Dear Jason et al. In my opinion, the most significant strength of Software Carpentry workshops is that they are in-person, presented by trained and caring instructors and assisted by an army of passionate helpers that deliver an almost personalized instruction experience. In the past I have therefore steadfastly deflected requests to broadcast the workshops that I organized here at the University of Arizona, referring potential remote participants to the excellent training materials that are available online in the subject matters of command line, version control and programming.
That said, could we start thinking about ways to emulate the strength I lined out above in virtual workshops? Maybe recordings of the basic content presented by "master instructors" (who ever these might be), that are then delivered by passionate mentors in a personalized manner in small (up to 5 participants), interactive groups using Zoom or other software? Again, given the existence of superior tutorials to learn computational skills, I do not believe that we should just jump on the band wagon and do the same thing all over again. Then, compiling and disseminating an annotaded Google doc with URLs for tutorials, would seem more time efficient. Thank you. Uwe ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Uwe Hilgert, Ph.D. Associate Research Professor Director of Industry Relations, STEM Training & Workforce Development BIO5 Institute, The University of Arizona (O) 520-626-1367 | (F) 520-626-4824 (E) [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> | (W) http://www.bio5.org<http://www.bio5.org/> ________________________________ From: Jason Bell <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2020 9:11 PM To: [email protected] <[email protected]> Subject: [External][discuss] Is COVID-19 virus demanding alternative software carpentry workshop delivery options? ** External Email - Use Caution with Attachments, Links or Sharing Data ** G’day Software Carpentry colleagues With the COVID-19 virus causing great concern, I am aware of a number of precautionary measures being applied globally to help reduce the spread of this virus. Some of these measures include: events cancellation, travel bands, increase in workforce working from home or being placed in self-isolation, it is my personal opinion that this will have a flow on affect to software carpentry workshops. I am not aware of any software carpentry workshops that have been cancelled because of this virus yet, but I believe that it is a matter of when, not if, that some workshops will be cancelled. With a desire to increase social distance of the general population, the interest in the use of virtual environments for training, presentations and general meetings it rising rapidly. Because I believe strongly in what software carpentry is trying to achieve and I have personally seen my local participants benefitting from software carpentry workshops, I want to highlight my experiences from running virtual software carpentry workshops in Australia! I believe that virtual workshops may provide a viable alternative to the carpentries standard “face-to-face” workshops. Two weeks ago, on behalf of ARDC, CQUniversity and QCIF, I provided a presentation on “Virtual Software Carpentry Workshops - key learnings to make it a success” (which can now be viewed on YouTube https://youtu.be/MzsJyOkxqv8--) that I am hoping might be of interest to some of you within the Software Carpentry community. Please don’t take this email the wrong way and I am not looking to create additional fears or concerns – I am just hoping that some of my experiences from running virtual software carpentry workshops might be of value to some of you, particularly those who may be considering alternative workshop delivery options. If you have any questions, you are welcomed to email me, or send me a message on the carpentry slack channel. Many thanks for your time, Jason. [cid:[email protected]]<https://www.cqu.edu.au/> Jason Bell Senior Research Technologies Officer | Information and Technology Directorate CQUniversity eResearch Analyst | Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation (QCIF) CQUniversity Australia, Building 19 Room 1.07, Bruce Highway, Rockhampton QLD 4702 P +61 7 4930 9229 | X 59229 | M 0409 630 897 | E [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]> [cid:[email protected]]<https://www.cqu.edu.au/social-media> This communication may contain privileged or confidential information. If you have received this in error, please return to sender and delete. CRICOS: 00219C | RTO Code 40939 The Carpentries<https://carpentries.topicbox.com/latest> / discuss / see discussions<https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss> + participants<https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/members> + delivery options<https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription> Permalink<https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T19273d8aadd8d57f-M88d4e46ba6b1de6d4431f41d> ------------------------------------------ The Carpentries: discuss Permalink: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T19273d8aadd8d57f-M502989f5fed415e86e67fff5 Delivery options: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription
