Having had a real of the outline (none of the links seemed to work but I presume that stuff is still in-progress), I think one of the main things is that parts of the course are going to need extremely careful attention to detail and emphasis.
Forms, validation, database design and access, session management - these are all things that are done very poorly in general, even more so if you're not using a framework which at least tries to prevent you from doing anything too crazy. Given the timelines, it is going to be very difficult to communicate the precise nature of the threats involved and you risk delivering yet more programmers into the work force (and open source space) who exist in blissful ignorance of the damage their code can produce. Most notably, the course appears to contain nothing of the wider defensive-programming concepts such as unit testing (or better, test- driven development), nor does it give students a practical course in breaking their code - which is almost the only way to convince most people of just how serious the situation is. Overall, it's not clear what the course is attempting to be - it seems like a "how to participate in open source" course, with some programming thrown in to appeal to beginners. I'm not certain you're doing yourself or the students a service by trying to combine the two. That said, the mentoring initiative is *excellent*. I cannot emphasize enough how much I believe mentoring can improve a programmers learning and habits. What is an e-tutor? Regards, Richard. On Nov 9, 5:08 pm, Richard Wyles <[email protected]> wrote: > Hi PHP Users Group, > I woulld like to draw your attention to a new training initiative for > open source practitioners. The project is not yet complete but I would > welcome feedback from members of the NZ PHP Users Group - in > particular because we have developed a PHP course so peer review from > subject matter experts is very important. > > The Eduforge Open Source Learning Laboratory is underpinned by a > mentoring model whereby senior programmers mentor junior programmers > under the guidance of online e-tutors. There are some parallels to > Google’s ‘Summer of Code’ but it's more within a structured course > environment. Trainees or students will be mentored while working on > real open source applications. Mentoring is designed to optimise the > impact on productive capability through advanced practice in ICT and > applied research. > > To date, we haven't developed many programming courses, we've started > with PHP but the intent is to develop a range of programming courses > that will subsequently underpin a NZ Diploma in Open Source > Technologies. > > The Open Source Learning Laboratory has the following attributes: > - Recognition of evidence of prior learning. > - Weighted towards a coaching and mentoring structure rather than > traditional teaching model. > - Potential for Internships – students may spend a specified amount of > time with real companies on real projects. > - Nurture entrepreneurship through the appropriate bundle of course > modules. > - Highly practical – students work on real open source applications > > If you would like to review and comment on our progress to date please > visit our staging area athttp://staging.eduforge.comand login as a > Guest - details on the homepage. In particular I'd like your views as > to whether the PHP course includes activities that promote learning > and provide feedback to students on their understanding of PHP. You > may contact me directly with your thoughts at [email protected] > > Thank-you > Richard > Open Source Learning Lab. > > P.S We are also recruiting for part-time e-tutors. Please contact me > if you'd like further details. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ NZ PHP Users Group: http://groups.google.com/group/nzphpug To post, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe, send email to [email protected] -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
