Teaching the Design and Development of a Modern Information Retrieval (IR) System

We report on our research on aspects of computing education related to teaching the design and development of a modern information retrieval (IR) system (i.e., about search engines, supporting exploration, and using text analytics). We show the success of a new methodology that integrates concepts from human-computer interaction, artificial intelligence (AI), and software engineering, with information systems. We describe how problem-based learning can be successfully applied, enabled by having each of the five teams, that collaborate to build a next generation IR system, guided by a researcher who further motivates them in this graduate course. The methodology brings together concepts from User-eXperience (UX) research, and ideas central to building a service-oriented architecture. We show that the methodology is easy to learn and easy to use. The students rate the overall system solution highly, and explain how the methodology is a key reason.