originally submitted by:
Mary Gorman & Susan Burk
American Management Systems Training Services
300 Chapel Road
Manchester, CT 06040 USA susan_burk@mail.amsinc.com
NAME:
Reading, Critique, Lecture, Activity, Presentation with discussion (RCLAP)
INTENT:
To accelerate the learning of detailed modeling concepts and quality assurance techniques
IDEA:
This combination of elements will result in accelerated learning.
MOTIVATION:
The skills needed to build detailed, accurate and consistent OO work
products can be difficult to pinpoint and learn. At times, the modeling effort
may seem more like art than science. This pattern provides a means for an
individual to initially assess his/her current proficiency (through reading and
a critique of sample work products) and then offers a means to increase
his/her proficiency through the exploration of additional detailed concepts (in
the lecture, activity, and presentation portions).
APPLICABILITY:
The student must have a sound foundation in object-oriented analysis
concepts (gained in a training environment or through detailed reading). In
addition, students should have had at least four weeks applying basic OO
concepts in a work environment. The pattern can be applied to a variety of
OO models, such as the use case model, the object model, the state transition
diagram, the object interaction diagram, etc.
CONTRAINDICATIONS:
None identified yet
STRUCTURE:
Reading:
Each student reads the course material independently. The material
provides details on the type of model and its associated work products, a
detailed explanation of the modeling concepts, steps in how to build the
model, additional references and quality assurance guidelines. (AMS has
organized the reading materials and job-aids in a handbook format, which
serves as a ready reference for the students after the class. The OOA
Analyst's Handbook focuses on three views: project management topics,
practitioner needs and the quality assurance aspect of building models. The
project management view is a summary of what to build, examples of the
models and the roles and responsibilities. The practitioner's view provides
details in how to build the models. The quality assurance view contains rules
that define the object-oriented correctness of the models.)
Critique:
This individual activity requires the student to study a sample
model and determine its completeness and correctness. The student uses the
reading material as needed, especially the quality assurance guidelines, and
considers how to fix/improve the model. Alternately the critique sample
could be two options the student appraises to select the better alternative or if
needed, to build a third model. It is an opportunity for the student to
evaluate his/her proficiency to probe the details of a model, find problems,
and define appropriate solutions.
Lecture:
In a group setting the instructor builds on the reading material,
providing additional examples and explanations, engages the students in
discussion, answers questions that may have been raised during the
individual reading and critique activities and summarizes the students'
critique findings.
Activity:
The students, in small groups, use the reading materials and other
job-aids to build a model to fully explore the reading and lecture concepts.
The instructor serves as a mentor to the teams. Each model reflects an aspect
of a single case study. This case study is a common thread throughout the
class. (The case study is also extended in other follow-on training courses.)
Presentation with discussion:
Each group presents its results to the class.
The other groups use the quality assurance guidelines to verify the results.
Comparisons of the different results provide additional insights.
CONSEQUENCES:
Students take more active control of their own learning process.
Students are provided with viable job-aids to use when back at work.
Additional references in the reading provide students with pointers to
material for further in-depth individual research as needed.
The critique requires students to reference reading material to identify
incorrect or inappropriate application of techniques. They become more
familiar with the material through frequent referencing. The critique serves
as a built-in test, enabling both the student and the instructor to assess the
student's grasp of the concepts and to pinpoint areas needing additional
instructional support. The common case study provides enhanced
opportunities for the students to check consistency and completeness across
models as well as within models.
ISSUES TO CONSIDER:
The reading material must be clear, descriptive, and well organized into
appropriately-sized components without losing cohesion of the concepts.
This material may be customized to a particular environment, e.g. a company.
The material for the critique must be limited in scope, with the premises
clearly stated. Yet the critique should challenge the students with complex
variations of the modeling techniques. The critique examples must be
carefully constructed to encompass the appropriate variations. One should
not underestimate the amount of time needed to build the examples. The
reading and critique portions could be done independently, prior to the course
(but not so far in advance as to be forgotten). Thanks to the reading done by
the students, the instructor can focus the lecture on more detailed
explanations and examples. Occasionally, after critiquing the first model,
some of the students express a preference for critiquing in a team setting.
Those students can then critique in pairs or small teams, while allowing those
students who would prefer to perform the critique on their own to work
alone. Based on the students' critique results, the instructor may have to
adjust the amount of lecture time to ensure the class understands the flaws in
the sample models and the fixes required. The activity description must be
well defined to exercise most of the modeling concepts that are presented in
the reading component. The instructor should be prepared to seed the
discussion during the presentation with appropriate questions. Some of the
questions will be based upon typical student errors while the others will arise
from the instructor's on-the-spot application of the quality assurance
perspective to the students' models. The team activity can be customized to
the students' specific business domain. This requires pre-delivery definition
of the business area by the client and the instructor, to control
scope.
CULTURAL DEPENDENCIES:
None identified yet
RESOURCES NEEDED:
Not recorded yet
EXAMPLE INSTANCES OF THIS PATTERN:
This pattern has evolved as we have shaped and re-shaped our Advanced
Object-Oriented Analysis course yet it is not inherently restricted to
object-oriented modeling training. It could certainly be generalized and
applied to many other diverse training topics.