Audience and Content Areas of Online Software Engineering Education and Training: A Systematic Review

Abstract

Online courses and instruction are a popular and rapidly expanding medium for learning. However, no holistic summary exists which classifies who or what is being taught and how online courses are being researched in the field of software engineering education and training (SEET). More important, prior research does not cover what gaps exist in the literature: which areas of SEET being ignored altogether in research. This paper reports the results of a systematic review of the existing literature for online SEET and provides analysis of the audiences and content areas being researched. Grounded in established guidelines for systematic reviews in software engineering, the studies that are identified are then coded using three standards for software engineering education content areas. As a result of the systematic review, more than 9000 search results were analyzed. Inclusion and exclusion of studies in predetermined stages resulted in more than 30 studies being coded for audience and/or software engineering content areas. The result is a comprehensive picture of the current state of research in online SEET and an identification of the gaps to be addressed.