This might be tangentially related but, where I went to school, Mathworks funded a MATLAB TA position. This was a PhD student who hosted office hours to help any researcher or student with MATLAB questions. This meant supporting a PhD student (stipend, overhead, tuition) without their supervisor having grant funds for their project and outside of regular TA/grader responsibilities. A model like this where there is a TA-ship to teach carpentries workshops might be a way of helping support instructors.
*Sarah M Brown, PhD* sarahmbrown.org Data Sciences Postdoctoral Research Associate Brown University On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 1:29 PM Waldman, Simon <[email protected]> wrote: > The other point about volunteer instructors, if the number of courses is > scaled up a lot, is whether institutions are prepared to build this into > workload models – i.e. make it part of people’s paid jobs, and accept other > things not being done instead. Doing it in “spare” time is not sustainable > if one has to do lots of it! > > (I think somebody else hinted at this issue earlier, but I don’t want it > to get lost, as IMHO it’s one of the more important matters) > > Maybe this links in to the conversations about centrally employing RSEs, > by having teaching of SWC-like courses be part of their roles? > > *From:* April Wright via discuss <[email protected]> > *Sent:* 03 October 2018 17:49 > *To:* discuss <[email protected]> > *Subject:* Re: [discuss] How can we scale up Carpentries training at > universities? > > Hi Lex, > > Can you say more on this point?: > > ⁃ How to keep the quality of instruction, and instructor > motivation, high, if workshops become organized like regular courses? > > *If the concern is new instructors not being experienced:* What about > offering a "course" section and an "instructor" section? I'm teaching a > Natural History Museum Studies course, in which undergraduates are paired > with a museum graduate student mentor to do hands-on collections research, > and some Data Carpentry stuff with the collected data. I have a separate > section for the graduate students. The graduate section is taught as a > seminar course, in which we cover skills like keeping undergraduates on > task, navigating the student-mentor relationship, implicit bias, and > working with diverse students. At the point where I get them, they already > have taken a "How to TA course", but it's now clear to me that I need to > cover some of that again. The problem here is that I'm faculty at a > primarily undergrad institution, and my expected number of contact hours is > high. Others types of appointments might not be so flexible. > > *If the concern is "Ho hum, I need to teach swc-git again; I'll just wing > it": *The volunteerism about the Carpentries is simultaneously the best > and worst thing about this community. The best because people who do this > labor do it because they love it. The worst because we inherently select > out people who have commitments that preclude travel or giving up chunks of > the day and just make up their "real" work over nights/weekends. Could > instructor boredom be solved by coming up with a rotation? Rotating > instructors between types of courses is really great, since different > people will approach the material differently. Maybe there could be a > semester where the "expert" teaches the material, then a semester where a > competent practitioner and/or someone in a different discipline teaches it. > At the end of the year, they sit down and make improvements to the > material. Basically, a system where the same person isn't going numb > teaching the same thing over and over, and you're building in a regimen of > iterative improvement via diverse instructors. > > Just a couple thoughts. > > --a > > --------- > > Assistant Professor, Southeastern Louisiana University > > Biology Department > > 403 Biology Building > > 2400 N. Oak St > > Hammond, LA. 70402 > > 512.940.5761 > > https://paleantology.com/the-wright-lab/ > <http://wrightaprilm.github.io/pages/about_me.html> > > On Wed, Oct 3, 2018 at 11:18 AM Hoyt, Peter <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Hi Lex, > > Let me agree first that this is a difficult issue. The Carpentries lessons > and the Carpentries organizations are all about open science, open access, > and community. > > I very recently had a student take a Carpentries workshop, and then wanted > to be awarded course credit. My personal feelings about that are irrelevant > because Universities need tuition dollars and so they aren't going to give > away credits for free. Our University also wants to create Carpentries > lessons where college credit hours can be earned (and, by extension, > tuition dollars pulled in). > > My opinion on mitigating the downsides is to only offer lessons fully or > mostly online (flipped or otherwise). This is enabling for learners who > might otherwise not be able to get to campus. It also costs less per credit > hour. AND, our Carpentries group will continue to offer the workshops on > campus for free. > > In this structure, if students just want the knowledge they can get it for > free. If they need the credits they can get them for a reduced cost. If > they desperately want to learn the material but can't come to a campus > workshop this is the best alternative. As a bonus, the answers to almost > all the challenges are online (which seems motivating to students when > taking courses). > > The Carpentries community atmosphere combined with freedom to adjust > lessons based on learner feedback (and using pre-course polling) are the > best tools we have to keep students engaged. It would be the instructor's > responsibility to keep the material updated and fresh. Even if offered in a > traditional classroom, the pedagogy of active instructor participation is > much better than death by powerpoint, and will help prevent unmotivated > instructors (hopefully). > > my $0.02, > Peter Hoyt > Oklahoma State University > > On 10/03/2018 2:55 AM, Lex Nederbragt wrote: > > Hi community, > > At the University of Oslo (UiO), we have an ongoing process that will result > in a Masterplan for IT at the university. I am part of the task force > responsible for writing this plan, and have been tasked to contribute to a > section on skills training. We have a large Carpentries effort at UiO, > regularly teaching one-day workshops with one lesson of the Software > Carpentry stack each (including make and testing/continuous integration), > very popular two-day R (tidyverse), and occasionally Data or Library > Carpentry lessons or full two-day workshops. Many at UiO are now seeing the > need to offer this kind of skills training more widely and organized as > formal course offerings, potentially with students earning credit. > > I am very happy with this development as it is a recognition of the skill gap > that exists amongst researchers, and a testament to the success of The > Carpentries and our local effort in filling it. However, I also worry that we > may lose something in the process of scaling up offering these workshops. > > By making Carpentry workshops a core offering across departments, with > students able to earn credit from them, my fear is that the spirit of the > volunteer effort gets lost or may become reduced. Making our workshops into > required courses may change (reduce) the motivation for learners and > instructors. > > So here are my questions to you: > > ⁃ Have other universities made the same move, or are they planning this, > and if so, how are they organizing this effort? > > ⁃ How to keep learners motivated if they feel they are required to take a > Carpentries workshops? > > ⁃ How to keep the quality of instruction, and instructor motivation, high, > if workshops become organized like regular courses? > > I’d appreciate any suggestions that will help us become succesful scaling up > our Carpentries skills training! > > Regards, > > Lex Nederbragt > > ------------------------------ > > *Heriot-Watt University is The Times & The Sunday Times International > University of the Year 2018* > > Founded in 1821, Heriot-Watt is a leader in ideas and solutions. 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