Jory Schossau on The Carpentries

Assessment Results: First Batch

Thu, 08 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As many of our instructors and participants know Software Carpentry has been giving surveys for a number of months at every possible workshop. This takes a surprising amount of coordination and attention, much of which we owe to our wonderful two administrators: Amy Brown and Arliss Collins. The surveys are being administered before and after each workshop in an effort to gather difference data which could answer questions such as "How useful was this workshop to participants?", "Who benefits most from these workshops?", or "What ways could we improve the workshop?" We can also use this information to ask about the professional demographics such as "What fields are most represented by our participants?" and "What's the typical amount of programming experience?" both of which could help inform a tailored workshop experience to better suit the audience.

Moving Forward with Assessment: Interviews

Sun, 17 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We would like to quantify realistic impact after the dust settles from a bootcamp. In particular, we'd like to know how (or whether) Software Carpentry has improved scientists' workflow three months or more after the bootcamp, on the theory that if people are still using things then, they must have found them useful. Our most recent steps toward this goal include obtaining Internal Review Board for Human Subjects Research (IRB) approval through Michigan State University and beginning to recruit volunteers for interviewing at the three month mark.

Creating Assessments and What to do With the Data

Tue, 20 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Our new assessment questionnaires are up for your review, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about the work behind the scenes, and some lessons learned. Over the past couple months I've had the opportunity to interview bootcamp participants who attended the Michigan State University Software Carpentry Bootcamp a little over one year ago, May of 2012. The goal for interviews were two-fold: develop assessment questionnaires, and gather data.