Evaluating student experiences in developing software for humanity

Student involvement in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects holds the potential to provide a rich education experience to undergraduates. This paper discusses educational use of HFOSS including identification of the potential for HFOSS to impact curricula, an overview of an implementation of HFOSS in education and a description of an evaluation framework that includes measures of success of such a program. The paper also presents results from initial surveys of students involved in HFOSS development in several U.S. academic institutions. The paper concludes with a discussion of work in progress. Categories and Subject Descriptors K.3.2 [Computers and Education]: Computer and Information Science Education – Computer Science Education. General Terms Human Factors. Keywords Open source software, student motivation, computing education.

• Type: Conference
• Year: 2009
• Where: ITICSE
• Authors: Gregory W. Hislop, Heidi J. C. Ellis, Ralph A. Morelli
• Keywords: ITICSE 2009, Open Source Software, Rich Education Experience, Science Education, Theoretical Computer Science