Journal article
Team Project Experiences in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS)
ACM transactions on computing education, v 15(4), pp 1-23
01 Dec 2015
Abstract
Providing students with the professional, communication, and technical skills necessary to contribute to an ongoing software project is critical, yet often difficult in higher education. Involving student teams in real-world projects developed by professional software engineers for actual users is invaluable. Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) has emerged as an important approach to creating, managing, and distributing software products. Involvement in a FOSS project provides students with experience developing within a professional environment, with a professional community, and has the additional benefit that all communication and artifacts are publicly accessible. Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects benefit the human condition in some manner. They can range from disaster management to microfinance to election-monitoring applications. This article discusses the benefits and challenges of students participating in HFOSS projects within the context of undergraduate computing degree programs. This article reports on a 6-year study of students' self-reported attitudes and learning from participation in an HFOSS project. Results indicate that working on an HFOSS project increases interest in computing. In addition, students perceive that they are gaining experience in developing software in a distributed environment with the attendant skills of communication, distributed teamwork, and more.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Team Project Experiences in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS)
- Creators
- Heidi J. C. Ellis - Western New England UniversityGregory W. Hislop - Drexel UniversityStoney Jackson - Western New England UniversityLori Postner - Nassau Community College
- Publication Details
- ACM transactions on computing education, v 15(4), pp 1-23
- Publisher
- Assoc Computing Machinery
- Number of pages
- 23
- Grant note
- 1225738 / Direct For Education and Human Resources; National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF- Directorate for Education & Human Resources (EHR) DUE-1225708; DUE-1225738; DUE-1225688 / National Science Foundation; National Science Foundation (NSF) 1225688 / Division Of Undergraduate Education; National Science Foundation (NSF); NSF- Directorate for Education & Human Resources (EHR)
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Information Science
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000367991400003
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-84938572444
- Other Identifier
- 991019168217604721
InCites Highlights
Data related to this publication, from InCites Benchmarking & Analytics tool:
- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Education, Scientific Disciplines