{"id":633,"date":"2011-01-26T15:28:15","date_gmt":"2011-01-26T15:28:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/?p=633"},"modified":"2011-01-27T11:59:27","modified_gmt":"2011-01-27T11:59:27","slug":"customizing-open-source-software-benefits-and-pitfalls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/2011\/01\/26\/customizing-open-source-software-benefits-and-pitfalls\/","title":{"rendered":"Customizing open source software: benefits and pitfalls"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Aimed at e-Learning developers, this case study draws on the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jisc.ac.uk\/\">JISC<\/a>-funded <a href=\"http:\/\/cascade.conted.ox.ac.uk\/\">Cascade<\/a> project\u2019s experience of customizing the Moodle assignment module, to highlight the benefits and pitfalls of working with open source software.<\/p>\n<p>This aspect of the Cascade project had two key challenges: (a) to specify requirements for enhanced assignment-handling functionality in Moodle; and (b) to develop the code itself.\u00a0 Both proved far more challenging than anticipated.<\/p>\n<p>The experience of the project suggests that customizing open source software to meet the institution\u2019s bespoke curriculum delivery requirements can result in the development of a robust system offering improved services to stakeholders, however there can be pitfalls.\u00a0 Key recommendations for other developers considering similar projects are:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Define the processes involved before working on the development of software; a broken or unclear process cannot have an effective technological solution;<\/li>\n<li>Keep all stakeholders informed of what the final result will be, providing updates when the requirements\/functionality change;<\/li>\n<li>Have everyone concerned with functionality and bug identification use an issue management system from the start of the project;<\/li>\n<li>Use version control to manage code, but keep it simple;<\/li>\n<li>Learn and work with the norms of the open source community for maximum wider benefit.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Read the full case study at:\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/cascade.conted.ox.ac.uk\/sites\/cascade.conted.ox.ac.uk\/files\/CascadeCaseStudy2.doc\"> Cascade Case Study 2: Customizing      open source software: benefits and pitfalls<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Aimed at e-Learning developers, this case study draws on the JISC-funded Cascade project\u2019s experience of customizing the Moodle assignment module, to highlight the benefits and pitfalls of working with open source software. This aspect of the Cascade project had two &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/2011\/01\/26\/customizing-open-source-software-benefits-and-pitfalls\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[53,29,20,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-633","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cascade","category-jisc","category-moodle","category-open-source"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=633"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":680,"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633\/revisions\/680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tallblog.conted.ox.ac.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}