Abstract—Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) is not only seen by computer science departments as an optional free and low cost technology to support their IT infrastructure and administrative duties, but also as a methodology to improve pedagogy and provide opportunities for students to learn. As a result, many teachers are turning to FOSS projects and communities as effective tools to teach computer science courses and give their students significant real-world experience. However, few teaching and learning models exist that can help computer science teachers provide guidance and mentorship for their students’ involvement in FOSS projects. In order to address this gap in computer science education, this paper presents a teaching and learning model that was evaluated using a series of pilot studies conducted with software engineering students. Experiences and lessons learnt from the pilot studies shows one possible way teachers can guide students’ involvement in FOSS projects and how this approach can be integrated into a formally structured curriculum.
Index Terms—Capstone projects, computer science education, curriculum design, open source software communities, open source software projects, software engineering.
Dr. Sulayman K. Sowe is with the United Nations University Institute of Advanced Studies, Yokohama 220-8052, Japan (e-mail: sowe@ ias.unu.edu).
Cite: Sulayman K. Sowe, "Leveraging Free and Open Source Software to Model Teaching and Learning in Computer Science Education," International Journal of Modeling and Optimization vol. 1, no. 5, pp. 421-425, 2011.
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