Using Open Source Software in Education in Developing Countries The Sudan as an Example
Bazara I. A. Barry Department of Computer Science Faculty of Mathematical Sciences – University of Khartoum Khartoum, Sudan
[email protected] Abstract— Recently, the demand for education in the developing countries at all levels has witnessed an exponential growth. Despite the difficulties and hurdles facing learners, we find that wide sectors of the societies in developing countries aspire to access educational resources. In this paper, we try to shed some light on the promise of open source software in education in Sudan as a developing country. We follow a systematic approach by firstly highlighting the potential drawbacks of adopting open source solutions at educational institutions, and describing possible ways around. The suitability of open source software to education is thrashed out with a special attention to the Sudanese context and its complexities. The paper shows various open source-based solutions to overcome the difficulties facing education in Sudan and presents recipes for a better educational experience. Open Source Countries; Sudan
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INTRODUCTION
Ever since the launch of the free software movement, the new models and practices of Open Source Software (OSS) have been gaining momentum. Software developers have been empowered to modify software, port it to new operating systems and hardware architectures, and share it with others. The philosophy behind open source software treats end-users as developers who have rights equal to the rights of the original developers of the software. Such philosophy grants end-users full access to the source code of the software, which encourages adding new functionalities and providing code fixes for the software. Consequently, the user base of the software increases significantly, whereas its bugs decrease and get fixed rapidly. Open source software introduced the concept of Open Source License (OSL) which overtakes proprietary software licenses in terms of promoting sharing and innovation in user and developer communities. An increasing number of educational institutions in the developed world have been adopting open source software for teaching and other activities. A main reason cited by these institutions for the adoption of open source software is its tendency towards open standards, which allows for interoperability with other software products. In addition, open
source software comes to educational institutions with other benefits. First of all, the software can be completely tailored to the local needs. Secondly, open source licenses are almost free, so a license fee increase cannot happen. Thirdly, educators and students are not pressurized to use illegal software copies since open source software can be copied and redistributed with fewer restrictions than proprietary software [1]. In Sudan, the educational scene has been characterized by rapidly growing numbers of learners and educational institutions. Such growing numbers necessitate the need to access resources and share knowledge. Educators and learners aspire to freely access course materials, academic software, and research papers in addition to sharing programming codes and research results. In this paper we try to shed some light on the prospects of using open source software in education in a developing country like Sudan. Current obstacles and possible future solutions to the deployment of open source software in educational institutions will be explored. The paper concludes by making some recommendations. II.
OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE: PROS AND CONS
It is not our intention in this paper to glorify and sing the praises of open source software. We believe that a balanced view on the matter helps in terms of making the right decision and getting to see the full picture. In this section, we present some of the disadvantages of open source software in addition to its advantages. We focus mainly on the disadvantages and advantages related to educational environments. Some argue that the development process based on open source software may not be well-defined, and some important stages in the process such as testing and documentation may be ignored. Software experts and researchers who are not convinced by open source’s ability to produce quality systems identify the unclear process, the late defect discovery, and the lack of any empirical evidence as the most important problems [2]. Such disadvantages do not set good examples for learners who are supposed to learn the best possible practices in programming and development, and for those who want to adopt open source solutions in non-teaching systems in the educational institution. It is sometimes mentioned that open source software revolves around the needs of developers not
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customers, which limits its ability to produce satisfactory market-based software. In terms of security, open source may allow hackers to know about the weaknesses or loopholes of the software more easily than closed-source software [3]. On the brighter side, educators and learners using open source software can benefit greatly from the experiences accumulated in open source projects. A great deal of time can be saved since developers do not have to start from scratch and can rely on existing open source libraries. New codes and functionalities can be added to the software and shared amongst educators and learners without worrying about things like ownership and intellectual property. Open source software perpetuates innovation in educational institutions since it is the product of collaboration among a large number of different programmers. The mix of divergent perspectives, corporate objectives, and personal goals speeds up innovation [4]. We believe that the advantages of open source software outweigh its disadvantages. As for the development process, only small, single-programmer projects lack clear plans and important stages during the process. Larger, successful projects do define and enforce at least some rules. In most complex projects these rules may be as strict as reviewing even minor changes to the code by two independent developers. Not being commercially pressurized can result in a better software product. Open source developers have the luxury of following pure technical requirements which increase the quality of the software and its educational value. In terms of security and reliability, open source software is said to be more reliable since it typically has thousands of independent programmers testing and fixing bugs of the software. III.
SUITABILITY OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE FOR EDUCATION
Open source software is no stranger to educational institutions. The popular open source operating system (Linux) was written by Linus Torvalds who was then a student at the University of Helsinki in Finland. It was released for free on the internet and generated a resounding response that is continuing to dominate headlines. Certain applications used by educational organizations are particularly suited to open source. Specifically, these are learning management systems (LMS) and operating systems. A learning management system (LMS) is software for delivering, tracking and managing training. LMSs range from systems for managing training records to software for distributing courses over the Internet and offering features for online collaboration. LMS fits well with OSS because these solutions have education at their heart, making it even more important that institutions have key input. From a business perspective, it makes more sense for companies offering services to concentrate on these two areas. Open source alternatives for operating systems have become accessible and easy to use, with Linux being the most well-known. Open source operating systems will prove successful in education because they provide viable, sophisticated alternatives to current proprietary solutions that dominate the market. Furthermore, the cost of Microsoft
Windows and other proprietary operating systems can prove beyond the means of many institutions and emerging markets. Some institutions believe that they get a higher return on investment (ROI) from OSS. Many institutions understand that OSS is not actually free as there are many other associated costs with implementing OSS. However, they still feel that the value of their investment is not being fully achieved from proprietary software. Institutions consider that an undue percentage of the cost for proprietary software licenses is lining shareholder's pockets and funding expensive marketing campaigns. While this may be an incorrect perception, it is helping to drive institutions towards OSS. Institutions feel that nearly all investment that goes into OSS is going into the development of the product. Thus, they achieve a higher ROI and end up with a superior product over which they have some control compared to that which a traditional proprietary vendor could have provided [5]. Educational institutions which are already relying on proprietary software do not have to resort to drastic measures when implementing and adopting open source solutions. Proprietary software does not have to be entirely eliminated for the adoption of OSS because OSS usually has the ability to interface with existing proprietary software. IT personnel at the educational institution can gradually deploy open source solutions and compare performance aspects and productivity levels against those provided by proprietary solutions. The increased popularity of OSS will not prevent proprietary software solutions from having an important role to play in education. Instead, OSS and proprietary solutions are going to become even more entwined together and the line between open source and proprietary solutions will blur. Educational institutions should bear in mind the fact that the open source label does not imply no cost. Developers can and do charge for open source software. Open source actually refers to the availability of the source code for software. Furthermore, open source software licenses range from the BSD license that allows anyone to do anything with the software including making changes and not releasing the source, to the GPL which mandates that any changes must be open source. Therefore, assessing the suitability of a certain open source software product to the institution should be based on a deep understanding of that institution’s needs and capabilities. In no case should OSS be adopted for any reason other than strategic. IV.
EDUCATION IN SUDAN
In this section we start a discussion on the situation of education in Sudan. We start with mentioning some educational facts about Sudan to help readers understand and appreciate the ramifications involved. We then make a mention of some of the hurdles to providing proper education to larger sectors of the population. A. Educational Facts about Sudan The public and private education systems inherited by the government of Sudan after independence were designed to provide civil servants and professionals to serve the colonial administration, rather than to educate the Sudanese people.
Moreover, the distribution of facilities, staff, and enrollment was biased in favor of the needs of the administration and a Western curriculum. Schools tended to be clustered in the vicinity of the capital Khartoum and to a lesser extent in other urban areas, while the population was predominantly rural. At independence in 1956, education accounted for only 15.5% of the Sudanese budget to support 1,778 primary schools (enrollment 208,688), 108 intermediate schools (enrollment 14,632), and 49 government secondary schools (enrollment 5,423). Higher education was limited to the University of Khartoum, except for fewer than 1,000 students sent abroad by wealthy parents or on government scholarships. The adult literacy rate in 1956 was 22.9%, and, despite the efforts of successive governments, it is estimated at around 59% [8] which is a figure below the expectations and ambitions in the face of a rapidly expanding population.
resources for infrastructure maintenance, libraries, equipment, or supplies—all key ingredients in maintaining a research establishment. Sudan is not an exception to that. The disappearance of a research agenda from universities has serious consequences. The inability to pursue research isolates the nation’s elite scholars and scientists, leaving them unable to keep up with developments in their own fields. As universities lose their ability to conduct quality research and act as reference points for the rest of the education system, the country quickly finds it harder to make key decisions about the international issues affecting it. 3.
Sudan has been torn by a devastating civil war for nearly three decades in its south. Other conflicts have ravaged some of its western parts. This situation forced a large number of the population to be displaced, and the education of their children has become more difficult and challenging. Obviously, in war-affected areas the priorities of schools are for buildings, water supply, electricity, nutrition, and health care for the learners. The illiteracy of a considerable number of adult population can be attributed to war. These factors of instability, poor level of education and illiteracy are real challenges for ensuring social inclusion.
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A range of economic sanctions has been maintained against the Sudanese government for a long time. These sanctions restrict foreign aid and commercial exports and imports including technology and software products [9]. This situation made many educational institutions, which rely on imported proprietary software, resort to illegal copying of software to support their students and staff. Such practices put institutions at the danger of facing the law when relations with the west are normalized and intellectual property laws are imposed.
In the mid-1970s, there were four universities, eleven colleges, and twenty-three institutes in Sudan. The universities were in the capital area, and all of the institutions of higher learning were in the northern provinces. By 1980 two new universities had opened, one in Al Awsat Province at Wad Madani, the other in Juba in Al Istiwai Province. By early 1991, the government had decreed that the number of university students be doubled. Many new universities were established and the focus was on states other than the capital [6]. This expansion in the educational system is the new reality faced by educational institutions as they battle to cope with ever-increasing student numbers. Responding to this demand without further diluting quality is an especially daunting challenge. B. Problems Facing Education and Research in Sudan 1. Many of the problems involving higher education are rooted in a lack of resources or the inefficiency in distributing them. As a developing country, Sudan spends far less than developed countries on each student. Finding new funds is not easy. Although absolute spending is low, developing countries are already spending a higher proportion of their (smaller) incomes than the developed world on higher education, with public spending for education growing more quickly than income or total government spending. Higher education is clearly placing greater demands on public budgets, with the private sector and international donors taking up only some of the slack. Redirecting money from primary or secondary education is rarely an option, with spending per student on higher education already considerably higher than is common at other levels of the education system. 2.
Research in universities faces an array of especially serious problems. The role of universities derives from a unique capacity to combine the generation of new knowledge with the transmission of existing knowledge. Recent pressures to expand higher education have in many cases diverted universities from pursuing research, and their financial situation is further diminishing their research capabilities. Public universities in developing countries devote up to 80 percent of their budgets to personnel and student maintenance costs, leaving few
V.
THE IMPACT OF OPEN SOURCE SOFTWARE AND ITS COMMUNITIES ON EDUCATION IN SUDAN
In this section we show that open source software and its philosophy can be the light at the end of the tunnel and the solution to the abovementioned problems. We demonstrate how OSS can overcome the hurdles facing education, and suggest some steps to be taken by OSS communities and advocates to stabilize and improve the educational experience in Sudan. 1.
As discussed in the previous section, many of the problems facing education and research in Sudan can be attributed to lack of resources and limited funds either from government or private donors. Open source software is not likely to burden the already burdened budgets of educational institutions since most open source licenses do not entail paying huge amounts of money. Institutions adopting proprietary solutions will have costly software upgrades forced upon them, whereas with OSS, institutions are free to develop and upgrade the software when they see fit. However, educational institutions thinking of adopting open source software should consider the costs of employing or having access to experienced personnel who are able to implement and maintain OSS.
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An important aspect of any research is the ability to share knowledge and exchange ideas freely with a big community of researchers. The use of open source tools is very likely to boost research in educational institutions in a developing country such as Sudan since it promotes and is based on values of innovation and sharing. Universities should subscribe to and encourage researchers to publish their research results at open access journals which provide open access to their complete scholarly content immediately upon publication. For an example, see the Public Library of Science journals [7]. The use of open source software in educational institutions in Sudan is a way to overcome economic sanctions imposed on the country. Adopting open source is a matter of exerting independence away from a certain amount of American dominance, coupled with a feeling that OSS will enable the government to achieve more control over the products in their schools. Central to this concept is a desire to exert further independence from Microsoft and similar companies. For example, France is showing a propensity towards open source: they moved all of their servers in their local education authorities to Linux at the behest of the Ministry of Education. Such factors are helping to drive the market forward. In addition, some developing countries are looking towards adopting open source initiatives. For example, the State of Kerala in India is now advocating that all departments, including schools, move to desktop Linux and other OSS. While cost savings may prove a motivating factor, it is moving away from American dominance of the software market that is helping to push them towards OSS. Furthermore, the emerging markets of Brazil, Russia, India and China (BRIC) wish to establish themselves as independent, strong economies. Not having to depend on software is a part of this: while they may use US developed OSS, they have their own input into any solution [5]. The role of open source communities in Sudan should go beyond providing and training on open source software. In disadvantaged and conflict-affected areas where the priorities of schools are for buildings, water supply, electricity, learner nutrition, health, and other physical assets, open source communities’ knowledge resources that enable sustainable development of capacity to provide for needed assets are critical. Universities should work on spreading awareness about the benefits of OSS. Educators should lead by example and use open source tools for their course materials. Special awards should be provided for students who show interest in using open source software. The concepts of open teaching should be adopted by teachers in educational institutions. Such concepts are about creating teaching experiences that eliminate barriers to students taking part in those experiences. A strongly related concept to open teaching is Open Educational Resources (OERs). A central feature of OERs is an open license that allows and encourages sharing, reuse and remixing of educational resources. The arrival of OERs has meant that both teachers and students are able to view in greater depth
the teaching and learning experiences of others to inform their own praxis. Prestigious educational institutions in Sudan should recognize and adopt the concepts of open education for others to follow. A good example could be the experience of the MIT and their Open Courseware. VI.
CONCLUSION
In this paper we discussed various issues relating to the use of open source software in education in developing countries, taking Sudan as an example. We started with mentioning some of the advantages and disadvantages of open source software in education. The aim was to provide a balanced and realistic view on the matter although we showed that the advantages outweighed the disadvantages. Then we detailed how open source software was particularly suitable for education by showing that specific types of software used by educational institutions were particularly suited to open source. We made a mention of the fact that open source and proprietary software could coexist in institutions that relied entirely on proprietary software and found it hard to get rid of that legacy. After that, we shifted our discussion to the Sudanese context by mentioning some educational facts about Sudan and discussing some hurdles facing educators and learners in the country. A thorough discussion on the possible solutions and improvements provided by OSS for a better educational experience for all in Sudan followed. We believe open source communities in Sudan should take serious steps towards creating well-defined standards that they can refer to when adopting or evaluating open source products. Standards organizations are pretty much the only way to get a level playing field when it comes to new open source applications for learning, however, that will not happen unless the open source communities are active participants. REFERENCES [1] [2]
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