Application of Software Engineering Approaches to Interdisciplinary Education A case study of the Interactive Arts and Technology Program

In an interdisciplinary program such as Interactive Arts and Technology (IAT) that runs across art and technology domains, its students' aptitudes can generally be split into "More-Art-Oriented ones" (MAOs), "More-Technology-Oriented ones" (MTOs), and "Balanced ones" (BLs). MAOs and part of BLs tend to be ill at study technical subject matter due to its complexity that they feel hard to handle. This research shows that it is both possible and feasible to help them tackle the complexity and reduce the risk of failure by introducing some software engineering approaches such as Spiral Model and Pair Programming into the teaching and learning process.