This site provides Learning Objects (LOs) and Open Educational Resources (OERs) to help the teaching of computer systems. The resources available here, under the GNU/GPL license, were developed by undergraduate and graduate students of the ICMC/USP, under the supervision of professors. This initiative aims to contribute to more attractive and dynamic classes, not just for our courses here at ICMC/USP; but also for other institutions.

The OERs available in this site consider the teaching of Operating Systems for now. In a near future (we hope), new OERs will consider also other computer subjects.

What are LOs and OERs?

A Learning Object (LO) represents a reusable educational artefact. The Learning Objects Metadata Workgroup defines a LO as an “entity” developed with technologies available, digital or not, able to be used, reused or referenced during learning processes. An Open Educational Resource (OER) represents a further step when compared to LOs, as they support teaching and learning using open materials licensed to be freely accessed, adapted and redistributed by third parties.

LOs and OERs may help the teaching of computing, addressing different and specific issues. The software resources made available here allow dynamic and interactive classes, making the learning easier. Besides helping directly in classrooms, they can support out-of-classroom activities of the students, contributing to their training.

What OERs will we find available here?

The OERs made available here address specific and well-defined subjects. The OERs were built to catch the attention of students with animations, pictures, colours and other graphical resources, which illustrate the concepts being studied. The OERs are interactive at various moments.

The OERs allow students to view functional, structural and performance perspectives of a given computational solution. The structural aspects are data, programming and hardware structures required to implement that solution. The functional aspects exemplify how the structures should be used for that solution, in order to reach its goals. Performance aspects, when pertinent, offer to the student a critical view of the solution proposed.

Initiative and Staff.
The proposal of making available these REAs was born at curses of Operating Systems taught in the first semester of 2015, in ICMC/USP, under responsibility of Prof. Paulo Sergio Lopes de Souza. Two classes participated of this initiative: an undergraduate and a graduate. The undergraduate class was the SSC0640 – Operating Systems I, taught to Computer Engineering. The students of SSC0640 developed 14 OERs. The graduate class was the SSC5723 – Operating System, belonging to the Graduate Program of Computer Science and Computational Mathematics. The students of SSC5723 developed 05 OREs.

This initiative received the collaboration of other faculty members. Prof. Ellen Francine Barbosa and Prof. Sarita Mazzini Bruschi also contributed to some suggestions on the OERs developed by students. Prof. Júlio Cézar Estrella helped us during the development of this site.

In addition to professors, the following students have also participated directly in this project:
Douglas Rondon – undergraduate student of the Bachelor in Computer Science in ICMC/USP, SSC0640´s monitor, developed most of this site;
Liuri Loami – Computer Engineering´s undergraduate and Scientific Initiation student, participated during the design of this site with suggestions and tips;
Felipe Brunelli de Andrade – undergraduate student of the Bachelor in Information Systems, helped us to start the development of this site with WordPress;
Danilo Marins Costa Segura – graduate student in ICMC/USP, helped us to start the development of this site with WordPress.

by Paulo Sérgio Lopes de Souza
LaSDPC/SSC/ICMC/USP