Interdisciplinary faculty-faculty collaborations for the development of learning technologies

Given the ever-increasing use of technology in the teaching of various disciplines, one question that arises is who will develop and make technological teaching tools available to educators? In this paper we make the case for a model where non-computer science faculty provide project ideas to software engineering students and spend time in the role of 'customers.' In return, faculty members receive tailor-made software products that can be used to enhance teaching effectiveness and to engage students in active learning. Software engineering students benefit by having customers to interact with, a real project to exercise their skills on, and they also gain exposure to the types of software being used in the teaching of various disciplines. We present two case studies in which students enrolled in a semester-long software engineering course collaborated with faculty from the Department of Biomedicai Sciences or the Department of Biological Sciences to develop software that is being used by faculty to enhance learning experiences of medical students and undergraduate biology majors.