OSS production/Design blueprint

Work in progress, expect frequent changes. Help and feedback is welcome. See discussion page.

Metadata

• Level TBD (aiming to design for undergraduate and postgraduate options): Initially aiming to develop the Undergraduate version that will be both OERu course and offered as part of the Bachelor of Information Technology (as an Elective)
• Notional learning hours 160 assembled as four micro-courses; proposed to be named:
  1. OSSP101 The Emergence and Maturity of OSS (for discussion)
  2. OSSP102 OSS Copyright, Patent, Trademark, and Contracts (for discussion)
  3. OSSP103 OSS Business Models (for discussion)
  4. OSSP104 Operational and organisational aspects of OSS (for discussion)
• Credits - specify the number of credits at OERu assessing partner
• Qualifications: The following articulation pathways are available
  1. List qualification(s) at assessing partner

Intended target audience

• Managers and software developers who are considering starting an open source project, or who have started one and are wondering what to do now.
• People who want to participate in an open source project but have never done so before
• Staff working in corporations who use or intending to engage in open source software production
• ""Start-up" communities, especially students and recent graduates, planning to use open source software to reduce infrastructure costs and provide a launching point for their own products.
• Learners who are planing to join the workforce in companies that use and contribute to open source projects.
• Learners who are planning to use open source development principles and practices for a wide range of projects ("inner-sourcing").

Pre-requisite knowledge

• Learners need not be programmers, but should have a basic knowledge of software engineering concepts like APIs, source code, compilers and patches.
• Prior experience with open source software as users or developer is not necessary
• Learners who have worked in free software projects may wish to skip "obvious" sections but will be able to provide and share valuable experience with course participants.

Course aims

• TBD

Development and delivery approach

Open Source Software Production will be assembled as four micro-courses of approximately 40 hours each:

• Name (OSSP101)
• Name (OSSP102)
• Name (OSSP103)
• Name (OSSP104)

This online course will be designed for asynchronous independent study. The course will be designed to facilitate reuse in on-campus face-to-face and blended learning options, including delivery of a full service course on Moodle. The development will be supplemented with "course pack" resources, for example, slide decks, class handouts, suggested class activities and quizzes

The course will use a "wrap-around" model largely based on the recommended textbook: Producing Open Source Software by Karl Fogel

Course materials will be authored in WikiEducator and published on a WordPress course site using the OERu authoring and publishing model. This will facilitate the assembly of a Moodle version of the course.

The course promotes a reflective learning approach. It will comprise a series of learning pathways designed to achieve the stated learning outcomes incorporating learning challenges for each pathway where learners demonstrate their learning and understanding through maintaining a learning journal (optional course blog). Where possible learners will be encouraged to share the outputs of their reflections publicly, subject to the challenges associated with disclosure of confidential corporate information.

Integrated activities for peer-learning interaction (microblogs, blog posts and discussion forum posts) are embedded in the course design. Where appropriate, interactive case studies will be used to facilitate learner-content interactions and simulated dialogue with course developers. The course will also include learning challenges for deepening knowledge and understanding of sustainable practices.

Course announcements for each session will be prepared in advance to facilitate automated delivery of email instructions (Mautic) for learners who opt in to receive email communications.

Delivery options

The course will be designed to accommodate the following delivery options:

1. Independent self-study (asynchronous learning)
2. Cohort-based OERu open online course
3. Full service face-to-face / blended learning option (Moodle)
4. Full service online option using (Moodle).
5. Open boundary format where OERu open online course is offered in parallel will full service online course at the University of Southern Queensland.

Assessment design

TBD

Interaction strategies

(: The suggestions below reflect a "typical" OERu course model as a starting point. We may want to tweak components of this design)

Student-content interactions

Each micro-course will:

• Incorporate a short video as an introduction to the course and provide a "meet the teachers" opportunity
• Provide learners with a series of learning pathways designed for independent study. Each learning pathway to have a 2-3 minute video signpost.
• Incorporate one or more learning challenges in each learning pathway.
• Include learning challenges that function as building blocks for the final course assessment.

Student-student interactions

Students will be able to interact via a number of technologies which will be harvested using an aggregated timeline for the interactions:

• WENotes is used as a technology to aggregate learner interactions including selected but designated "open forums" in the LMS where learners are advised that posting to an open forum that their posts will be published openly. (In addition to the open forums there are the normal "closed" forums where lecturers provide tutorial support for full-fee students.) OERu learners do not receive online tutorial support.
• Discussion forum posts
• Personal blog posts and comments
• Personal learning journal
• General OERu FAQs on forums.oeru.org - a community-based question and answer forum.
• Course specific forums on forums.oeru.org
• Resource bank on bookmarks.oeru.org

Student-support interactions

• Students will be encouraged to use a peer-support question and answer forum for addressing support questions.
• Self-study help tutorials will be provided for the technologies used in the course.