Instructor Development on The Carpentries

Applications Now Open for Carpentries Instructor Trainer Training Starting July 2026

Thu, 30 Apr 2026 00:00:00 +0000

Do you look back fondly on your Carpentries Instructor Training and think, “I would love to teach that!”?

Do you want to help people learn to be more effective teachers, while continuing to develop your own teaching skill through regular engagement with our Instructor Training curriculum?

Maybe you are looking for another way to get involved and give back to The Carpentries community.

If any of these describe you, consider joining our vibrant community of Instructor Trainers. We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for anyone wishing to become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer!

Applications Now Open for Carpentries Instructor Trainer Training Starting August 2024

Wed, 29 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

This blogpost has been updated to extend the application deadline

Do you look back fondly on your Instructor Training and think, “I would love to teach that!”? Do you want to help people learn to be more effective teachers, while continuing to develop your own teaching skill through regular engagement with our Instructor Training curriculum? Maybe you are looking for another way to get involved and give back to The Carpentries community. If any of these describe you, consider joining our vibrant community of Instructor Trainers!

Carpentries Trainer Training Applications are Open - Apply by 27 February!

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 00:00:00 +0000

The role of Instructor Trainer (aka “Trainer” and different from “Instructor” in Carpentries lingo) has a very special place in The Carpentries. The Trainer community is much smaller than the Instructor community – since we began we have certified only 147 Instructor Trainers, compared with 4,161 certified Instructors! We train Instructor Trainers 1-2 times per year, based on our ability to meet global demand for Instructor Training and the interest of member organisations in supporting Trainers to enhance their local efforts. If this role interests you, be sure to apply now!

Tell Us What You Think of the Instructor Training Checkout Process

Wed, 28 Sep 2022 00:00:00 +0000

{% include alert text=‘Note: Our checkout requirements have changed since this blog post was published. Read about how we made these changes and about the new checkout requirements, effective August 14, 2023.’ %}

We are improving the Instructor Training Checkout process to remove accessibility barriers and make the process more worthwhile for trainees and the Carpentries community. But, we need your help to make sure we get this right!

The Core Team, in partnership with Trainers Leadership, is working on the first systematic review and improvements to the Checkout process since 2018.

The Instructor Development Committee is Moving and Needs YOUR Help

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 00:00:00 +0000

Since 2019, the Instructor Development Committee (IDC) has supported Instructors as they transitioned from Instructor training to becoming actively engaged in community activities such as teaching and curriculum development. They have supported community discussions and mentoring programs to offer opportunities for Instructors to learn from each other and have identified projects that will support Instructors in their work. Between 2018 and 2021, the committee was led by a number of our community members (2020-2021 cohort, 2019-2020 cohort) and supported by a liaison from The Carpentries’ Community Development Team.

Applications Now Open for Carpentries Trainer Training Starting January 2022

Thu, 18 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Attend an Onboarding Session to Become a Carpentries Discussion Host

Thu, 20 May 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Community Discussion sessions have metamorphosed over the years within The Carpentries community. In addition to the traditional format which prioritises discussion to prepare newly-trained instructors for the three-step checkout process after Instructor Training, The Carpentries holds topical community calls, known as Themed Discussions, aimed at skill-sharing, ideas exchange and sharing of updates around specific subjects and about ongoing community activities in The Carpentries.

Invitation to Become a Discussion Host in The Carpentries

Community discussions are specifically designed for pre- and post-workshop discussion, and serve as a recurring space for instructors and helpers to ask questions and exchange ideas around the teaching Carpentries workshops, and to debrief after teaching. They also serve as places for networking and for peer mentorship between experienced and new instructors.

Carpentries Trainer Training May-July 2021

Thu, 08 Apr 2021 00:00:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for anyone wishing to become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer in 2021!

Carpentries Jargon 101: What is an Instructor Trainer?

A flow chart of our Instructor Training program, from Instructor Trainers to Instructors to Learners.

Thank You SO MUCH Carpentries Community!

Tue, 15 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

The image above is a composite of our Core Team’s photos - from left to right,
first row : Zhian, Talisha, Sher!, Angelique, Kelly, Karen, Toby
second row: Serah, Omar, Maneesha, Kari, Erin, François

TL;DR

What a year! As we come to the close of 2020, in all our reflection and retrospectives and reporting and winding-down and planning for 2021 - the most accurate sentiment to sum up how we feel about our community in THANK YOU. There is so much we can collectively say as a team, in fact, we started to co-author our thank you notes to all of you, and seven pages into our collaborative document, we still have more to say, and the wise words of many of you at the back of our minds - short and succinct, that is how all Carpentries posts should be!

Back to the future: Online Carpentries Workshops now and in 2021

Mon, 14 Dec 2020 00:00:00 +0000

On 13 July The Carpentries released a second version of the Official Guidelines for Taking Your Carpentries Workshop Online. The Carpentries Core Team has since then undertaken various initiatives to support remote versions of all Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Software Carpentry workshops.

The quarter in review

The Infrastructure and Curriculum Development teams collaborated in creating an online infrastructure to serve as scaffolds or safety nets for learners who were unable to install software onto their computers using cloud services from MyBinder and RStudio. The workshop website template was also adapted to facilitate workshops scheduled to take place over more than two days which includes a custom schedule file.

Apply to Join The Carpentries 2021 Mentoring Program!

Wed, 25 Nov 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Do you have a Carpentries goal that you are not sure how to accomplish? Or do you want to help your fellow instructors gain the skills and confidence they need to achieve their goals? If so, we encourage you to join a Carpentries Mentoring group!

We are seeking mentors and mentees to participate in The Carpentries Mentoring Program in 2021!

Mentors are certified instructors who facilitate a community of fellow instructors with similar interests.

Meet our 2020-2021 Cohort of Instructor Development Committee Leaders

Mon, 14 Sep 2020 00:00:00 +0000

Instructor Development Committee (IDC) leaders in The Carpentries lead efforts to organise Community Discussions, set up mentoring cycles, and advocate for activities and initiatives that promote professional development, equity and inclusivity for Carpentries instructors. During their year-long term, IDC leaders also work on special projects aimed at improving instructor resources in The Carpentries, and facilitate conversations with other Carpentries instructors to brainstorm and discuss matters arising.

The Instructor Development Committee (formerly known as the Mentoring Subcommittee) was established in 2015 to develop and maintain a mentorship program to support instructors as they progress through training, teaching, curriculum development, and other community-related activities. The committee helps promote community-building and networking by providing virtual spaces where instructors from all over the world can share teaching success stories and discuss strategies for overcoming challenges. You can find more information about the IDC and its activities in the Instructor Development section of our handbook.

2020 - 2021 IDC Leadership Call for Applications

Fri, 07 Aug 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We invite you to complete this short form. Deadline for applications is at the end of day, Monday, 24 August 2020, anywhere on Earth.

May 2020 officially marked the close of a year-long term for our 2019 Instructor Development Committee Leaders. We want to take this opportunity to thank Sarah Stevens, Arindam Basu, Tobin Magle, Marco Chiapello, Dr. Megbowon Kemi, and Martin Dreyer for their engagement, and for lending their time and expertise to different activities that served to improve instructors’ experiences in our community.

Carpentries Trainer Training Fall 2020

Thu, 23 Jul 2020 00:00:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that our second and final round of applications is now open for anyone wishing to become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer in 2020!

A diagram of our Instructor Training program. Instructor Trainers are trained through Instructor Trainer Training and themselves teach Instructor Training to new Instructors. New Instructors teach Carpentries Workshops to learners.

Organising Online Carpentries Workshops

Tue, 28 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

As The Carpentries Core Team continues to transition to offering online workshops, the Workshop Administration Team would like to share additional information pertaining to Instructors to help you prepare for your workshops. Information shared in this blog post is a supplement to the Recommendations for Teaching Carpentries Workshops Online. Most importantly, we want to update Instructors on a few logistical workflows we have changed to support online workshops.

Registering your Self-Organised online workshop

Please be sure to register your Self-Organised workshop, as you begin planning your Carpentries online event. It is important that you use a unique workshop ID so that we can add your workshop to our database and provide the proper communications to you.

Having a Great Online Learning Experience: A Guide for Students

Fri, 24 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This blog post was originally posted on the Sydney Informatics Hub/Darya Vanichkina’s blog.

With the advent of COVID-19 we’re all having to do the unthinkable, which for an instructor like me means moving hands-on, practical coding workshops online. In this post, I’ll outline a few key things you can do as a learner to have what is hopefully the best possible experience attending synchronous online training.

Mapping & Planning a Live Coding Workshop for Digital Delivery

Thu, 23 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

This series of two blog posts was originally posted on the Sydney Informatics Hub blog here & here, and at Darya Vanichkina’s blog here & here. These posts were written in preparation for an ARDC Community call, where I shared my experience adapting our team’s training for online delivery at short notice. This is what I wanted to get out on the page and not talk about, because in my talk I instead focus on the “bigger picture” aspects of the training (pedagogy, design, on-stage activity and feedback), and on the personal experiences of my team and I. The video/slides of that talk are also available online.

Official Guidelines (V1) for Taking Your Carpentries Workshop Online

Tue, 07 Apr 2020 00:00:00 +0000

On March 17, The Carpentries convened a Task Force to address the urgent demand for remote Carpentries workshops as communities have shifted to distance work across the globe. The Task Force concluded on April 1, with an initial set of guidelines for teaching, supporting, and communicating about fully remote versions of all Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry, and Software Carpentry workshops.

Task force members:

Angelique Trusler (Task Force Lead)
SherAaron Hurt (Workshop Administration Team Lead)
Serah Njambi Kiburu (Community Development Team Lead)
Karen Word (Instructor Training Team Lead)
Juan Steyn (Executive Council Liaison)
Elizabeth Wickes (Secondary Executive Council Liaison)

The guidelines for teaching these pilot-phase workshops now have a home on [The Carpentries website]({{ site.url }}{{ site.baseurl }}/online-workshop-recommendations/). We expect to update these guidelines regularly, and will announce major changes to the community. We also plan to host themed Discussion sessions and, ultimately, to offer short training opportunities for current Instructors who wish to advance their teaching skills online. We do not yet know whether online instruction will become a permanent addition to The Carpentries’ supported workshop offerings – this will be evaluated in view of the feedback we receive once in-person workshops become possible again.

We Appreciate Instructors and Helpers!

Wed, 18 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We would like to express our deepest appreciation to instructors and helpers in The Carpentries community. Instructors and helpers all over the world include researchers, librarians, scientists, students, and many others from a wide range of backgrounds, disciplines, career stages and counties. Instructors and helpers not only teach workshops but also inspire others to share their knowledge, skills, and even to become a part of The Carpentries community or to become an instructor or helper themselves.

Expressing Gratitude to Our Instructor Development Committee

Tue, 10 Dec 2019 00:00:00 +0000

When we onboarded the leaders of our Instructor Development Committee back in April 2019, we were confident their term would be successful. This group brings a wealth of knowledge and experience from all over the world!

From that time, this committee has put in a lot of thought and effort into resources and initiatives that are designed to empower instructors. For example:

The Instructor Development Committee Mentoring Chair (Marco Chiapello) successfully facilitated our Mentoring Groups. Did you miss the showcase? Check it out on YouTube! Marco and the other mentors, Angela Li and Mike Trizna, are also currently discussing the mentoring program guidelines and ways to improve the mentoring experience. Go Marco!
The Instructor Development Committee Discussion Chair, Martin Dreyer, organised countless pre- and post-workshop discussions, themed discussions, and #CarpentriesConversations and wrote a . Check them out. You can get involved with our discussions by becoming a Discussion Host.
Our Instructor Development Committee Secretary (Megbowon Kemi) and Communications Chair (Tobin Magle) kept us informed by publishing minutes from committee meetings and posting to our blog, TopicBox, Slack and Twitter.
Last, but definitely not least, our Instructor Development Committee Co-Chairs (Arindam Basu and Sarah Stevens) organised and facilitated committee meetings, set goals for the year, developed project plans, and helped push the committee forward with ideas to develop our growing instructor community!

But wait, there’s more! The committee successfully completed an assessment project! They analysed the results of our community discussion surveys and shared the results on our blog.

We are Hiring Four New Team Members. Join Our Team.

Tue, 26 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Carpentries is hiring!

The Carpentries is searching for four new full-time team members to join our global, mission-driven organisation. These new roles will work with and serve our volunteer community - comprised of 50,000 learners, 2,000 instructors, 80 Trainers, and 85 member organisations from research institutions around the world. See below for descriptions and links to apply.

Deputy Director of Instructor Training

We are hiring a Deputy Director of Instructor Training to support our global Instructor Training community, train and onboard new Instructor Trainers (who teach our Instructors), and develop an assessment strategy to examine the impact of our Instructor Training and Trainer Training programs.

Trainer Training 2020

Wed, 13 Nov 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We are pleased to announce that applications are now open for anyone wishing to become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer!

Export to Etherpad: a New Extra in the Instructor-Training Repository

Wed, 09 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Building Tools for Instructor Training Workshops

Wherein we talk about building tools to help instruct instructors learning how to instruct. Got that? No? Me neither. As a fairly newly minted instructor-trainer, one of my internal gripes about preparation was the need to create the Etherpad training template which serves as a shared note-taking space and workbook for the class.

Preparing this etherpad involves either editing an old text file which isn’t maintained as part of the normal lesson maintenance process (as that sort of maintenance would be tedious in the extreme) or laboriously copying and typesetting exercises from their beautiful (but non-translatable) html form into the limited number of styles allowed on the Etherpad. As I was getting ready to teach in July, the amazing Instructor Training Maintainers team were in the middle of the June release – and every time I had prepared the document, another exercise would be improved. This wonderful process of improvement, in the moment, was more than a little frustrating.

RStudio's Instructor Training Program

Mon, 07 Oct 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Carpentries wants to thank RStudio for their donation to The Carpentries towards our shared goal of bringing more people into the R and programming communities.

In January 2019, RStudio’s Education team launched an instructor certification program based in part on the Carpentries’ instructor training. The program’s goal is to ensure that people who are offering commercial training for the tidyverse and Shiny have both the pedagogical and technical know-how needed to do it well. At the time of writing, over 40 people (including several Carpentries instructors) have completed certification and that number again are in the pipeline.

Livening Up Live Coding

Mon, 30 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

An example of hardware carpentry, lol (Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0)

Carving New Coders

The Carpentries is a global non-profit initiative to help build foundational skills in coding and data science. For example, Software Carpentry contains lessons about the shell, git, R and Python, while Data Carpentry and Library Carpentry teach more domain-specific knowledge.

I took part in a two-day remote workshop to learn how to become a badged Carpentries instructor. There was a strong focus on understanding how people learn and how best to teach them to maintain motivation.

Q3 and Q4 Project Work at The Carpentries

Wed, 25 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In May, we shared our vision and goals for our core team’s work in Q2. In this post, we lay out our accomplishments on that work, and also on our Q3 projects. There’s a lot that we’ve been working on! If you’re interested in a particular team’s work, you can navigate directly to their projects using the links below.

Business Team
Community Development Team
Curriculum Team
Instructor Training Team
Infrastructure Team
Membership Team
Workshop Administration Team

The projects we select for our quarterly cycles are designed to give us time to focus on our operational priorities (operational efficiency, accessibility, revenue generation, and compliance), while continuing to perform all of our ongoing work. Ongoing work includes supporting workshops, instructor training events, lesson development and maintenance, communications, and much more! Over the course of the quarter, we share our accomplishments and challenges with each other, stay in touch on how our individual work affects the whole team, and learn from each other.

Continued support from IMLS for Library Carpentry

Mon, 16 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

In November 2017, the California Digital Library (CDL) announced a two-year Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) grant funded project to further advance the scope, adoption, and impact of Library Carpentry across the US. The grant enables CDL and the University of California Curation Center (UC3) to host Chris Erdmann, the Library Carpentry Community and Development Director, and his work with community members, Carpentries staff, and governance groups to integrate Library Carpentry as a lesson program, further develop the curriculum and lessons, grow the community of Carpentries instructors with library and information backgrounds, and continue outreach to raise awareness about Library Carpentry and The Carpentries in the broader library community.

Mentoring Groups Virtual Showcase: Oct 15 at 19:00 UTC

Tue, 10 Sep 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Have you ever been curious about what happens in a Carpentries Mentoring Group?

The Instructor Development Committee will be hosting its first Mentoring Virtual Showcase for the 2019-2020! The showcase will take place on October 15, 2019 at 19:00 UTC. During the showcase, current mentors and mentees will share progress on their projects, how they’ve grown, and how you can get involved. Come and see presentations from the mentoring groups who met over the summer to get an idea of what possibilities there are, whether you’re a future mentor, mentee, or enthusiast!

IDC meetings 8/19/2019: Findings from community discussion surveys

Thu, 15 Aug 2019 00:00:00 +0000

IDC Project: Findings from the Community discussion surveys

The Instructor Development Committee has been working hard on their first project for the year: looking at the data from the community discussion host and participants surveys. We will be discussing our findings at the IDC meetings on 08-19-2019. In advance of the meeting, we’d like to give you the highlights of our findings:

Main Findings:

Hosts and co-hosts/notetakers

In 2019, 21 Carpentries community members have hosted discussion sessions.
A little over half of these (12) are volunteer. The others are Carpentries staff.
On average, we have 12 discussions per month, and 7 unique hosts per month. That means each host has to take 1-2 sessions per month.
Only about half of the discussion sessions have notetakers
Over three quarters of attendees are attending the sessions for pre-post debriefs or instructor checkout

Attendees

The vast majority of sessions have more than 10 attendees
The number of community members attending for instructor checkout is greater than all other purposes by a factor 50.
Most attend Pre- and Post-Workshop Discussions, but the satisfaction is greatest for the Themed Discussions.
The discussion host ratings are consistently high
Most attendees would recommend these sessions to others

Conclusions

Overall, the data indicates that our discussion sessions are well attended, which is a good thing! However, only half of the sessions have notetakers, which can make hosting a session with 10+ people difficult. The satisfaction and host ratings are also positive. But, many sessions only have attendees who are doing checkout. While it leaves more time for questions about the checkout process, the attendees do not benefit from hearing from an experienced instructor about a real workshop. Thus, we have questions for the community:

2019 Instructor Development Committee (IDC) Meeting Schedule

Mon, 10 Jun 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Instructor Development Committee (IDC) would like to announce the schedule for this year’s meetings. They will be held on the third Monday of the month at 16:00 UTC and 22:00 UTC.

The June IDC meetings are on Monday June 17th at the above times. We will discuss our work on the Mentoring Program, as well as pitch and solicit ideas for what the committee should be doing in the future.

Q2 Project Work at The Carpentries

Mon, 27 May 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Some of The Carpentries team at an Improv session in January 2019

Zip Zap Zop is a team building activity that The Carpentries team loved and stressed over in equal measure at an Improv session we all attended in January 2019. Standing in a circle, the game started out slow and we all felt comfortable with it, enjoyed it even. But as time went by and our facilitator nudged us to pick up the pace, we all experienced the adrenaline and pressure that comes with increased urgency and demand for our attention and whittled-down focus in any activity, and had the opportunity to empathise with the overwhelmed among us, and marvel at the resilience of a select few.

Introducing the New Carpentries Instructor Development Committee

Tue, 30 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The Instructor Development Committee (originally the Mentoring Subcommittee) was established in 2015 to develop and maintain a mentorship program to support instructors as they progress through training, teaching, curriculum development, and other community-related activities. The committee helps promote community-building and networking by providing virtual spaces where instructors from all over the world can share teaching success stories and discuss strategies for overcoming challenges. Any Carpentries community member is welcome to join the Instructor Development Committee. You can find more information in the Instructor Development section of our handbook.

Highlights from the recent Instructor Training in South Africa

Mon, 08 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

The University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in Durban, South Africa, hosted its first Carpentries instructor training from 18th to 20th of March 2019. This training was conducted by us - Katrin Tirok (Durban), Samar Elsheikh (University of Cape Town), and Saymore Chifamba (Siyavula, Cape Town), the three brand new trainers in South Africa, and Malvika Sharan (EMBL) from Germany.

Katrin organised this training in association with the Research Flagship in Big Data and Informatics at UKZN and the RCCPII Capacity Development Initiative managed by Talarify. Co-funding the training allowed us to invite participants from different institutions to enhance the networking of future instructors and convey the idea of a larger community right at the training. Our participants came from the University of Fort Hare, University of Zululand, Rhodes University, Mangosuthu University of Technology, TENET as well as from UKZN. They represented postgraduate students, lecturers, professors and support staff coming from the computer, environmental, health, information and library, life, and social sciences.

What's Involved in Leading a Carpentries Community Committee?

Tue, 02 Apr 2019 00:00:00 +0000

As you may have read in Kari’s blogpost, The Carpentries is looking for new leaders of the Instructor Development Committee (IDC). As a former Co-Chair of the IDC, I’m writing this post to encourage anyone interested to take advantage of this rewarding opportunity and also to give some advice, perspective, and further information on what the new leader(s) can expect. Kari did a great job of describing in that previous post the work of the IDC and the benefits and responsibilities of leading the Committee, so I will not retread that ground. Instead, I’ll focus on my personal experience.

Leadership Opportunities with The Carpentries: Interest Meeting April 3, 2019

Mon, 18 Mar 2019 00:00:00 +0000

Revisiting the 2016 Mentorship Subcommittee Roadmap reminded us how important volunteerism is, especially as pertains to growing and developing our instructor pool. Our past Instructor Development Committee (formerly Mentorship Subcommittee) Co-Chairs (Jamie Hadwin, Marian Schmidt, Toby Hodges, and Christina Koch) worked hard to set the course for creating a positive, cohesive, diverse, and open worldwide community of instructors and helpers for The Carpentries. We owe our readiness to onboard the next leaders of the Instructor Development Committee (IDC) to the efforts of these four outgoing co-chairs, and thank them for their immense contributions!

Announcing our January 2019 Instructor Trainer Cohort

Mon, 14 Jan 2019 00:00:00 +0000

We recently put out a call for applications from members of the community who want to become Carpentries Instructor Trainers. This round of applications followed closely on the heels of a prior cohort, and was opened to meet member demand in our rapidly-growing communities. If you missed the short window for this application, never fear – we do plan to run another starting around September 2019! Contact Karen Word (krword@carpentries.org) if you would like to be notified when applications open.

New and Improved Instructor Training Workflow!

Tue, 18 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Instructor Training is a primary benefit of our Membership program, serving to build local capacity for offering Carpentries workshops and spreading The Carpentries pedagogical model to other teaching environments at member institutions. In addition to bringing this training to our members, we also offer it free of charge to individuals at institutions not able to finance a membership. Through this dual model, we have trained more than 1,600 Instructors in over 45 countries around the world.

Updates on Instructor Checkout Requirements

Wed, 05 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The goals of our instructor discussion sessions are for new trainees to meet community members and learn more about how a workshop is run, and how to prepare. We are fulfilling the community component with teaching demos, and more instructor training is happening online. Future instructors are meeting other members of the community through their trainings. Additionally, if instructors want to learn more about running a workshop, it may make more sense for them to do it right before they start preparing when they have questions.

Instructor Training Curriculum Updates

Mon, 03 Dec 2018 00:00:00 +0000

The Instructor Training Curriculum is a centrepiece among The Carpentries workshops. It is constantly in use as we bring new Instructors on board, and our engaged Instructor Trainer community brings a steady stream of new ideas for its improvement. This makes for a fun community, interesting discussions… and a lengthy to-do list! In the month of October we organised a “push” on the Instructor Training curriculum, in which we made good progress on backlogged issues, organisation, and usability for new Instructor Trainers. This is not a full “release” – we’re about halfway to where we’d like to be for our next published update – but we are pleased with what we’ve accomplished and hope you will be, too. We are particularly grateful to the community of Instructor Trainers whose feedback and contributions have both inspired this work and helped to complete it!

Apply to Become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer!

Tue, 27 Nov 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Are you an active Instructor looking to take your involvement with The Carpentries to the next level? Or, are you an experienced educator who has found something to love in our Instructor Training curriculum? Are you excited by the thought of going deep with our curriculum through reading and online discussion of the practices that underpin the success of our workshops?

If so, we would like to hear from you! We are about to open a new round of Instructor Trainer Training, an 8-week reading group and on-boarding to become a certified Carpentries Instructor Trainer. (Note that this is different from becoming a certified Instructor. Instructors lead workshops; Trainers lead Instructor Training events. Instructor applications are accepted on a rolling basis and may be found here.) Becoming a Trainer is a fantastic opportunity to grow your own training skills, which are increasingly in demand both in academia and industry.

Announcing our new Instructor Trainers-in-training

Mon, 03 Sep 2018 00:00:00 +0000

We recently put out a call for applications from members of our community who want to become Carpentries Trainers. The call was open to current Instructors and other qualified community members, for example, people with existing teaching or training experience.

Our Trainers are key to the continuing growth and success of The Carpentries. They teach our Instructor Training curriculum, which then brings new Instructors into The Carpentries community.

We are excited to announce that the following people will be joining the next round of training to start on 10 September. It is great to see the many different locations which will help us extend our reach.

Introducing the Instructor Development Committee

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

After some discussion, at recent meetings of the Mentoring Committee and on the associated GitHub repository, members of the Committee have chosen to rename the group. We will now be the Instructor Development Committee.

The discussion came about from an acknowledgement that “Mentoring” implied that the Committee focussed solely on mentoring activities such as the Mentoring Groups Program (more on which below). While it’s true that part of what we do is to support the amazing work that Kari Jordan and others do with mentoring groups, that’s only one aspect of the conversations that we have at our monthly meetings and the activity of the Committee members outside of those meetings.

Three Years in the Making for Instructor Training in Latin America

Mon, 27 Aug 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This month I (Rayna Harris) co-taught a remote The Carpentries Instructor Training Workshop for 25 Spanish-speaking trainees in six countries in Latin America. It was awesome! One thing that made this workshop so special for me is that it has been three-plus years in the making. So, I thought I would tell the story, from my perspective, about all the things that came into play to make this workshop a reality.

Apply to become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer!

Thu, 19 Jul 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Are you an active Instructor looking to take your involvement with The Carpentries to the next level? Or perhaps you are an experienced educator who has found something to love in our Instructor Training curriculum? Or maybe you want to understand more of the theory that underpins the success of our workshops?

If so, we would like to hear from you, as we are about to open a new round of Instructor Trainer training. This is a fantastic opportunity to grow your own training skills, which are increasingly in demand both in academia and industry.

The Carpentries' Programmatic Assessment

Tue, 19 Jun 2018 00:00:00 +0000

Starting this year, we are releasing quarterly programmatic assessment reports (see this blog post). These reports will share information about the growth rates of our workshops and instructor training programs, our geographic impact, and other metrics. We are happy to announce the publication of our first report.

This first report follows activity around Carpentries’ workshops, Instructors, and Trainers from 2012 through the first quarter of 2018 (January - March). From 2012 through March 2018, 58 Trainers badged 1,480 Instructors. Carpentry Instructors taught 1,332 workshops, reaching more than 37,000 learners in 44 countries. The report also highlights our significant geographic expansion, such as the growth of an active community of Instructors and Trainers in eight African countries.

Book Review: Teaching What You Don't Know

Sun, 29 Apr 2018 00:00:00 +0000

A review of Teaching What You Do Not Know by Therese Huston

With such an intriguing premise and promise, how could I fail to pause over Therese Huston’s Teaching What You Don’t Know? I have found myself in this situation several times in the past, either through hubris or bureaucracy, and the hopeful existence of a manual to smooth my way was too much to pass up. Huston presents a practical survey of the reality of teaching a subject in which one is not an expert, as well as a number of strategies for mitigating classroom disarray and providing a solid learning experience for students.

State of the State: Instructor Checkout

Tue, 27 Feb 2018 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

This blog post is the second in a series examining the roles and contributions of the different parts of the Carpentry community. In case you missed it - read the first post in this series, about Maintainers.

Carpentry Instructors are the core of our community. Without Instructors, there would be no workshops. Because of the vital role that Instructors play in advancing the Carpentry mission, we as a community take preparing Instructors very seriously. Before becoming certified Instructors, trainees must show familiarity with our curriculum, demonstrate their teaching skills (with a focus on the Carpentry pedagogical model), and interact with the broader Carpentry community. Software Carpentry Instructors also need to demonstrate familiarity with Git and GitHub.

New Trainers On Board

Fri, 01 Sep 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Software and Data Carpentry now have a brand-new batch of Trainers. The new Trainers completed their training this week and will start to train new Instructors soon. Adding this new cohort takes us up to 40 in Trainer numbers.

For those not familiar with our terminology, Trainers are the people who train other people to be Data and Software Carpentry Instructors. This is done through a two-day instructor training course that may be delivered in person or remotely. Trainers are vital to increasing our Instructor numbers, and thus to building our community worldwide.

Bug BBQ to Update Instructor Training Materials

Thu, 27 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

A new version of the Carpentry Instructor Training curriculum is scheduled to be published on 10 August.

To prepare for this release, we ran an Issue Bonanza on 13-14 July to identify bugs and issues such as typos and broken links. Now that these issues have been organised into a plan of work, we plan to resolve them with a Bug BBQ on 3-4 August. Help make sure the final product is polished and complete by getting involved.

Help Update the Instructor Training Materials

Tue, 11 Jul 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

The Carpentry Instructor Training curriculum helps prepare new instructors to teach Carpentry workshops. It also impacts instructors’ teaching practices when they teach in other contexts, helping to spread the Carpentry pedagogical model and evidence-based teaching practices around the world!

We last published this curriculum in February. Since then, we’ve taught over 150 new instructors at a dozen training events. We’ve also welcomed ten new Instructor Trainers to our community, with fifteen more to join in September. We’ve learned a lot over the past six months and want to incorporate what we’ve learned before our next publication (scheduled for August 10th). Please join the Trainer community in updating these lessons!

Apply to Become a Carpentry Instructor Trainer!

Wed, 31 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

The Carpentry community is growing! This month we welcomed ten new Instructor Trainers to our community. Now we are looking for the next group of new Trainers.

Carpentry Instructor Trainers run instructor training workshops, lead online teaching demonstrations, and engage with the Trainer community about how best to train new instructors. Trainers are also actively involved in developing and maintaining the instructor training curriculum. We meet regularly to discuss our teaching experiences and stay up to date on policies, procedures, and changes to our curriculum.

Instructor Training in Puerto Rico

Mon, 24 Apr 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

On March 24-25, Rayna Harris, Sue McClatchy, and Tracy Teal co-taught an instructor training workshop at the University of Puerto Rico (UPR). This was a very special workshop in many ways, and we are excited to share some of the highlights with you.

Also, be sure to check out an accompanying blog post by Humberto Ortiz Zuazaga about the combined Replicathon and Instructor Training events.

Get Involved With Mentoring

Wed, 08 Mar 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Are you a new Software or Data Carpentry instructor? Do you remember what it was like to be a new instructor? Are you interested in improving your own teaching skills? Do you want to connect with other instructors to share teaching ideas and experience?

The mentoring committee is a group of Software and Data Carpentry community members who organize initiatives to support instructors and we’re looking for new members.

Transfer of Learning

Mon, 13 Feb 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website Have you ever experienced déja vu? It’s when you have the feeling that what you’re currently experiencing has already happened. It can be extremely awkward, right? It’s a sensation that leaves you saying to yourself, “I did this already. This happened.” So, what do you do? Do you carry out the scenario as you remember it happening, or change it up? What about your perceived past experience makes you perform differently in the current experience?

Moving Forward

Tue, 31 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website
As of January 30th, Greg Wilson has stepped down from his role as Director of Instructor Training to start a new position as Shopify’s Computer Sciences Education Lead.

Instructor training will continue under the guidance of Erin Becker, Data Carpentry’s Associate Director and Maneesha Sane, Data and Software Carpentry’s Program Coordinator. Erin has a strong background for this role from her postdoc at University of California, Davis studying the effectiveness of training methods for transforming instructional practices. She has been involved with the Carpentry community as an instructor trainer, a member of the Mentorship Subcommittee, and leader of the effort to form an instructor mentoring program.

Growth Mindset

Mon, 12 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website Each of us is born with a unique set of interests. Along the way we develop beliefs about our interests, and those beliefs determine whether we choose to cultivate our interests as we progress through adulthood.

For example, I think I’m a pretty “okay” singer, but I’ve always wanted to be a dynamic performer and sing in front of large audiences. Therefore, I learned to read music, joined several choruses and ensembles over the years, and frequently sing karaoke. I even auditioned for the American television series The Voice!

Instructor Training for Librarians

Thu, 08 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

We are pleased to announce that we are partnering with csv,conf (a community conference for data makers everywhere) to run an instructor training class specifically geared for people interested in Library Carpentry. The class will take place in Portland, Oregon, on May 4-5, 2017; for details, please see the full announcement.

Open Instructor Training

Wed, 16 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

After workshops and conferences, we frequently get questions from people who are interested in teaching with the Carpentries. We’re overjoyed by this interest and excited to bring more committed and enthusiastic instructors into our community. Unfortunately, until recently, we haven’t had the resources to open up our instructor training program, and have been holding training events primarily with Partnering institutions.

In response to this sustained community interest, Data and Software Carpentry re-opened applications in July for anyone interested in instructor training, regardless of affiliation. This two-day intensive training covers aspects of pedagogy critical for teaching our target audience, including creating useful formative assessments, motivating learners, dealing with cognitive load, and understanding how subject-matter expertise is developed. We also teach signature Carpentry instructional practices, including live coding and the use of sticky notes to track learner progress.

I think I can - Self-Efficacy and the Carpentry Learner

Tue, 20 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

The Little Engine that Could had it absolutely right. Thinking you can is one of the best ways to succeed at a host of activities ranging from public speaking and bungee jumping to cooking a souffle and learning R. What the Little Engine didn’t know, however, is that this concept of “thinking I can” is actually a theory known as self-efficacy, and plays a major role in how we approach our goals.

September Data Carpentry All-Stars!

Thu, 01 Sep 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

As a community-led organisation, Data Carpentry depends on our active and highly-engaged volunteer community to carry out many of our core activities. Volunteer efforts span a wide range of activities, including teaching workshops, developing and maintaining lessons, and training and mentoring new instructors, among many other efforts. Without the commitment of our volunteers, Data Carpentry would never be able to reach such a broad learner base and to make such a huge impact on our learners.

Reopening Instructor Training

Mon, 25 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

For the last ten months, the Software Carpentry Foundation has worked toward three goals for its instructor training program:

Make the content more relevant.
Increase the number of people able to deliver instructor training.
Find a format that meets everyone’s needs in a sustainable way.

They have made a lot of progress on all three, and are therefore now able to offer instructor training once again to people who aren’t affiliated with our partner organisations, but would like to teach Data Carpentry, Software Carpentry, or both (as the course is shared by both organisations). If you wish to apply to take part in one of the two open-enrolment classes they will offer this fall, please fill in the form at:

Instructor and trainee involvement

Thu, 19 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

This analysis is meant to answer questions about the extent of the non-teaching instructor and the non-certified trainee issues.

Analysis and Data Files

The RMarkdown that generated this document: Completion_rates.Rmd
The data: In the Data Carpentry metrics repo the files instructor_data_5_17_16_no_ids.csv and trainee_data_5_18_16_no_ids.csv

Questions

Questions to be answered include:

What percent of fully certified instructors haven’t taught?
- Overall
- Only those > 1 year past training
What percent of one-time instructors have only taught at their home institution?

R Instructor Training

Tue, 17 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website Thanks to generous sponsorship from the R Consortium, Software Carpentry is running a two-day R instructor training class in Cambridge, UK, on September 19-20, 2016. If you are active in the R and/or Software and Data Carpentry communities, and wish to take part in this training, please fill in this application form. We will select applicants, and notify everyone who applied, by June 30, 2016; those who are selected will be responsible for their own travel and accommodation. If you have any questions, please mail training@software-carpentry.org.

Software and Data Carpentry Instructor Training Comes to Africa

Fri, 18 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

by Anelda van der Walt

North-West University eResearch, UCT eResearch, and Talarify are excited to announce that a Software & Data Carpentry Instructor Training event will take place in Potchefstroom, North-West Province, South Africa from 17 - 20 April 2016.

The lead trainer will be Aleksandra Pawlik, a Data Carpentry Steering Committee member. She will be joined by several of the more experienced South African instructors who provide additional support working with the trainee instructors.

Data Carpentry Instructor Certification
for Software Carpentry Instructors

Thu, 12 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Data Carpentry website

Data Carpentry has been growing over the last year, and now with the addition of Maneesha Sane as Program Coordinator, we have the chance to run even more workshops in more domains. To date, we have used some great instructors from the Software Carpentry community as teachers; what we would like to do now is put that on a more regular footing.

So How Is Instructor Training Going?

Thu, 19 Dec 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We recently wrapped up the latest round of instructor training, which makes this a good time to look at how well the program is doing. Here are stats on the first six rounds:

Registration Now Open for Instructor Training Course

Mon, 25 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As announced last week, we are offering a live version of our instructor training course on April 28-30, 2014, at the Mozilla office in Toronto. Registration is now open, and costs only $80 (though participants must cover their own travel and accommodation). Over the course of three days, 36 participants will be introduced to ideas from educational psychology and instructional design, and shown how to use them to teach programming to scientists (and everyone else). It will be the ninth offering of the course, but the first done live, and we hope to see many of you there.

Instructor Training in Three Days

Sat, 16 Nov 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Update: see this post for information on registration.

We are pleased to announce that we will be running a live version of our online instructor training course on April 28-30, 2014, at the Mozilla office in Toronto. Over those three days, 30 participants will be introduced to ideas from educational psychology and instructional design, and shown how to use them to teach programming to scientists (and others). The course will be free, though we will require a deposit to discourage no-shows and attendees will need to cover their own travel and accommodation costs. Registration will start in January—please keep an eye on this blog for news.

What We Cover in Instructor Training

Tue, 13 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The sixth round of our online training class for Software Carpentry instructors is kicking off this week with 28 participants. Our main text is How Learning Works, an up-to-date summary of research results in educational psychology and instructional design, along with the chapter Mark Guzdial wrote for Making Software explaining why teaching programming is hard. Over the next 14 weeks, participants will work through both, and do the following:

How to Become an Instructor

Wed, 23 Jan 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As we've mentioned elsewhere, our instructors are volunteers who donate their time because it's fun, because it makes the world a better place, because they learn things themselves from teaching, and because it's good for their careers. But how did they become instructors? And how can you become one too?

Starting with the first question, 21 of our 31 instructors are people who figured out how to do hygienic computational science before we met them (or in some cases, taught us some of what we now teach). The other 10 started as learners: they attended a bootcamp, then volunteered to help with another, and graduated from that to teaching. That's how we see the pool of instructors growing in future, so one of my main jobs this year is to regularize that.

Software Carpentry's new home

Sun, 25 Jun 2006 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thanks to the folks at Enthought, the Software Carpentry course notes have a new home at http://www.swc.scipy.org. I'll move the wiki, bug tracker, and mailing lists there over the next couple of days as well. I hope the community will find the material useful — it's certainly been a lot of fun putting it together.

Procrastination: One of the Few Things in Life Nicer Than Toast

Fri, 23 Dec 2005 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I finished rewriting the build system for the Software Carpentry course notes yesterday. Doing so was an extended form of procrastination: the system I built over the summer and used through the fall was adequate, but I wanted to clean a few things up, and then, well, I might as well make it easier for other instructors to add site-specific content, and make tables inclusions instead of inlining them, and mumble mumble mumble type type type...

Instructor Development on The Carpentries

Applications Now Open for Carpentries Instructor Trainer Training Starting July 2026

Applications Now Open for Carpentries Instructor Trainer Training Starting August 2024

Carpentries Trainer Training Applications are Open - Apply by 27 February!

Tell Us What You Think of the Instructor Training Checkout Process

The Instructor Development Committee is Moving and Needs YOUR Help

Applications Now Open for Carpentries Trainer Training Starting January 2022

Attend an Onboarding Session to Become a Carpentries Discussion Host

Invitation to Become a Discussion Host in The Carpentries

Carpentries Trainer Training May-July 2021

Carpentries Jargon 101: What is an Instructor Trainer?

Thank You SO MUCH Carpentries Community!

TL;DR

Back to the future: Online Carpentries Workshops now and in 2021

The quarter in review

Apply to Join The Carpentries 2021 Mentoring Program!

Meet our 2020-2021 Cohort of Instructor Development Committee Leaders

2020 - 2021 IDC Leadership Call for Applications

Carpentries Trainer Training Fall 2020

Organising Online Carpentries Workshops

Registering your Self-Organised online workshop

Having a Great Online Learning Experience: A Guide for Students

Mapping & Planning a Live Coding Workshop for Digital Delivery

Official Guidelines (V1) for Taking Your Carpentries Workshop Online

We Appreciate Instructors and Helpers!

Expressing Gratitude to Our Instructor Development Committee

We are Hiring Four New Team Members. Join Our Team.

Deputy Director of Instructor Training

Trainer Training 2020

Export to Etherpad: a New Extra in the Instructor-Training Repository

Building Tools for Instructor Training Workshops

RStudio's Instructor Training Program

Livening Up Live Coding

Carving New Coders

Q3 and Q4 Project Work at The Carpentries

Continued support from IMLS for Library Carpentry

Mentoring Groups Virtual Showcase: Oct 15 at 19:00 UTC

Have you ever been curious about what happens in a Carpentries Mentoring Group?

IDC meetings 8/19/2019: Findings from community discussion surveys

IDC Project: Findings from the Community discussion surveys

Main Findings:

Hosts and co-hosts/notetakers

Attendees

Conclusions

2019 Instructor Development Committee (IDC) Meeting Schedule

Q2 Project Work at The Carpentries

Introducing the New Carpentries Instructor Development Committee

Highlights from the recent Instructor Training in South Africa

What's Involved in Leading a Carpentries Community Committee?

Leadership Opportunities with The Carpentries: Interest Meeting April 3, 2019

Announcing our January 2019 Instructor Trainer Cohort

New and Improved Instructor Training Workflow!

Updates on Instructor Checkout Requirements

Instructor Training Curriculum Updates

Apply to Become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer!

Announcing our new Instructor Trainers-in-training

Introducing the Instructor Development Committee

Three Years in the Making for Instructor Training in Latin America

Apply to become a Carpentries Instructor Trainer!

The Carpentries' Programmatic Assessment

Book Review: Teaching What You Don't Know

State of the State: Instructor Checkout

New Trainers On Board

Bug BBQ to Update Instructor Training Materials

Help Update the Instructor Training Materials

Apply to Become a Carpentry Instructor Trainer!

Instructor Training in Puerto Rico

Get Involved With Mentoring

Transfer of Learning

Moving Forward

Growth Mindset

Instructor Training for Librarians

Open Instructor Training

I think I can - Self-Efficacy and the Carpentry Learner

September Data Carpentry All-Stars!

Reopening Instructor Training

Instructor and trainee involvement

R Instructor Training

Software and Data Carpentry Instructor Training Comes to Africa

Data Carpentry Instructor Certification for Software Carpentry Instructors

Data Carpentry Instructor Certification
for Software Carpentry Instructors