Welcome to the Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry community. We are excited to welcome you as a member organization. Our instructor training process is a large part of how we spread the teaching culture of the Carpentries to new organizations. We’re looking forward to meeting your team and bringing them up to speed on how we teach so we can have the best impact on our learners.
Your annual membership gives you a number of slots in our instructor training program. This is a training for people who want to become instructors with the Carpentries (Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry). The workshop is a mix of lectures and hands-on lessons and is very interactive where trainees practice giving short lessons using approaches learned and implement some of the teaching techniques which we will discuss. This is training about pedagogical approach to teaching, not technical training specific to particular lessons. Trainees do not need any particular technical background, and we will not be teaching our workshop curriculum to trainees. This workshop is based on our constantly revised and updated open sourced curriculum for instructor training.
Our trainings are all offered as two day, online events. You can view our training calendar and sign up for a training that meets your team’s needs. A few points as you select dates:
We recommend that you sign up for an event during the first six months of your membership year. This ensures your trainees have time to complete the training program and start teaching workshops during your membership year.
You must sign up for this training at least four weeks in advance. Events may be cancelled if no member organizations sign up by four weeks in advance.
All events run from 9am to 5pm in the time zone listed. You do not need to be in the same time zone. However, you do need to accommodate that time zone. For example, a group from US/Central time may join a training scheduled from 9am to 5pm US/Eastern, but would need to be available from 8am to 4pm their time.
The number of seats your organization receives depends on your membership level (Silver/Gold/Platinum). At least six participants must attend at once. Any unused seats will be forfeited. This is to ensure we can accommodate everyone across all our member organization sites. Our trainings include group exercises that your team must work on together. We also want our training cohorts to recognize they are part of a team which represents the Carpentries at their institution.
Again, because we have group exercises, the entire team must be in the same room. Individuals can not participate remotely.
If an individual misses more than one hour of the training over both days, he/she will not pass the training requirement and his/her spot will be forfeited. We are training people to deliver Carpentries training and be ambassadors of the Carpentries program, and need to ensure they get our full experience.
Names and emails of participants must be shared with Carpentries staff at least three weeks before the event. Participants will be asked to complete our application form to register in our system. Participants will receive a link to more information including some pre-reading materials in advance of the event.
Exceptions to any of the above may be granted at the discretion of Carpentries staff on a case by case basis. For questions please contact maneesha@carpentries.org.
Once you’ve confirmed dates and participants, here is some information about preparing for the event itself:
Trainings are offered remotely. Your room should be set up for videoconferencing with a large screen & projector, speakers, camera, and microphone.
The training room should have wifi capable of videoconferencing and for each participant’s laptop to connect.
Participants should bring their own laptop - not a Chromebook, tablet, etc. No special software other than a modern internet browser is required.
Schedule will include a lunch break as well as mini breaks during the day. We strongly encourage each site to provide coffee/tea/refreshments and lunch to help build team cohesiveness and to maintain the schedule.
Carpentries will provide a link to host the videoconference via Zoom in advance of the event in order to test your setup.
Lastly, some information about what happens after the event:
Participants will have three months (90 days) to complete post-training homework exercises required to receive their instructor certificate.
Participants who fail to complete these exercises will not be eligible for instructor certification. Extensions may be granted at the discretion of Carpentries staff.
After successfully completing the post-training exercises, participants will receive a PDF certificate attesting they are certified Carpentries instructors.
Participants will receive ongoing support and mentorship from Carpentries staff and experienced instructors to help them start teaching at their own institution or other locations.
We’re excited to have you and your staff taking this important step to build a strong community of instructors at your organization. We look forward to welcoming your instructors into our community!