Applying Software-Engineering Thinking to Teaching in EMI Sino-Foreign Higher Education

Matthew Pike, Boon-Giin Lee, Dave Towey

Multilingual Education Yearbook 2023, July 2023

English as a Medium of Instruction (EMI), Chinese Higher Education, Software Engineering (SE), Computer Science (CS), Education and Technology, Feedback

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–2023 forced educators to rapidly adapt to remote and hybrid learning environments, exposing challenges in traditional teaching methods. This chapter explores how software-engineering (SE) thinking can be applied to teaching in English-medium instruction (EMI) Sino-foreign higher education. The authors, leveraging their SE expertise, discuss the use of structured feedback techniques for programming assignments and the adoption of Agile methods for responding to student input. The chapter highlights how SE thinking supports distributed learning and suggests its broader applicability beyond computer science. By integrating SE approaches, educators can enhance engagement, provide more effective feedback, and better prepare students for the challenges of globally distributed work.