Introduction
Students’ opinion about Semester of Code before the enrolment in the
Similar to the previous question, there were more students who answered this question than those who declared an application for a project available in the Semester of Code Virtual Placement System (2 students, question 5). So the five most frequent reasons for not participating in Semester of Code are. The reasons shown before can be a good indicator of what aspects can be improved in the Semester of Code process to attract better students to participate.
Relatedly, in the last two rounds of Semester of Code, students had more time to apply for projects. This reason is the least important of the top 5 reasons (5 students out of 44), but partners involved in VALS and Semester of Code noted that in countries like Spain this issue is a significant challenge for students. The reason for the monetary compensation is difficult to resolve due to the current configuration of the Code Semester.
Virtual Placements & Semester of Code evaluation
Student’s placements evaluation
- Students’ placements evaluation results
- Comments on students’ placements evaluation
I think my internship experience will help me find a job in the near future* (scale 1 to 5). Has another company offered you employment or collaboration related to your Semester of Code experience?*. Did your placement in the Semester of Code make you feel positive about collaborating on FLOSS (Free Libre Open Source Software) projects and the FLOSS community?*.
How easy did you find it to get involved in the program (Semester of Code)?* (Scale 1 to 5). According to the opinion about the general experience with the practice, the majority of students rate the practice with 4/5 points (50% of them). When asked if another company/foundation offered a job or collaboration related to the coding semester experience, only one student (8%) did.
Regarding the value that Semester of Code provides to the FLOSS (Free Libre Open Source Software) community, 75% of students say that participating in Semester of Code gives them a positive feeling about participating in FLOSS projects and the FLOSS community. Regarding the ease of joining Semester of Coding, the average opinion is that it was easy.
Mentor’s placements evaluation
- Mentors’ placements evaluation results
- Comments on mentors’ placements evaluation
The student was not in Europe, so she did not do it for credits and one of the two mentors was remote. The student had to learn many new technologies, including e-learning standards, platforms, languages and an unfinished framework (tsugui). The student had to learn the mechanics of the OpenMandriva build farm to build rpm software packages.
The student raised many questions during the project, most of which were answered/discussed by email. My interventions were about the design and concept of the solution, for the most part.” In the first season: The student (rated above) was from outside the EU and we got a VALS mentor without problems.
I give the student an opportunity to update it by giving him feedback, but he never responded.” Communicate more with the student and academic supervisor and set clear deadlines for the project.” However, as I said, this time was a special case as the student did not receive credit for the work."
The student was not in Europe and cannot receive credits as academic reward for completing the placement; he was also starting another job. The reasons provided refer to some of the reasons presented by the student in section 2 of this document, “Students' Opinion on the Semester of Code Before Enrollment in Placement” for why they should not participate. Also, the student's time management skills are seen as a potential risk at the end of the placement.
Despite the good average and the good mode in the opinion, there are 3 mentors who state that their mentoring experience in the Semester of Code was the worst possible (rate of 1/5). Regarding the second question, 62% of mentors think that their project/foundation/company should offer a voluntary role to the student; this is another good indicator, mentors would like to continue working with the students at least in a voluntary mode. One key point of the questionnaire is about how mentors will improve the Semester of Code.
Academic supervisors’ placements evaluation
- Academic supervisors’ placements evaluation results
- Comments on academic supervisors’ placements evaluation
Some results are also available in visual form at https://juancb.typeform.com/report/CQfOsh/W4XV. Due to the nature of the business, the student will work with people with different responsibilities and skill sets and will need to learn to communicate their needs at different levels of technical ability. The extension should notify the user if there are already imported images for the product and ask the user to: import images (existing images will not be removed, but new ones will be uploaded and imported) import images and delete old ones (existing images will be removed) cancel import (cancel import only for this product) Make a report on imported images, products, errors.
Sunpy had some of the basics for implementing the clients, but a lot of work is required from the student to complete the task (this work would be easier if the student has proper Software Engineering knowledge).”. Opening the student eligibility periods, allowing stakeholders to determine all deadlines and periods for carrying out the internships, thus strengthening the dissemination of the VALS project and expanding the scope of the program to more countries and more types of students”. As for the students completing the internship, in this case, of the 14 academic supervisors who responded to the questionnaire, 50% (7) of the internship have been completed, and (obviously) the remaining 7 internships have not been completed.
Some students find a job during or at the beginning of their internship and leave it. Coincidence of internship dates and mentor's vacations (the mentor responds, but less often). In terms of the overall experience of the Semester of Code mentoring process, academic supervisors rate it an average of 4.14/5.
The point of view of academic supervisors about the usefulness of the placements in the future professional career, they think that it will help with an average rate of 4.07/5. This opinion represents a strong consideration about the usefulness of the Semester of Code in the future development of the students. Also the 93% of the academic supervisors think that the Semester of Code helped the students to develop a positive attitude to get involved in FLOSS projects and FLOSS community.
Opening the periods for student eligibility, enabling stakeholders to set all deadlines and periods for making placements, strengthening the distribution of the VALS project and extending the scope of the program to more countries and more types of students. In general, two main trends can be observed regarding the timeline of the proposed improvements, one is related to the alignment of the Code Semester with the university semester and the other is related to the opening of the periods for student admission and application for projects . Administrative processes at universities are very strict and vary from university to university across Europe, making it difficult to know placement at all participating institutions.
Conclusions
From the point of view of mentors and academic advisors, they only evaluate their experience with the student, not with other mentors or academic advisors. Again, the average values of the experiences are placed in the positive part of the scale (1-5, neutral value= 3), avoiding some bad assessments - bad experiences among stakeholders - because all placements were not completed and other negative relationships, in general these assessments of the experiences are considered quite good. Another main question that is reviewed in the questionnaires is the connection between the tasks carried out in the project and the knowledge and skills the students acquire during their studies.
It is interesting how the students feel that the work done during the internship is almost not coordinated with the knowledge and competences they acquire during their studies (the value is below the middle of the scale), while the mentors believe that they really have a clear relationship. The explanation for this difference, from the point of view of the VALS partners, is that students evaluate the relationship in terms of technologies, concepts and the like, which are often different from the knowledge they acquire at university; while the academic supervisors assess it as more focused on the competences (professional or not) they acquire and the knowledge more theoretical (rather than practical). The mentors also believe that the internship could help the student in his further professional career (rating 3.31/5).
Finally, academic supervisors are the most optimistic stakeholders on this issue; rated this question 4.07/5. Nevertheless, 69% of the mentors stated that they would recommend their company/project/foundation to hire a student involved in the internship, or even that 85% would recommend that the student be hired by another company/project/foundation. Overall, it is possible that Semester of Code will really help in the job search (according to the mentor's opinion, for example) despite the answers to the questionnaire about what stakeholders think the internship will help them in their future professional career.
Another important aspect in the VALS project is the open source philosophy/principles, in this case 75% of students, 69% of tutors, 93% of academic supervisors believe that student participation in Semester of Code helped them develop a positive attitude towards the FLOSS community and projects. Regarding the students' competences demonstrated during the internship, the tutors and scientific supervisors evaluate them quite well (3.46/5 tutors, 3.78/5 scientific supervisors). The three lowest rated were personal engagement (3.08/5), team work ability (3.08/5) and student task management ability (3.23/5); in the case of mentors, these were adaptability (3.57/5), motivation (3.57/5) and, with the same rating (3.64/5), oral communication skills, punctuality and ability to work in a team.
On how easy students, mentors, and academic advisors find it to be involved in Semester of Code, students rated ease with an average of 4.0/5, mentors with an average of 3.08/5, and academic advisors with 4.36/ 5.
Acknowledgements
