cohort of U.S. college graduates who come into the work force with FOSS experience will enrich the computing industry, along with the various FOSS communities.

conclusion

Given the relative youth and scale of the HFOSS Project, it would be premature to make sweeping claims on its behalf. However, its ongoing objective is to systematically monitor its effects on undergraduate education to determine what would happen if students see computing as a discipline that develops software to help their friends and neighbors in need. Toward this end, the Project employs instruments and metrics, including student and faculty questionnaires, presentations at computing-education venues, and outside consultants from academic institutions and industry.

Though this evaluation is still preliminary, a number of promising signs have emerged.

First, HFOSS as a concept and methodology can indeed be introduced into the undergraduate computing curriculum. Our pedagogical experiments suggest that positive results are achievable through several approaches. For example, a gen-eral-education course can provide a coherent one-semester introduction to HFOSS techniques and to the broader cultural and societal effect of the HFOSS movement. Independent-study projects and internships provide a flexible venue through which students and faculty contribute to specific HFOSS projects in both the academic year and the summer. Upper-level software-engineering courses can be used to engage students in real-world HFOSS projects as part of their course work.

Second, feedback from faculty outreach activities, including the 2008 SIGCSE and CCSCNE workshops and the 2009 symposium, suggest there is significant faculty interest in integrating FOSS into the computing curriculum in many undergraduate institutions. Despite ongoing questions involving where, when, and how best to do it, the FOSS model is flexible enough to allow different institutions to answer these questions in ways that best suit their own programs.

Third, the students engaged thus far are attracted to the HFOSS concept for the opportunity to learn concepts, languages, and skills they don’t see in other courses and for their interest in community service. Over the long run, these motivations promise to attract a wider range of capable students to computing, including more women and members of other underrepresented groups.

Fourth, student feedback suggests that engaging students in HFOSS projects helps foster a more constructive perception of the craft of programming and problem solving while generally reducing the computing-is-coding misconception. The ongoing HFOSS challenge is to spread this more positive perception across the entire undergraduate landscape. To some degree it will happen through word of mouth, as students share their positive HFOSS experiences with one another. But, as noted earlier, truly changing perceptions of computer science requires a concerted and sustained effort with broad support from the computing industry, the FOSS communities, primary and secondary schools, and society at large.

Finally, the HFOSS Project has expanded from its three initial schools, single corporate partner, and single software project into a vibrant community that today includes active faculty participants from eight U.S. colleges and universities (and expressed interest from many more), industry representatives from five IT corporations, and ongoing software-development projects with two local nonprofit organizations and five international FOSS communities. This growth—largely unplanned at the beginning of the Project—is indicative of a latent (inter)national interest in the HFOSS concept. If such expansion is sustained, it will help demonstrate that HFOSS can significantly affect the undergraduate computing curriculum, culture, and enrollment demographics.

Acknowledgments

HFOSS is supported by the National Science Foundation under grants #0722137, #0722134, and #0722199 and by the Mellon Foundation. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions

or recommendations expressed here are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Mellon Foundation.

 

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Ralph Morelli ( [e-mail]) is a professor of computer science at trinity College, hartford, Ct.

Norman Danner ( [e-mail]) is an associate professor in the Department of Mathematics and Computer science at Wesleyan university, Middletown, Ct.

Allen Tucker ( [e-mail]) is the anne t. and robert M. bass Professor emeritus in the Computer science Department at bowdoin College, brunswick, Me.

Heidi Ellis ( [e-mail]) was a visiting professor at trinity College at the time of this work and is now an associate professor and chair of Computer science and Information technology at Western new england College, springfield, Ma.

Gary Parker ( [e-mail]) is an associate professor and chair of the Computer science Department at Connecticut College, new london, Ct.

Danny Krizanc ( [e-mail]) is a professor of computer science at Wesleyan university in Middletown, Ct.

Trishan R. de Lanerolle ( trishan.delanerolle@trincoll. edu) is project director of the humanitarian foss project based at trinity College, hartford, Ct.

Ozgur Izmirli ( [e-mail]) is an associate professor of computer science at Connecticut College, new london, Ct.