Team Project Experiences in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS)

TLDR

Providing students with professional, communication, and technical skills through real‑world FOSS projects is critical yet challenging, as FOSS offers a professional environment with publicly accessible artifacts, and HFOSS projects—ranging from disaster management to microfinance—benefit the human condition. This article discusses the benefits and challenges of students participating in HFOSS projects within undergraduate computing programs. The study followed students over six years, collecting self‑reported attitudes and learning outcomes from participation in an HFOSS project. Students reported increased interest in computing and felt they gained experience in distributed software development, communication, and teamwork.

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.