Workshop Notes Course development: Free and Open Software Development

The FOSS participants will: Develop a masters program description with program outcomes and list of courses Identify who will do what by when Draft course descriptions For each course, articulate: Learning outcomes Key topics or content areas Learning tasks, activities, reading materials, etc. Learning assessments Feedback mechanisms

Academic aspects Competency requirements Each node Research aspects Business aspects

Technical aspects Digital media Introduction to FOSS 20 credits, Internships For each node, size, supervisors 3 students/supervsior

Name of degree: Masters in Computer Science with specialization in FOSS

Distributed masters?? 1. UMU - M.Sc in Computer Science 1. Add to existing program; by offering electives in FOSS (no students) 2. NUR - M.Sc in ICT, 2 specializations, of which 1 in software engineering (40 students) 3. UoN - M.Sc in Applied CS (150 students) 4. UWC - MSc as part of CS (by thesis) (25 students) 5. JOSS - no masters 6. UDSM - MSc (10 students)

Decisions made Each university to offer their own degree; follow their admission requirements; NO additional admission requirements QUESTION: 1 Common masters with common set of requirements or core set of courses (5 yes, UWC NO) OR 6 masters with access to a common set of courses or electives

At the end of the masters degree program, the student will be able to do the ff in relation to FOSS: Listen, design, discuss, implement, test, refine and write-up free and open source software projects Apply FOSS in/to the local context Develop a business plan Collaborate in an international environment Present and review FOSS activities and projects Develop commercial-quality software solutions Lead FOSS projects and services Conduct themselves professionally and ethically

During the program students will: Go through the engineering cycle at least ten times (AS A STUDENT) Conceptualize a research question and develop a solution Participate actively in collaborative software development ?? more

Year 1 Introduction to Development of Free and Open Software Choice 1: From the list below Choice 2: From the list below Choice 3: From the list below node: Application of Software Development Skills Year 2 Introduction to Business and Legal Issues of Free and Open Software Choice 4: From the list below Choice 5: From the list below Project Implementation and Thesis Writing Seminar Final Project and Thesis

Introduction to Development of Free and Open Software (1 unit): Suggested course pre-requisite: proficiency in computer programming. Learning outcome. The student will be able to use efficiently the environment and tools needed for both the practicum and the final project. Topics: Computer software development concepts and tools necessary for the development of software in this environment. System administration (add to program goal maybe) Software design; Systems design?? Activities: installing Linux, designing and developing a small application (text filter, DB interface, address book, etc.)

Practicum (at a node) Notes: AVOIR listserve is the one room schoolhouse Application of Software Development Skills (minimum 2 units): This course will require a unit of time developing a pre-approved project. The requirements for this first year practicum will often be working as a member of a team or with a mentor who is more experienced in software development. The task could be one single stand alone project, but also could be many individual tasks or modules that are part of a larger project. The supervisor will collect weekly logs of what was assigned for that week, what was accomplished that week and an evaluation of any new skills or tools were learned.

Introduction to Business and Legal Issues of Free and Open Software (1 unit): Includes the concepts and skills necessary to manage the business and legal aspects of a company that develops and distributes software. This course will likely have speakers from outside who have been active in free and open software design, development and business.

Final Project and Thesis (minimum 2 units) This course will require the completion of a pre-approved project. This course is different from the first year practicum in that the student, though still may be working on a team, will have a specific portion of the project that is his responsibility.

Illustrative Electives (by track maybe): (1 unit each) 1. Information and Data Security in FOSS, wireless applications (Jos) (UDSM) 2. Programming Mobile Devices (NUR) (UoN) 3. Developing and evaluating E-Learning Software (MAK) (UWC/ICS) 4. Software Engineering (include requirements engr) for Free and Open Software (UDSM), include Object Oriented Software Engineering (UoN) (UWC?) 5. Quality Analysis for Software (UDSM) (UWC) (UMU) 6. Business and entrepreneurship, include economics of (F)OSS, Talking to customers about FOSS (UoN) (MAK) 7. RDBMS - Relational database, data warehousing, database administration, data modeling, performance testing (UMU) (Jos) (MAK) 8. Distributed web programming, semantic web, API, mash-up?? (UWC) (NUR) (UWC/ICS)

Questions Equipment available at a node-- Are these available at other nodes? Can persons travel to node that has equipment? What is nature of project? Should use FOSS tools for projects What is responsibility of instructors who take the lead for a course? Ensure activities are relevant Conduct courses in the way we envisaged

Course structure Course name (to be offered by???) Short course description (about 5 sentences) Learning outcomes (no more than 5) Topics - course content Unit or Credit value - in total number of hours (breakdown in percent) Contact with lecturer lab time Exams and tests time Self study time Assignments Collaboration time other Any pre-requisites Teaching and learning methodology Student assessment and grading