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Distributed systems design supported by reflective writing and CATs

Reflective writing in the form of three reflective writing tasks has been used in our Distributed Systems Design course to develop and assess students' thinking and learning. Case studies with real-life scenarios are developed in a Problem based Learning approach where students work in teams to identify learning needs and develop a viable solution in an iterative approach. The same case study was applied in two sister institutions with similar curricula and different policies. In the control group institution, it was mandatory to follow a teacher-centered approach. In the experimental group institution, students followed the CAT set “assessing skills in problem solving” to solve the case, write their arguments and the collected evidence for their positions in argumentative essays. Essays were debated in class to reach consensus and reflections were documented for reciprocal peer review. The outcomes of the essays and peer reviews were used as formative measures of student learning and as a vehicle for providing critical feedback to the students. In this paper, we will describe the experience, present and analyze our data comparing the students' outcomes from the two institutions over three terms. We will also describe the conducted classroom research and students' attitudes and difficulties.