Teaching Exploratory Testing using Lego Serious Play

Software testing plays an essential part in the development process. Nowadays, the significance of teaching software testing principles is acknowledged more than it ever has been. The aim of this paper is twofold: (1) to investigate the effectiveness of using a LEGO-based context to teach exploratory testing, and (2) to provide the student's perspective on using LEGO to learn software testing concepts. A lecture dedicated to the exploratory testing approach is the framework for this investigation, with students being split into teams with the mission to help a family decide to rent or not to rent the (LEGO) house. The debriefing session, the answers to a questionnaire dedicated to the learning experience, and the grades obtained by the students are used as tools to analyze and provide answers to research questions. The results show that LEGO-based learning is effective in teaching exploratory testing concepts, there is a significant statistical difference between students participating in the lecture and those that did not, with a medium to large effect size. On average, the opinions of the students regarding various aspects of learning (exploratory testing concepts, collaborative learning, team-work, LEGO-based learning) were positive with 89\%.