Providing Students with Usability Testing Experience: Bringing Home the Lesson “ The User is Not Like You ”

Teaching software testing has many facets, including the presentation of the various types of testing and the use of tools. Many perspectives exist in terms of schools of thought when planning for, conducting, and managing testing activities. Instructors wrap these facets of testing into overview courses in Software Engineering or into specialized courses. The presentation will describe the usability testing process and project used in an elective seminar designed for software engineering undergraduates. The seminar utilizes a strong hands-on approach, enabling students to apply various techniques to address usability in a system. Students followed a usability testing process enabling them the opportunity to plan the process and methodology, recruit participants, conduct the testing, and analyze test results. In addition to course content, the presentation will address student attitude and course expectation. The lessons learned and future directions will be provided