Improving Diversity in Computing by Teaching Humanitarian Free and Open Source
E143 | Sat 15 Jul 5:30 p.m.–6:30 p.m.
Presented by
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Heid Ellis
https://www1.wne.edu/arts-and-sciences/faculty.cfm?uid=697
Heidi Ellis is Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology at Western New England University. Dr. Ellis’ research interests include software engineering education and learning in open source software projects. Dr. Ellis is one of the founding members of the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software project which focuses on involving students in open source projects that improve the human condition. She has been involving students in HFOSS projects since 2006 and she has been PI on five NSF projects related to student learning in HFOSS. Heidi has been active in computing education for over 20 years and has multiple publications related to involving students in HFOSS projects.
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Grant Braught
http://users.dickinson.edu/~braught/
Grant Braught is a Professor of Computer Science at Dickinson College where he has taught courses across the undergraduate computer science curriculum for 25 years. He led a curricular revision of Dickinson’s computer science program to incorporate a focus on FOSS and Humanitarian FOSS (HFOSS) with the goals of deepening student engagement, broadening participation in computing, raising awareness of the power of computing for social good and enhancing student’s technical career-ready skills. He has guided student engagement with HFOSS communities including OpenMRS, SugarLabs, Sahana Eden, FreeCodeCamp, Oden, and Oppia. He is a lead maintainer of the FarmData2 project, which engages primarily student developers to build an application supporting small organic vegetable farmers. In 2017 he was recognized by Red Hat as among the “Instructors Who Champion Open Source Education in the U.S.” In 2020 he led a project centered around integrating FOSS in the undergraduate curriculum that was a finalist in the Gnome Community Engagement Challenge. He also works closely with The Non-Profit FOSS Institute, Teaching Open Source and Foss2Serve to promote HFOSS in computing education. He is an advocate of liberal arts education and has been active in the forthcoming ACM/IEEE/AAAI CS2023 curricular recommendations for undergraduate computer science programs.
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Heid Ellis
https://www1.wne.edu/arts-and-sciences/faculty.cfm?uid=697
Heidi Ellis is Professor of Computer Science and Information Technology at Western New England University. Dr. Ellis’ research interests include software engineering education and learning in open source software projects. Dr. Ellis is one of the founding members of the Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software project which focuses on involving students in open source projects that improve the human condition. She has been involving students in HFOSS projects since 2006 and she has been PI on five NSF projects related to student learning in HFOSS. Heidi has been active in computing education for over 20 years and has multiple publications related to involving students in HFOSS projects.
Heid Ellis
https://www1.wne.edu/arts-and-sciences/faculty.cfm?uid=697
Grant Braught
http://users.dickinson.edu/~braught/
Heid Ellis
https://www1.wne.edu/arts-and-sciences/faculty.cfm?uid=697
Abstract
Meeting the strong demand for computing professionals will require attracting and retaining more students in computing degree programs. Women and people of color are significantly underrepresented among computing students, and these groups provide an opportunity to both create a more equitable discipline and meet the need for more computing graduates. In order to attract more of these students, computing educators must improve the quality, appeal and student success rate in computing degree programs.
This presentation discusses an education effort that helps to address this challenge by expanding the community of faculty incorporating Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) into computing education. HFOSS education provides a collaborative environment that supports active learning with real-world tasks. Students gain both technical and professional skills while also acquiring a first-hand understanding of the potential for computing to have both social relevance and positive societal impact. The ability of computing to “do good” has been shown to attract women and other underrepresented groups into computing disciplines.
The project is intended to have broader impact in the following areas: a) improving student retention and expanding appeal to women and underrepresented groups; b) providing real-world learning of professional and technical skills in a complex, authentic environment that prepares students for professional practice; c) extending understanding of the impact of HFOSS pedagogy and approaches on student and instructor role and identities; and d) increasing student understanding of the potential of computing to improve the human condition and in student awareness of professional responsibility.
Initial work has included several surveys of undergraduate students (209 and 360 participants) that indicate women and underrepresented groups are more strongly motivated by the humanitarian nature of HFOSS projects. The presentation will include results of these surveys and discussion of HFOSS education as an approach to making computing more diverse while also advancing student knowledge of open source.
Meeting the strong demand for computing professionals will require attracting and retaining more students in computing degree programs. Women and people of color are significantly underrepresented among computing students, and these groups provide an opportunity to both create a more equitable discipline and meet the need for more computing graduates. In order to attract more of these students, computing educators must improve the quality, appeal and student success rate in computing degree programs. This presentation discusses an education effort that helps to address this challenge by expanding the community of faculty incorporating Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) into computing education. HFOSS education provides a collaborative environment that supports active learning with real-world tasks. Students gain both technical and professional skills while also acquiring a first-hand understanding of the potential for computing to have both social relevance and positive societal impact. The ability of computing to “do good” has been shown to attract women and other underrepresented groups into computing disciplines. The project is intended to have broader impact in the following areas: a) improving student retention and expanding appeal to women and underrepresented groups; b) providing real-world learning of professional and technical skills in a complex, authentic environment that prepares students for professional practice; c) extending understanding of the impact of HFOSS pedagogy and approaches on student and instructor role and identities; and d) increasing student understanding of the potential of computing to improve the human condition and in student awareness of professional responsibility. Initial work has included several surveys of undergraduate students (209 and 360 participants) that indicate women and underrepresented groups are more strongly motivated by the humanitarian nature of HFOSS projects. The presentation will include results of these surveys and discussion of HFOSS education as an approach to making computing more diverse while also advancing student knowledge of open source.