when partners shared their own experience than when they taught in
a more formal sense. Even though their knowledge of the topic often
surpassed my own, they lacked pedagogical expertise. One example:
when our Agile partner gave an hour long PowerPoint lecture on test
driven development, much of the talk was over the students’ heads.
But when the same partner talked about how he practices Agile in
his day-to-day work, students paid attention and asked questions.
CONCLUSION
Student reflections, industry feedback, and my own observations
lead me to the conclusion that the industry partner’s participation
and feedback had a significant impact on all of the participants.
Students responded positively to and appreciated the partner’s critique.
I witnessed a definite increase in the amount of time and
effort that students put into their capstone projects and presentations
when an industry partner participated, and in my judgment, it
enhances the quality of the resulting product. The partners themselves
enjoyed the process, and I as an instructor learned a tremendous
amount and improved my teaching as a result.
Though my student demographic and teaching context are very
different from those in Tenenberg’s initial implementations of Industry
Fellows, I found Industry Partners to be an adaptable strategy
for bringing the expertise of an industry practitioner into the classroom
to create a unique and motivating learning environment.