The First Question: Why Should I Teach Open Source?
There are many reasons for incorporating open source project work into your CS or SE classes. There’s also plenty of research that backs the idea that using real open source project work — and especially Humanitarian Free and Open Source (HFOSS) project work — is the best way for students to learn.
I’m interested. Now what do I do?
We’re so glad you asked! The TOS (or TeachingOpenSource) community was formed to make this process — of supporting student involvement in open source projects — easier, and we have a few resources that might help you.
- Join the community.
- We have a mailing list (pretty low traffic, but awfully friendly) and, of course, this site.
- Explore the Teaching Materials:
- References – background on a variety of topics about open source and how and why to teach it
- Learning Activities – designed to be able to be used in classes as is, or modified recombined to suit your needs
- Come to a Professors’ Open Source Software Experience (POSSE) workshop.
- POSSEs provide professional development for instructors interested in student participation in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS).
- Some other ways to explore the possibilities of open source in classrooms.
- Students can make a wide range of contributions, not all of them requiring coding background
- Check out the projects we know welcome student contributions
- Read a few of the student and instructor success stories.