Hi Dan,
On 2014-09-29 9:36 AM, Daniel Chen wrote:
I was wondering if anyone has had any success teaching the swc material
as a semester long lab course? Assuming 1 lab a week for 1.5 hours a lab,
if we mimic the swc workshop pace we have at least 6 weeks of material:
Bash: 2 weeks
Git: 2 weeks
Python/R: 2 weeks
Now, this could be 2 half-semester courses or it can be expanded to
include LaTeX, SQL, data carpentry material, for a semester long course.
Has anyone else thought of this or tried to pitch this to a department
chair?
I've touched base on the idea of such a course with numerous faculty
members (from CUMC and the EE department at CU), and the response is all
positive. I'm mostly asking to see what logistical/administrative hurdles
I will encounter.
EPCC runs an MSc in High Performance Computing which included a
semester-long Tools and Techniques course, which was rebranded 3 years
ago into Programming Skills. This consists of 1 hour lecture + 2 hour
lab self-guided slots [1]. Since becoming aware of SWC, I've tried to
underpin the content with the same motivations (do more in less time
with less pain, reproducible research etc) as SWC. The main challenges
to moving towards a more SWC-like approach are:
* Getting a room suitable for live coding in term time. The lab used
is such that I can't use a laptop and see the students at the same time.
* Getting a suitable number of helpers.
* Encouraging the other lecturers to try live coding (it is a "big
ask" so I don't insist they do it).
The course is mandatory and a common complaint from students is "we
know all this", but their coursework submissions often show otherwise.
cheers,
mike
[1] http://www.drps.ed.ac.uk/14-15/dpt/cxpgph11079.htm
------------------------------------------------------------
Dr. Michael (Mike) Jackson [email protected]
Software Architect Tel: +44 (0)131 650 5141
EPCC, The University of Edinburgh http://www.epcc.ed.ac.uk
Software Sustainability Institute http://www.software.ac.uk
--
The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in
Scotland, with registration number SC005336.
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