During the last decades, teachers have observed with attention and interest, but passively, the technology and its use in classrooms; In times where digital transformation has completely changed our society. Teaching-learning methods are evolving in combination with new technologies, due to the daily use of the technology to which students are immersed. And traditional educational environments are no longer enough for students to develop a set of necessary skills in a global, complex, and highly competitive environment. While the technical capabilities of professionals are valued in the industry, social skills are a di erentiating aspect that organizations demand today. Understanding and working under a framework like Scrum, whose philosophy is raised on values and principles oriented towards teamwork, becomes essential. We presented the general design of an elective course of the Specialization in Technological Management program of the Faculty of Engineering. The primary competence was the comprehension of the Scrum framework from a project management perspective. The course design was based on promoting the Scrum pillars and values through teamwork, continuous feedback, and using some gadgets to stimulate students' participation. Finally, we show the results obtained from the survey applied to students when they nished the course. We also discuss opportunities for improvement, and conclusions of the process.
In the contemporary world, the development of projects is a common practice in
di erent elds since it allows to reach the proposed objectives with higher quality
in complex scenarios [
Once this new boom was detected in the way the projects are managed, the
elective course was proposed. Through the professional elective courses, the
faculty has the possibility of generating updated and booming content pertinent to
the academic program. Through this document, we present the guidelines that
were taken into account for the design of the elective specialization course
following the University educational model [
In February 2001, seventeen people met in Snowbird (Utah, USA) to discuss
an emerging trend called light processes. As a starting point and fundamental
basis of agile methodologies, the agile manifesto was drafted and published.
The manifesto emphasizes four central values that software development must
support [
\We are discovering better ways to develop the software, doing it and helping others to do it. Through this work we have come to appreciate: Individuals and interactions about processes and tools. The software runs on extensive documentation. Collaboration with the client on contractual negotiation. Response to the change about following a plan. That is, although we value the elements on the right, we value more those on the left."
This manifesto involved agile pioneers who de ned their agile methodologies:
Scrum, Method of Development of Dynamic Systems (DSDM), Design
Methodology Constructor (CDM), Crystal Clear, Kanban, XP, among others [
The creators of Scrum de ne it as a framework in which teams of
professionals can address complex and adaptive problems while delivering products
of the highest possible value, productively and creatively. Scrum is also easy
and lightweight, as summarized in Fig.1. This framework de nes three
principles that support the implementation of empirical process control: transparency,
inspection, and adaptation. The rst mentioned principle refers to the visibility
of the status of the process and all relevant aspects for Scrum users. The second
is about the shared and detailed review that each member does to obtain
quality. And the third refers to the process of making incremental and systematic
changes based on the consensus of the team [
A Scrum Team consists of three roles: Scrum Master, Product Owner, and
Development Team. The Scrum Master (SM) is the person who knows the most
about Scrum, is a facilitator who removes obstacles and who is in charge of
guiding the Scrum Team under the framework of work. The Product Owner
(PO) is the representative of the client, so it is the interface between the client
and the Development Team. He is empowered to make decisions and on his/her
shoulders is the success of the product or not. The Development Team (DT) is
responsible for constructing the solution based on the requirements stated by
the PO. It works autonomously, so it has bargaining power [
Scrum explicitly de nes ve fundamental values that professionals must assimilate and experience for the principles of the framework to materialize and generate a work environment based on trust and collaboration between people. These values are commitment, courage, focus, openness, and respect. One of the biggest challenges to master Scrum is that the development teams are really a team, and the organization empowers them so that over time, they self-manage. 3
The Department of Systems Engineering of the Faculty of Engineering enriches
and updates the curricula with professional electives that provide students with
speci c competencies of their profession. The market that is governed by the
principles of project management has given a glance to agile models that
energize the work of the teams, and even more that keep them motivated [
Since the philosophy of a competencies-based education should be oriented in
the design of learning activities, that means experiences that allow the content to
be addressed by the need generated by the event, instead of guiding the courses
to the content teacher [
Pedagogical strategies and their inclusion in the classroom
The pedagogical strategies are the actions carried out by a teacher to facilitate
the training and learning of speci c competencies in students [
Continuous feedback Feedback is a process that helps provide information
to students about the competencies they develop: about what they know, do,
and how they act. The feedback allows us to describe the thinking, feeling, and
working of the students in their environment and therefore enable them to know
how their performance is and how it can be improved in the future [
Feedback is an integral part of formative assessment as it provides crucial
information to make adjustments in the teaching-learning process for students
to achieve the proposed objectives. It emphasizes the need to be aware of the
competencies of students for giving them speci c answers, and motivate them,
so they continue in the process [
This is why the feedback process must be: (1) immediate, (2) continuous, and
(3) relevant. By relevant feedback, it is understood that the comments given to
students allow them to know where they are, what they need, and what they
have to do to achieve their learning goals. The feedback process should support
the learning process since its performance in each of the development areas will
depend on this [
Teamwork It is a model that articulates the work activities of a social group
around a set of goals and results to achieve. This concept implies an active
interdependence between the members of a group that shares and assume a
work mission [
Other essential teamwork skills include emotional intelligence, active
listening, adaptability, collaboration, con ict resolution, and commitment. You may
have all the technical knowledge and skills in the world, but not being willing and
able to cooperate with your co-workers can be a red ag for an employer [
* The photographic evidence was something that was implemented in other courses and that brought positive results. It was included as a pedagogical technique by the same dynamic that was sought to create within the elective course. 4
As part of the quality system, the University surveys students to evaluate all courses. The objective of this is to collect the data as an instrument to measure the level of acceptance of students by asking the extent to which they agree or disagree with a particular statement related to the development of the course. Given the above, we used the perception of the students (collected in the survey) to try to measure how di erent pedagogical elements in uenced the class.
The teaching evaluation is applied through a web portal which, is supplied by The University. Di erent aspects of the course as methodology, theoretical and practical contents, technical tools, are evaluated, and a quantitative assessment is calculated on a scale between 0 and 100 points. It is expected results above 80 points; otherwise, a teacher improvement plan will be made.
The data collection process was carried out for two weeks. We had a medium
response rate of 68,4% in the rst survey, and 47,4% in the second one. That
means thirteen and nine valid questionnaires of a total of nineteen enrolled
students, respectively. The descriptive statistics of the applied surveys are presented
in Table 2. There was a total of twenty-one questions in the questionnaire
restricted to a range of 1 to 5 (in Likert scale), corresponding to ve categories:
Strongly disagree, Disagree, Neither agree Nor disagree, Agree, and Strongly
Agree.
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(clicker) and a receiver [
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consists mainly in the oral were organized, what they presentation of a topic. did and how they felt;
each other and break the ice. It generates stronger bonds, because they must pose together and show the work done.
Among the twenty-one questions, variables 1, 2, 3, 17, 19 were used to collect data of class agreements and clear rules. Variables 4 and 21 try to measure if students feel that they acquire the competence. Variables 5, 6, 13, 16 try to measure the perception of soft skills development, such as communication and leadership. Variable 15 is the perception of the relevant use of technological tools and devices. The variable 18 tries to measure the perception regarding the feedback given in class. The variable 20 attempts to measure the perception of the success of teamwork. And the other variables measure the perception of acquired hard skills.
To analyze these responses which are restricted to a 5-point Likert scale, The average value of 3 implies a neutral position for a speci c variable of the survey. Therefore, the average value of less than 3 for any question implies that question is oriented in the "disagree" perception, and greater than equal to 4 is oriented in "agree" perception. However, we cannot conclude whether the students improve their soft skills with the course.
Table 1 shows the questions that make up the survey applied to the students of the University and the average obtained in each item. For this particular course, 13 of the 19 students enrolled in the class were surveyed, with an application rate of 68.4%.
Table 2 shows the summary of the application of the evaluation of the elective course by the students of the rst 2 courses o ered in the academic program in the Faculty of Engineering for specialization programs in the area of project management.
When we graph the results obtained from the twice o ered by the Scrum course, we got the curve shown in Fig.1. In the results obtained in the second application of 2016-M8, it can be observed in Fig.1 that the average increase slightly concerning the values obtained in the rst application made in the period 2016-1 M2.
The number of students enrolled in the 2016-2 M8 period is equal to 2016-2 M8, but the application percentage was lower in the second period. Fig.2 comparatively shows the results of the two periods: the upper graph shows the rst measurement of perception, and the lower graph, the measurement of the following period. The horizontal axis represents the variables that were included in the survey, and the vertical axis shows the average value of the students' percepVariables 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Questions
evaluative tests such as questionnaires, comprehensive reading, summaries, use of mental maps, interpretation of cases; among other learning strategies.
tion in each question. We can see the results for both, the rst and the second evaluation, the highest score (above 90 points) is for teamwork (variable 20), the appropriate use of technological tools (variable 15), and the development of communication skills (variable 5). The exciting thing is that we made some adjustments in the course between one period and the next; For example, regulating the time of each activity, changing the order of some events, and making the teacher more strict in his role as moderator, resulted in the perception of variables of interest such as 13, 16 and 18 increased. 5
In the region, the adoption of standards and good practices for the management of projects is getting stronger; for that reason, the elective course for graduate students is oriented towards the use of the Scrum framework. It proposes to take advantage of the teamwork and application of soft skills, and that can be developed even while applying another standard or methodology of work in projects.
Nowadays, professionals want to be certi ed because a certi cate o ers an endorsement from the entity that issues it. In the labor eld, this is the way you guarantee that you have speci c knowledge or skill. However, a certi cation of a role in Scrum does not guarantee that a professional has the soft skills that are required, but it surely assures that he/she knows the Scrum framework and role functions.
When comparing the results of the two evaluations, the importance of maintaining a continuous improvement which requires updates in thematic contents, the strategies, and learning activities is rati ed. This update considers the results of the students' feedback, and teachers committee criteria to guarantee the quality and development of competencies de ned in the syllabus of the elective course.
For future work, it is expected to be able to include more technology that
stimulates interaction between students and the engagement with their learning,
as evidenced in projects such as [