Carpentries Instructors’ meeting
- Friday, August 30, 2019
- 9:30-11:00 AM
- Watson 455 and Zoom
Present:
Albin, Brooks-Kieffer, Buffington, Everman, Hill, Koseva, Russell, Thomas
Highlights:
We were joined by Elizabeth Everman and Tom Hill, both from Molecular Biosciences. Both are interested in Carpentries instructor training and have helped at Software Carpentry workshops at KU. Welcome, Elizabeth and Tom!
Our primary agenda item at this meeting was to debrief the August 20-21 workshop https://kulibraries.github.io/2019-08-20-ku/. We chunked this out into plus/delta for several different topics:
- Teaching and helping:
- + Learners helped each other, in part because of the room layout
- + Lots of learners stayed in the workshop and returned for all the sessions in spite of frustration and difficulty
- + Learners with some experience asked interesting questions
- + Number of available helpers was good
- + Bash went well; got about as far into the lesson as it’s possible to get in a three-hour session
- + Git Countries exercise went well
- + R instruction recovered after data frames section - lots of encouragement from other instructors here!
- + Instructors felt they were doing a better job of teaching with the Etherpad, although there is room for improvement (see below)
- + Multiple instructors modeled mistakes; whether intentional or inadvertent, this is important for novices to see
- Δ Need to make sure that all instructors know where the workshop data is and how learners are going to get it. This detail didn’t get communicated before this workshop.
- Δ Some learners lost their working environment in RStudio between day 1 and day 2; be more explicit about how to save the project on day 1 and where/how to open it on day 2
- Δ R day 1 introduction to data frames got bogged down in confusing material (no one likes data types!)
- Δ Git instruction got less explicit when moving from command line to GitHub - needs more “why are we doing this part”
- Δ Being more intentional about introducing the Etherpad, where it is, how to use it, that it’s persistent, etc. at the beginning of a workshop. There wasn’t a lot of chat or questions on the Etherpad this time - perhaps because we didn’t explicitly teach it.
- Δ Being mindful of the usual Carpentries teaching practices: typing and talking, typing more slowly, conducting sticky checks
- Δ Underestimated the number of learners who would need help with syntax and typos
- Δ Some learners needed help updating R and other packages in RStudio - this might be addressed in installation instructions before the workshop.
- Δ RStudio can be difficult to teach; screen size for the panels is always an issue; the graphical menu and different panels in the work environment need explicit teaching
- Δ R error messages need to be specifically addressed - learners don’t know how to parse these
- For next workshop Find a way to make the Etherpad link on the workshop page open in a new tab.
- For next workshop Make sure that Git Bash installation instructions (Windows) on the workshop site match the installer.
- For next workshop Be clear that the R installation is RStudio
- For all workshops Model and emphasize that learning new stuff is valuable
- Workshop space:
- + Closer classroom setting kept people in the room and helped them build or deepen relationships with their fellow learners
- + Classroom setting helped instructors and learners see nonverbal cues from the whole set of learners
- + Some instructors and helpers had an easier time seeing sticky notes in the classroom compared with an auditorium
- + Directional signage in the building was helpful
- + Proximity to restrooms and elevators was good
- + Nice to have two doors
- + Tami and KanREN’s supply of power strips was essential - thank you!
- Δ Room was cold and didn’t have enough space for all the people we crammed in
- Δ Lack of power outlets could have been really bad but was averted
- Δ Back of the room, containing helpers, registration, and catering became a chokepoint
- Δ Seating position in the room and close quarters hindered some helpers from seeing sticky notes
- Δ Glare from the windows off the whiteboard made it difficult to see red marker during the Git lesson
- For next workshop Add links to accessibility maps and building descriptions to workshop page (GitHub), registration page (Eventbrite), and description page (Libraries). These are available at https://accessibility.ku.edu.
- For next workshop Bring black whiteboard markers to ensure enough contrast
- (Lack of) Deposit:
- + Did not impact attendance
- + If the 5 no-shows had attended, we would have been really cramped for space
- Install-A-Thon (not discussed, but relevant for next workshop):
- Only one learner attended, and this during the last five minutes
- For next workshop Consider if Install-A-Thon is worth it
The workshop plus/delta conversation led to a conversation about instructors’ screen layouts and computer accounts for teaching. Highlights included:
- Teaching directly from the lesson material is difficult - it’s easy to get lost trying to read the webpage and talk/type at the same time.
- Several instructors have their own notes to teach from - these use the Carpentries lesson but tend to weed out rabbit holes and directions that, from experience, have proved confusing.
- A common instructor setup is to extend their screen, put the teaching environment (Bash, RStudio, Jupyter Notebook) on the extended portion, and keep their notes and Etherpad on their laptop screen. This works well when the technology setup allows the instructor to see the extended screen on a podium monitor.
- An alternative setup is to refer to one’s teaching notes on a separate device (e.g.: a tablet) in order to mirror one’s screen to the learners - this way the learner sees on the big screen exactly what the instructor is talking about (e.g.: referring to the Etherpad)
- It’s a good idea to use a separate account for teaching on the computer you will use.
- It’s also a good idea to redo the teaching environment for every workshop - uninstalling key software and reinstalling at that point, so that you can see the installation process as the learners are seeing it.
Our other main agenda item was discussing details of instructor training for and with Tom and Elizabeth:
- Length of instructor training (two full days, plus checkout tasks)
- Support available for checkout tasks
- Attending training with another person in the room, if possible
- Available curricula besides Software Carpentry, including lessons in development
- Possibility of travel as a Carpentry instructor - volunteer, but host is responsible for travel expenses
Action Items:
- JBK will get schedule and details of registration for instructor training to Elizabeth, Tom, and Matt. (Done 2019/09/06)
- Work on making a rotation for meeting notes - maybe hold a demo?
Notes by JBK