ROSE: a repository of education-friendly open-source projects

ABSTRACT

Open-source project artifacts can be used to inject realism into software engineering courses or lessons on open-source software development. However, the use of open-source projects presents challenges for both educators and for students. Educators must search for projects that meet the constraints of their classes, and often must negotiate the scope and terms of the project with project managers. For students, many available open-source projects have a steep learning curve that inhibits them from making significant contributions to the project and benefiting from a "realistic" experience. To alleviate these problems and to encourage cross-institution collaboration, we have created the Repository for Open Software Education (ROSE) and have contributed three open-source projects intended for an undergraduate computer science or software engineering course. The projects in ROSE are education-friendly in terms of a manageable size and scope, and are intended to be evolved over many semesters. All projects have a set of artifacts covering all aspects of the development process, from requirements, design, code, and test. We invite other educators to contribute to ROSE and to use projects found on ROSE in their own courses.

REFERENCES

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INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  K. Computing Milieux
  K.3 COMPUTERS AND EDUCATION
      K.3.2 Computer and Information Science Education
          Subjects: Computer science education

General Terms:
Design, Documentation, Management, Verification

Keywords:
open-source software repository, software engineering curriculum