Instructor Training

Online, Network of National Library of Medicine

Mar 2-5, 2021

9:00 am - 1:00 pm PST, 12 noon - 4 pm EST

Instructors: Kate Hertweck, Daniel Chen

Helpers:

General Information

The course is aimed at everyone who is interested in becoming a better teacher. In particular, this training is aimed at those who want to become Software Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Data Carpentry Instructors, run workshops and contribute to The Carpentries training materials. You don't currently have to be an instructor or a teacher to attend this workshop, but you do need to be willing and committed to becoming one and to improving your teaching techniques.

Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, and Library Carpentry's mission is to help scientists, researchers, and librarians get more research done in less time and with less pain by teaching them basic lab skills for scientific computing. This hands-on two-day workshop covers the basics of educational psychology and instructional design, and looks at how to use these ideas in both intensive workshops and regular classes.

The workshop is a mix of lectures and hands-on lessons where you practice giving a short lesson using approaches learned and implement some of the teaching techniques which we will discuss. This is training for teaching, not technical training; you do not need any particular technical background, and we will not be teaching that. This workshop is based on the constantly revised and updated curriculum.

Where

Online

This is an online event. We will meet using the online videoconference software Zoom. You will need to download and install their client to connect with your instructors. The link to use for this event is https://carpentries.zoom.us/my/carpentriesroom3?pwd=ZGY2VVRIRDhGSU84Uys1dEx1YXphZz09.

Network of National Library of Medicine

Get directions with OpenStreetMap or Google Maps.

Accessibility

We are committed to making this workshop accessible to everybody. The workshop organisers have checked that:

Materials will be provided in advance of the workshop and large-print handouts are available if needed by notifying the organizers in advance. If we can help making learning easier for you (e.g. sign-language interpreters, lactation facilities) please please get in touch (using contact details below) and we will attempt to provide them.

Requirements

Participants should bring a laptop that is Internet connected and has a functioning browser. If you have it, a device for recording audio and video (mobile phones and laptops are OK) is useful as throughout the two days, we are going to record one another teaching in pairs or threes. It does not have to be high-quality, but it should be good enough that you can understand what someone is saying.

Please note that after this course is over, you will be asked to do three short follow-up exercises online in order to finish qualifying as an instructor: the details are available at https://carpentries.github.io/instructor-training/checkout/. If you have any questions about the workshop, the reading material, or anything else, please get in touch.

Code of Conduct

All participants are required to abide by The Carpentries Code of Conduct.

Contact

Please email k8hertweck@gmail.com for more information.


Preparation

Please read the following before the workshop begins:

  1. The Science of Learning
  2. The Carpentries 2019 Annual Report

Please also read through one episode of one of The Carpentries lessons below carefully, so that you can do some exercises based on it on the first day of the class. An episode is one page of a lesson.


Training Materials and Schedule

Please see this site for course materials. Note the example schedule shown there represents a workshop spread across two full days; our modified schedule for four half days is tentatively set as follows (times in PST):


Day 1

09:00 Welcome
09:15 Building Skill with Practice
10:20 Expertise and Instruction
11:10 Break
11:25 Memory and Cognitive Load
12:15 Building Skill with Feedback
12:30 Finish

Day 2

09:00 Welcome Back
09:05 Motivation and Demotivation
10:20 Mindset
10:50 Break
11:05 Teaching is a Skill
12:15 Homework for Tomorrow
12:30 Finish

Day 3

09:00 Welcome Back
09:05 Checkout Process
09:20 The Carpentries: How We Operate
10:30 Break
10:45 Live Coding is a Skill
11:45 Preparing to Teach
12:30 Finish

Day 4

09:00 Welcome Back
9:05 More Practice Live Coding
10:20 Managing a Diverse Classroom
10:50 Break
11:05 Workshop Introductions
11:50 Putting it Together
12:15 Wrapping Up
12:30 Finish

Etherpad

We will use this Etherpad for chatting, taking notes, and sharing URLs and bits of code.
Etherpad: https://pad.carpentries.org/2021-03-02-ttt-online-NNLM.

Surveys

Before attending the workshop, please fill out our pre-training survey.

After the workshop, please fill out our post-training survey.