Click here to see Ruth's course on the CAETE website.
As a software engineering consultant and instructor, Ruth Dameron is able to merge her parallel experiences of more than 30 years hands-on industry experience with two decades of teaching experience. The result is an innovative program for software engineering professionals working to keep current in an industry that is constantly changing.
Currently, Ruth teaches a three-tiered graduate software engineering series for the Center for Advanced Engineering and Technology Education (CAETE), the distance learning and professional studies arm of the College of Engineering and Applied Science at CU. The series includes Software Engineering of Stand-Alone Programs, Software Engineering of Multi-Program Systems, and Software Engineering of Distributed Systems. Courses can be taken in succession or as a single course, depending on what a student hopes to accomplish for their personal career.
How is the Software Engineering Series you teach different than other similar software engineering programs available?
There are three key areas of software engineering: requirements analysis, design and testing. Generally, you find a series of three separate courses, each covering one area. But I think it is imperative to understand the interconnectedness of all three areas in everything we study. For example, you cannot fully appreciate requirements analysis until you have studied design and testing. So if you studied these sequentially you would miss out on a lot of practical understanding.
I have designed my classes like concentric circles of increasing complexity, rather than separate circles. So a student can take all three courses to get the certificate, or they can simply take any one course, as long as they have the right background knowledge. Each course covers requirements analysis, design and testing and their interconnectedness as it is relevant to that specific course.
What type of software engineering professional benefits from your classes?
I help professionals stay current in an industry that is constantly changing. What they get out of my classes depends on where they are in their career and where they hope to go. Think of the knowledge base in this industry as a loaf of sliced bread. One of my students may have deep knowledge in one specific area, say one slice, but they want to gain expertise in another area so the industry does not pass them by. I teach them about several other areas on a more broad level, say a cross section along the top of the loaf of bread. My classes are an efficient introduction to other areas they may choose to pursue. It is this broadening of expertise that helps them move at the pace of the industry in areas that interest them.
How has the technology for teaching technology changed over the last two decades you have been an instructor?
When I started teaching for distance education in the 1980s my classes were broadcast on a TV channel my students could tune into at work. Then they would call in on a phone line so they could ask questions during class. If a class was missed, they would watch a video tape. What they saw was a combination of slides and/or my talking head. Homework and handouts were mailed or sent by courier. Can you imagine? It all sounds so archaic now.
I was one of the first at CAETE to experiment with browser-based recordings. Students could download classes and view them in their browser. This, plus the availability of an instructor, was a close second to being in class in terms of education quality.
Now students have everything available online, including the mechanism for working as a group when everyone is working remotely.
What do you consider success as an instructor?
When they apply what they have learned in my class and it has been useful to them, their customers, or their co-workers, then I have had success. I’m also delighted when a student has a successful interview because they knew the material they learned in my courses.
The idea of useless documentation in software has long been the topic of Dilbert cartoons. My goal is to focus on practical knowledge and techniques that help students heighten the quality of their work. When you can do something right the first time and avoid re-work, life becomes a lot less stressful.
CU: 
