The “open Software Engineering / Computer Science” project (acronym: openSE) was a project that ran from 2009 till 2012 and was cofunded by the EC’s Lifelong Learning Project.

Brief description

Traditionally, in closed formal education, students (and also firms and learners outside of the institution) could not fully benefit from and build upon the achievements of previous students’ cohorts. Similarly, learners outside traditional educational institutions cannot benefit from students’ learning processes and outcomes inside these institutions. A reasonable way to better exploit these opportunities is applying the principles of open participatory learning to existing courses. The Web 2.0 offers opportunities for open and inclusive education.

The openSE project, which started in October 2009, was a 25 month­long project, co­funded by the European Commission that aimed to bring together higher education institutions, open source projects and enterprises from different countries, from Europe and beyond, to collaboratively build up a common learning ecosystem. This project therefore proposed an Open Educational Framework for Software Engineering ­ openSE.

The main founding principles for the OpenSE project are:

  • Social inclusion, participation and empowerment of all people
  • Access to knowledge and in particular educational resources and technology.
  • Promote a culture of sharing and cooperation.
  • Encourage diversity of culture and perspectives.
  • Collaboration and innovation to develop effective and sustainable solutions.

The FKI participated in all workpackages and was responsible for the OpenSE Content Framework and policies for free licensing and open standards. Another important deliverable, coordinated by Andreas Meiszner, was A hybrid Organizational Framework for Open Course Design.

Partners Involved

  • Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação – SPI (Project Coordinator)
  • Free Knowledge Institute – FKI
  • Aristotle University of Thessaloniki – AUTH
  • Tampere University Technology – TUT
  • Universidad Rey Juan Carlos – URJC
  • Ecole pour l’Informatique et les Techniques Avancees – EPITA
  • University of Maastricht / UNU-MERIT – UNU-MERIT
  • University of Oxford – OSSWatch
  • The Open University – The OU
  • InWENT (Associated Partner)