Andreas Meiszner

Enhancing software engineering education through open source projects: Four years of students' perspectives

This paper presents the results after four years of running of an instructional method that utilizes free/libre open source software (FLOSS) projects as tools for teaching software engineering in formal education. In the last four academic years, a total of 408 juniors majoring in Informatics (in a 4-year program) participated in the study, assuming the roles of requirements engineers, testers, developers, and designers/analysts. Students appreciated the benefits gained by the method and identified aspects that require further improvement. In the paper, we present (a) the details of our method, (b) students’ opinions as recorded through a questionnaire including both closed and open ended questions, and (c) conclusions on how the use of FLOSS projects can be applied, and be beneficial for the students.

Supporting technology-enhanced learning innovations lessons from three cases of the ELIG Learning@Work Exploratorium Lab

This paper will present three selected cases from the ELIG Learning@Work Exploratorium Lab that show how learning theories can contribute to new ways of using ICT for learning in practice, how to scout bottom-up and support grassroots innovators in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), and how innovation support might be replicated, mainstreamed, transferred or sustained. The ELIG Learning@Work Exploratorium Lab is organized as a part of the HoTEL (Holistic Approach to Technology Enhanced Learning) that is a Support action of the 7th Framework Programme and aims to design, develop and test an “Innovation Support Model” in the area of TEL, to enhance the speed and quality of innovation in TEL in Europe.