors cannot be members of the respondent Committee[10].

5.5 The conferment of degree

The full-time professional degree graduate students in the field of software engineering who have completed all credits and links stipulated in the training plan gaining qualified grades, passing thesis defense,meeting the training requirements by the degree evaluation committee. Through these, students have the qualification of being granted for the software engineering professional master degree.

6 Conclusion

The cultivation of full-time professional degree postgraduates in the field of software engineering is a comprehensive system engineering. Aiming at the current situation of student source, it conducts research and practice comprehensively and systematically in many aspects, such as training objectives, curriculum system, practice teaching, innovation ability and so on,in order to find out a suitable training model for fulltime professional degree graduate students in software engineering field, which can effectively improve the training quality.

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank all the teachers of School of Big data & Software Engineering, in Chongqing University. The authors also acknowledge the support of the research from the fourth batch of postgraduate key courses of Chongqing University (project number:201704008) and " the research & practice of software engineering talent evaluation and improvement" of the key project of the teaching reform in Chongqing city(project number: 162004).