Developing a Process for Software Engineering Curriculum Modernization

The Schulich School of Engineering has recently undertaken staged redesign and implementation of a new software engineering curriculum. Stakeholders were asked to consider a set of formulated questions for their topic and related list of courses. Consultation comments, suggestions, and previous feedback were evaluated and incorporated into the proposal. The proposed curriculum changes were rolled out in a staged approach. The rollout of the new second year curriculum started in Fall 2022 with the new third year curriculum beginning in Fall 2023. An initial survey was conducted to evaluate student feedback on course content and experience. Using a quasi-experimental post-test only design, students who experienced both the new and/or the old curriculum were asked to rank their academic experience including factors such as course content, workload, stress, engineering identity, graduate attributes, and more. This paper will outline and discuss the process that was undertaken to evaluate, design, consult, implement, and now re-evaluate multi-year curriculum changes, including a continual improvement process.