Integrating mobile orienteering to team forming activity in a software engineering course

One of the most important skills software engineers need when entering work life is working in teams, including communicating, collaborating, as well as coordinating work in a team. This paper presents a team building activity aiming to support the first phases of team formation with a mobile orienteering activity. Created tasks at orienteering checkpoints were related to communication, collaboration and work division. Students were enthusiastic about the activity and expressed in their group reports on the activity that it supported the team building activity well, helped break the ice and supported agreeing the ways of working. Students also liked getting out of the classroom. The approach seems promising and we will investigate in the future similar type of activities in the first phases of team formation as well as will explore further integrating physical activity to the exercise sessions.