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OSSDoorway: A Gamified Environment to Scaffold Student Contributions to Open Source Software

Italo Santos, Katia Romero Felizardo, Anita Sarma, Igor Steinmacher, Marco A. Gerosa

TL;DR

OSSDoorway addresses the challenge of teaching software engineering with real OSS experience by providing a gamified, quest-driven environment that scaffolds student contributions to OSS projects. The authors employ a two-step process: an iterative design/development phase with requirements elicitation and formative/expert evaluations, followed by a summative evaluation with 29 students, using pre/post self-efficacy measures and qualitative feedback analyzed via nonparametric tests and open coding. Findings show that OSSDoorway enhances self-efficacy, helps students navigate GitHub tasks, and is perceived positively, particularly when guided by clear instructions, real-time feedback, and structured quests; gender gaps in self-efficacy were leveled after use. The work demonstrates the practical value of gamified learning for OSS contributions and outlines implications for students, educators, platforms, and researchers, while also noting limitations such as generalizability and the focus on non-code contributions. Future work includes extending quests to code review/refactoring and investigating long-term transfer to real-world OSS projects.

Abstract

Software engineering courses enable practical learning through assignments requiring contributions to open source software (OSS), allowing students to experience real-world projects, collaborate with global communities, and develop skills and competencies required to succeed in the tech industry. Learning software engineering through open source contribution integrates theory with hands-on practice, as students tackle real challenges in collaborative environments. However, students often struggle to contribute to OSS projects and do not understand the contribution process. Research has demonstrated that strategically incorporating game elements can promote student learning and engagement. This paper proposes and evaluates OSSDoorway, a tool designed to guide students contributing to OSS projects. We recruited 29 students and administered a self-efficacy questionnaire before and after their use of OSSDoorway, along with qualitative feedback to assess challenges, interface features, and suggestions for improvement. The results show that OSSDoorway boosts students' self-efficacy and provides a structured, gamified learning experience. Clear instructions, real-time feedback, and the quest-based system helped students navigate tasks like using GitHub features to submit pull requests and collaborating with the community. Our findings suggest that providing students with a supportive gamified environment that uses feedback and structured quests can help them navigate the OSS contribution process.

OSSDoorway: A Gamified Environment to Scaffold Student Contributions to Open Source Software

TL;DR

OSSDoorway addresses the challenge of teaching software engineering with real OSS experience by providing a gamified, quest-driven environment that scaffolds student contributions to OSS projects. The authors employ a two-step process: an iterative design/development phase with requirements elicitation and formative/expert evaluations, followed by a summative evaluation with 29 students, using pre/post self-efficacy measures and qualitative feedback analyzed via nonparametric tests and open coding. Findings show that OSSDoorway enhances self-efficacy, helps students navigate GitHub tasks, and is perceived positively, particularly when guided by clear instructions, real-time feedback, and structured quests; gender gaps in self-efficacy were leveled after use. The work demonstrates the practical value of gamified learning for OSS contributions and outlines implications for students, educators, platforms, and researchers, while also noting limitations such as generalizability and the focus on non-code contributions. Future work includes extending quests to code review/refactoring and investigating long-term transfer to real-world OSS projects.

Abstract

Software engineering courses enable practical learning through assignments requiring contributions to open source software (OSS), allowing students to experience real-world projects, collaborate with global communities, and develop skills and competencies required to succeed in the tech industry. Learning software engineering through open source contribution integrates theory with hands-on practice, as students tackle real challenges in collaborative environments. However, students often struggle to contribute to OSS projects and do not understand the contribution process. Research has demonstrated that strategically incorporating game elements can promote student learning and engagement. This paper proposes and evaluates OSSDoorway, a tool designed to guide students contributing to OSS projects. We recruited 29 students and administered a self-efficacy questionnaire before and after their use of OSSDoorway, along with qualitative feedback to assess challenges, interface features, and suggestions for improvement. The results show that OSSDoorway boosts students' self-efficacy and provides a structured, gamified learning experience. Clear instructions, real-time feedback, and the quest-based system helped students navigate tasks like using GitHub features to submit pull requests and collaborating with the community. Our findings suggest that providing students with a supportive gamified environment that uses feedback and structured quests can help them navigate the OSS contribution process.

Paper Structure

This paper contains 17 sections, 5 figures, 1 table.

Table of Contents

  1. Introduction
  2. Background and related work
  3. Method
  4. OSSDoorway design and development
  5. Requirements elicitation
  6. Tool design
  7. Formative studies
  8. Expert evaluation
  9. Summative evaluation
  10. Results
  11. Students' self-efficacy
  12. Students' perception about OSSDoorway
  13. Discussion
  14. Implications
  15. Limitations
  16. ...and 2 more sections

Figures (5)

  • Figure 1: Method overview.
  • Figure 2: OSSDoorway Design Overview.
  • Figure 3: The left side (1) displays the OSSDoorway README page, where students can track their progress and view available tasks along with game elements such as progress bars, experience points, levels, badges, and streaks. The top right side (2) shows the GitHub Issues page with detailed instructions for Task 1. The bottom right side (3) presents feedback from the OSS Bot after the student successfully completes the task, providing progress updates and awarding experience points.
  • Figure 4: OSSDoorway Page - High Fidelity Prototype.
  • Figure 5: Responses to the 5-point Likert scale questions for the self-efficacy questions. The left side ("Pre") shows students' responses to the questions before using OSSDoorway, while the right side ("Post") shows their responses after using OSSDoorway. The red dot indicates the median response for each question. Question description: I am confident that I can... Q1: use GitHub issue tracker to find open issues; Q2: understand GitHub pull requests; Q3: fork GitHub repositories; Q4: find help with an issue using the GitHub web interface; Q5: open a pull request using the GitHub web interface; Q6: find an issue to work on and assign it to myself; Q7: use GitHub to contribute to projects. The left side (Pre) shows students' responses to the questions before using OSSDoorway, while the right side (Post) shows their responses after using OSSDoorway.