Foundation:Planning:Education:Seneca

<add in summary d'''escription here

Overview

Vision

Students anywhere can take advantage of the Seneca / Mozilla learning model, accessing projects, community support and mentoring while participating in Mozilla.

Context

<need to describe what Seneca has done with Mozilla, why it's good … but also why it is limited in terms of scale and impact. things to include ...>

• <describe how it works briefly>
• seen as positive by people who have participated, students, mozilla people, etc.
• has produced talented interns and employees for mozilla, although in some ways this isn't the main point
• there has been desire to scale and replicate, but this hasn't happened yet … despite tons of interest from other professors (give evidence?)
• problem is it's hard to find 'perfect storm' of prof, contributor and institution that we had at Seneca … and this wasn't perfect storm in first place, it evolved
• we need to find a lower barrier to entry for students and professors to get involved

Thesis

The best (or at least first) way to scale the teaching method, community infrastructure and materials developed at Seneca is simply to open everything up to students at other colleges and universities. In the short term, this will mean more students from more places participating in Mozilla. Over the long term, it may lead to more professors and institutions contributing to Mozilla Education in a bigger way.

Desired outcomes

• gradually build up a 'self priming pump' for student involvement in mozilla, with the pathway to participation becoming clear and systematized
• more students participating from more places
• professors dip their toes in the water with a few students, eventually becoming more involved
• what else?
  

How it will work

Scope

• current focus is on computer studies, using XUL development as content
• could expand to include other topics using the same method
  • open web technologies (for web design and tech students)
  • design
  • business
  • marketing

Approach

<need Dave to help write this … however, useful to make sure we cover the following>

• some kind of intake method of barrier to entry to make sure students are serious?
  • how do we find *good* students?
  • is there any difference for masters and undergrad students?
• some sort of web page that provides an entry point for interested students, explaining the process?
• self study (moodle?) or regularly scheduled Mozilla bootcamps based on the material Dave uses at the beginning of each course
• regularly maintained list of features and bugs that students could work on, ideally with info on people willing to mentor
  • needs a bit more description and context than just a search in bugzilla
  • dave sitting on triage calls, at least for thunderbird and firefox
• seneca community infrastructure where students can sandbox -> #seneca, wiki, planet, etc
  • explain how these would be used by students from outside seneca
• access to mentors -> how would this work?

Products / stuff we'll create

• well maintained web presence that provides students (and professors) a pathway into Mozilla Education
• a 'Mozilla Bootcamp' self study course based on the first two weeks of what Dave offers … could be used for this purpose, but also others
• what else?

Use cases

Student

• student has one or more independent study or practical credits to complete
• goes to Mozilla Education site run by Seneca, learns about how it works
• applies for support / admission? how does this work?
• takes the online Mozilla Bootcamp course
• picks a project, gets help finding a mentor
• participates in #seneca etc. while doing project … also blogs
• what else? how does it end? what if they are doing multiple credits?
• <elaborate>

Professor

• professor has a number of students they'd like to have participate, but isn't ready or able to run a whole Mozilla course
• how do they get involved?
• what do they contribute?
• how does this become part of 'professor network' over time?
• <elaborate>

Mentor

• Mozilla contributor who would like to help, either in general or with a specific university (e.g. the Jason case)
• <elaborate>

Resources =

Things we have

• seneca bootcamp course (describe, why is it useful?)
• active community infrastructure (describe, why is it useful?)
• what else?

Things we need

• what's missing? what do we need to build?

Financial

• requires course release for Dave Humphrey to be doing this, especially if focused on outside students
• students participation itself shouldn't cost anything
• over time, other institutions may run Mozilla related courses, or at least part courses, using their own funds

Roadmap

Q1 2009

xxx

Q2 2009

xxx

Q3 2009

xxx

Q4 2009

xxx

Beyond

xxx