Red Hat intros open source s/w courses in colleges

RALEIGH, USA: Red Hat, Inc., provider of open source solutions, has expanded its outreach to introduce open source into the computer science curriculum at leading colleges and universities.

As a member and catalyst in the Teaching Open Source community and through its sponsorship of POSSE (Professors' Open Source Summer Experience) workshops, Red Hat has worked with professors across the globe to teach them how to launch and incorporate open source into higher education coursework and degree programs.

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"It's easy for a company to donate money to fund an academic institution or research project, but Red Hat's approach goes one step further by equipping professors to teach open source," said Jim Whitehurst, president and CEO, Red Hat.

"We're continuing to add value to the higher education system and helping prepare professors and universities to develop coursework that will produce graduates with the skill sets necessary to compete in today's challenging and demanding work environments," added Whitehurst.

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POSSE, launched in July 2009 is a week-long workshop for professors from any discipline interested in getting their students involved in free and open source software (FOSS) communities as part of their coursework.

According to the release, professors Chris Tyler and David Humphrey from Seneca College in Toronto, Canada instructed the first POSSE workshop and have played an integral part in growing the program.

"In the past, students have practiced on small academic projects with no real-world impact. But when participating in open source communities, students rise to the challenge of working on established projects," said Tyler.

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He added, "Employers highly value these types of skills and experience, and since open source work is done in public, they are taking note of the students' remarkable accomplishments."

Matt Jadud, professor at Allegheny College said, "Introducing 40 first-year students to Fedora was an ambitious project, but my collaborator, prof. Darren Miller, and support from the Fedora community made it a powerful learning experience for the students involved."

"This year, first-year students are engaging with open projects through their writing and interviews with community members, while ten of our upper-division computing students are performing usability testing on graphical interfaces in open source software projects as well as contributing to the Fedora 14 web refresh," added Jadud.