[Linux-aus] Grant Application: Promotion of FOSS in undergraduate Computer Science, Information Technology and Software Engineering degrees at the University of Newcastle

[Russell Coker]

On Mon, 3 Apr 2017 12:36:11 PM Mark Wallis wrote:
> We propose to undertake a review of the course material being presented in
> the first 2 years of the above degrees. The review will identify all
> worked examples, tutorials and workshops which are presenting
> closed-sourced centric solutions. The outcome of this review will be a
> course development plan which aims to develop alternative or extended
> course material that covers alternate FOSS options available to students.
> The project will hire one undergraduate student to work with the chief
> investigator to develop the new course content during 2017, ready for
> students in 2018.
> 
> Examples of the course material that will be generated includes:
> 
>   *   Worked-examples under Linux, rather than Microsoft Windows (for
> example, instructions showing students how to install and configure a
> compiler) *   Short 5-minute video’s presenting FOSS alternatives to tools
> presented in the primary course material *   Short 5–minute video’s
> providing context of how the course relates to Open Source (for example, a
> case study of Linux Kernel development to be presented during the
> Operating Systems course)
> 
> To comply with pre-existing copyright, any existing course material which
> is expanded to include content generated by this grant will remain under
> the existing copyright terms. Any new content, such as the video
> presentations, will be released under a Creative Commons license.

http://www.australianuniversities.com.au/list/

I think it's good to have more Linux inclusion in university courses.  But I 
am concerned about paying for material of a limited scope.  The above URL says 
"There is a total of 43 accredited universities in Australia comprising 40 
Australian universities, two international universities, and a smaller private 
speciality university".

40*$7000 = $280,000, which is obviously outside our budget.

5*$7000 = $35,000 - the total budget for grants this year.

On Mon, 3 Apr 2017 01:30:38 PM Mark Wallis wrote:
> I’ll admit there are complexities here. In the proposal I’ve committed to
> ensuring that any brand-new content we generate, for example, video’s we
> might record that present FOSS-centric case studies for students, will be
> released under a Creative Commons license.

Will this be on Youtube or a similar site that provides free and easy access?

> The problem lies around any time where we take existing lecture material
> and “update” it to provide either FOSS-centric points of view or alternate
> steps for the students to work through. All existing lecture material is
> under a closed copyright by UoN. In that case, I won’t be able to release
> this “updated” material to the community.

But you could release new slides that are added to existing lecture material, 
it wouldn't make a complete presentation, but it would be a good start for 
someone who wanted to develop something similar.  If you released the new 
slides that showed how to do things with Linux while keeping the old slides 
showing how to do things with Windows secret that would achieve the aims of 
Linux Australia.  FWIW I'm generally in favor of free resources for Windows 
training, but if you ended up only offering free resources for Linux training I 
wouldn't complain.  ;)

In the past I released some diagrams for demonstrating concepts that I was 
lecturing about under a free license.  Some people included those diagrams in 
their own lectures so it seemed to do some good.

-- 
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