Heidi Ellis

309 points

Western New England University

Heidi Ellis is Professor and Chair of the Computer Science and Information Technology department at Western New England University. She has a long-time interest in computing education and has been supporting student participation in open source software since 2006. Heidi also writes about students and open source at http://heidiellis.wordpress.com/

Open Minded Author Founding Member Open education

Authored Content

Give your students edit access to their course syllabus

I wanted to give students more agency in their learning. So I let them make pull requests against the syllabus.

3 alternatives to resumes for hiring talent

How I teach open source to true newcomers

I teach groups about open principles by having them re-imagine society from the ground up.

5 reasons professors should encourage students to get involved in open source projects

I've been supporting student participation in humanitarian free and open source software (HFOSS) projects for over a decade. I've seen students get motivated and excited by…

Work on a free software project for a humanitarian cause

What is Humanitarian Free and Open Source Software (HFOSS) in education and how can we get more students involved? HFOSS is open source software that has a humanitarian…

Leveraging 21st-century education with open source

Open Education Week: March 11-15

The OpenCourseWare Consortium organized Open Education Week to raise awareness about open source, open education, and open educational resources. Participants include open…

Open Faculty Expertise grant helps teachers gain necessary expertise

A group of colleagues— Stoney Jackson (Western New England University), Sean Goggins (Drexel University), Darci Burdge (Nassau Community College), Lori Postner (Nassau…

Authored Comments

Heidi JC Ellis

10 Mar 2019

Why teachers should get out of their comfort zones and into the open

Great article. You've done a great job of highlighting why education needs to change.

Heidi JC Ellis

25 Nov 2018

Give your students edit access to their course syllabus

Thanks for the encouragement Jeremy. I agree that local culture plays a large role in how much openness you can adopt in the classroom. My provost is fully behind the idea which helps a lot!