David Megías

Co-director of the International Master Programme in Free Software

International Master Programme in Free Software: a higher education experience

Universitat Oberta de Catalunya

6th annual GNOME User and Developer European Conference

Stuttgart – Germany

May 29 – 31, 2005

Outline

Precedents, motivation and objectives

Academic programme

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Final remarks

Outline

Precedents, motivation and objectives

Academic programme

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Final remarks

Introducing the UOC

University degrees, distance learning (e-learning) based on the Internet (virtual campus)

First semester: Fall 1995

19 officially approved degrees, an unofficial (own) degree, several postgraduate courses, master degrees and a PhD program

More than 35000 students

Computing and Multimedia Department: 4 officially approved degrees (2 Technical Computer Engineering, Technical Engineering in Telecommunications and Computer Engineering) with approximately 6000 students

Postgraduate students (master degrees, postgraduate degrees and specialization degrees) and an unofficial degree (Multimedia graduate)

Student profile: adult (above 25 years old), employed, with a family and with little available time to study

Precedents of the master programme

Platform GNU/Linux used in the practical activities of Operating Systems and Networking subjects since 1997.

Virtual tutored lab to support the students (installation problems, modem set up, etc.)

Usage of free software applications in several subjects of the official degrees:

Dev-C++/GCC (programming)

MySQL, TOAD (databases)

GnuPG (security)

Eclipse (software engineering)

Apache, Tomcat (computer networks, e-commerce)

OpenOffice (document exchange)

A FS CD and a GNU/Linux CD (Knoppix) are distributed to the students.

Postgraduate programme in GNU/Linux since November 2001.

Other initiatives

Adaptation of the virtual campus, web portal of the UOC, virtual library, and other services to free browsers (e.g. Mozilla)

Usage of multi-platform formats (PDF, HTML, RTF, plain text) for document exchange

Development of a metadistribution of GNU/Linux adapted to the UOC students (within the Hispalinux metadistros project)

Search for free alternatives to proprietary programs currently on use in the official degrees

The UOC’s virtual campus is going to be released under the GPL license!

Why a master programme in FS?

Increasing request for qualified professionals in FS technologies.

Our students (who are employed) feel quite satisfied with the use of GNU/Linux and other FS applications in the official degrees.

Several lecturers in the Computing and Multimedia Department believe in FS and encourage its promotion and dissemination.

IT professionals do not usually have enough time to become self-taught in FS technologies (web sites, forums, papers, books, etc.)

This master programme offers guided/tutored teaching, materials written by experts and different itineraries according to the students needs or preferences.

The students of the master programme can help promote and disseminate FS.

Programme design

Different itineraries according to professional profiles:

Networks and Operating Systems administrator

Web and e-commerce administrator

Applications developer

Information Systems management in a free software environment

Programme design

Networks & OS

Web & e-commerce

Application

development

IS management

Common block #1:

Introduction to Free Software

Platform GNU/Linux

Speciality courses

on Networks & OS

Speciality courses

on web &

e-commerce

Speciality courses

on Application

development

Speciality Courses

on IS management

Common block #2:

Free Software Systems Implantation (case studies)

Networks & OS

project

Web & e-commerce

project

Development

project

IS management

project

Scientific advising council

A scientific council integrated by recognised experts of different fields has been constituted in order to:

Watch over the quality of the master's contents and design.

Take into account sound opinions of different members of the FS community.

Contribute to the promotion, dissemination and development of FS projects.

Take into account viewpoints coming from different cultures and environments.

Make the master programme internationally known to gather students from various origins.

Scientific advising council

Members:

Manuel Castells, president (UOC)

Vinton Cerf (WorldCom)

Marcelo D'Elia Branco (software livre project, Brazil)

Juantomás García (Hispalinux)

Jesús M. González Barahona (Univ. Rey Juan Carlos)

Pekka Himanen (University of California at Berkeley)

Miguel de Icaza (Ximian/Novell)

Òscar del Pozo (Softcatalà)

Pam Samuelson (University of California at Berkeley)

Rafael Macau, secretariat (UOC)

Jordi Mas, secretariat (UOC/Ximian/Softcatalà)

David Megías, secretariat (UOC)

Return to the FS community

All the didactic materials are published under a free license (GFDL) so that they can be widely used, modified, extended, edited, etc.

A bibliographic corpus on FS (in Spanish and Catalan) is being created.

The final projects and developments carried out within this programme are published using free licenses.

Outline

Precedents, motivation and objectives

Academic programme

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Final remarks

Outline

Precedents, motivation and objectives

Academic programme

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Final remarks

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

This master programme has been chosen by the Catalan Council as a pilot experience for its adaptation to the EHES.

The programme credits have been recomputed according to the ECTS basis.

We have rearranged the programme in a 30 + 30 + 30 ECTS structure:

30 ETCS in 5 core (mandatory) courses, with 6 ECTS each.

30 ETCS in 5 elective courses, with 6 ECTS each (the student can choose among 8 different courses).

30 ETCS in practicum + master’s thesis.

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

The new proposal consists of 90 ECTS in two years:

Core

Core

Core

Elec

Core

Elec

Elec

Core

Elec

Elec

MThe

MThe

MThe

MThe

MThe

First year

Second year

Semester #1

Semester #2

24 ECTS

18 ECTS

24 ECTS

24 ECTS

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Core courses:

Introduction to free software

Basic GNU/Linux operating system

Advanced administration of GNU/Linux

Legal aspects and exploitation of free software

Case studies

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Elective courses:

Utilities and tools

Computer networking

Advanced networking: security issues

Web development

Databases

Introduction to software development

Advanced programming

Software engineering in free software environments

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Possible courses:

The economy of free software

Network administration

Ethical and social aspects

...

Outline

Precedents, motivation and objectives

Academic programme

Convergence to MoLOS and the EHES

Final remarks

Final remarks

About 90 students enrolled in the first edition of the master programme (started on November the 17th, 2003).

260 students have registered in aggregate (four editions).

A consultant lecturer (tutor) for each virtual classroom supports the learning process and programmes the evaluation activities.

The didactic materials of these courses are published under the GFDL and are available at the portal www.uoc.edu:

http://www.uoc.edu/masters/softwarelibre/esp/materiales.html

Final remarks

The first few students graduated in July 2004 (Postgrad in IS Management in FS environments).

The first few students with a Master diploma will graduate in July 2005.

Some Latin American students are granted by the Spanish “Fundación Carolina” each year.

We are also in contact with different Latin American universities (from Mexico and Colombia) which are interested in offering this programme.

Presentation written using:

Thank you!!!

UOC

2003-05-16T10:59:20

UOC