Software Engineering Learning in HFOSS: A Multi-Institutional Study

Real-world projects are frequently used to provide students with professional software development experience. Involvement in Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) projects allows students to learn about a complex software project within a community of professionals. In addition, the humanitarian aspect of HFOSS provides students with the motivation of developing software that will “do good”. The opportunities for learning in such an environment range from technical topics to communication to professionalism and more. This paper reports on the results of a multi-institution study of student perceptions of learning within an HFOSS project. The study expands an earlier study and involves four different institutions with courses offered between fall 2013 and fall 2014. Students were involved in projects including GNOME MouseTrap, a project to provide alternative input for users with disabilities, and OpenMRS, an electronic medical record system used extensively in developing countries. Results generally support the outcomes of the early study, but provide stronger evidence that student involvement in HFOSS promotes student learning in the areas of tools and techniques and technical knowledge about the process and tools used to develop an HFOSS project.