2014-02-25 17:33 GMT+01:00 Nathan Hurst <njh@...1927...>:
Here's a crazy idea: run this list (or some portion of it) as a kanban style development process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kanban_(development)
We would take a few of the students who were keen to be involved and they would all work off the same kanban queue as a team. Assessment would be around how many tasks they completed (we would need to specify upfront the expected effort for each task and how many effort would be considered a pass), and how they worked together to complete the list. As new work becomes apparent, it is also added to the queue and the team is responsible for prioritising the work. Team work is a very valuable skill for software development, and the siloed project effort typical of gsoc doesn't lead to strong team work.
That's true, but the rules for GSoC are quite restrictive when it comes to teamwork - I'm fairly sure that joint applications (e.g. 3 students applying to participate in this model) are not allowed at all.
A safer bet would be to merge some of the items into larger projects.
Regards, Krzysztof