Instructor Training on The Carpentries

GenAI in Workshops: A Bonus Module to Instructor Training

Wed, 17 Jun 2026 00:00:00 +0000

The Carpentries is excited to launch a new bonus module to Instructor Training, GenAI in Workshops, designed to empower Instructors to account for learners’ use of generative AI chatbot tools in their workshops.

Why now?

We developed the bonus module in response to the growing numbers of reports we have received from Instructors who have observed frequent chatbot use among their learners. (This is a trend across many educational settings, which is probably one reason why the new series of community sessions on GenAI and Teaching is proving so popular.)

Introducing the new Instructor Trainers Leadership Committee for 2024

Thu, 16 May 2024 00:00:00 +0000

In February, the Instructor Trainer community held its fourth annual election for the Instructor Trainers Leadership Committee, a Committee that provides governance and development support to our growing subcommunity of Instructor Trainers, and makes decisions on behalf of that community that affect our Instructor Training program and related policies. Previously called the Trainers Leadership Committee during its first 3 years of existence (2021, 2022, and 2023) this Committee will now be referred to as the Instructor Trainers Leadership Committee to emphasise its service specifically to the Instructor Trainer community. In their third year as an elected body, the Instructor Trainers Leadership Committee oversaw two important changes:

Changes to Instructor Checkout

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 00:00:00 +0000

Summary of the updated checkout process:

Teaching Demonstration requires less preparation
Attend a Welcome Session, a new type of community discussion focused on new community members
Get Involved with the Carpentries in any way that suits you (no longer limited to lesson contributions!)

What has changed?

A visual guide to the changes we are making to The Carpentries Instructor checkout process. For more details, each step is described below.

Welcome to the 2023 Trainers Leadership Committee!

Wed, 15 Mar 2023 00:00:00 +0000

In February, the Trainer community held its third annual election for Trainers Leadership, a Committee that provides governance and development support to our growing subcommunity of Instructor Trainers, and makes decisions on behalf of that community that affect our Instructor Training program and related policies.

In their second year as an elected body, the Trainers Leadership Committee (TLC!) oversaw many important changes. These included:

The first implementation of the Certification Renewal process approved by the Trainer community in 2021. The careful oversight of Leadership made this a successful milestone, balancing goals to maintain a community that is active, sustainable, and inclusive.
Creation of a transparent process for proposal and scheduling of Trainer meetings and topics. This lays a foundation for increased community influence on and support for meetings that provide enriching and timely development opportunities.
Design and approval of recommendations to make changes to the Instructor Checkout process, based on a broad community assessment project implemented in 2022. The 2023 Leadership will be working with Core Team to plan implementation, with some changes tentatively scheduled for June.
Creation of more inclusive procedures for this committee, including use of asynchronous commenting and voting to achieve quorum. The challenge of operating groups with global representation is significant for all Carpentries subcommunities, and this group aims to create a model for procedures that are both effective and manageable for our volunteer participants in all time zones.
Updating community documentation to better reflect policies and procedures, including changes to the Certification Renewal process and documentation for this Committee. These changes were presented to the full community and ratified during the election in February.

Details on these and other accomplishments of this Committee are available in the reports and issues sections on the Trainers repository.

Announcing our new Director of Assessment

Thu, 17 Nov 2022 00:00:00 +0000

A Message from Erin Becker

It is with great pleasure that I announce that Dr. Kelly Barnes is advancing to a Senior Team Lead role and will now be serving as The Carpentries Director of Assessment. Over the past three years, Kelly has brought her expertise in assessment and evaluation to the Instructor Training team, improving and strengthening the Instructor Training and Trainer Training programs. In her new position, she will be able to expand her reach and bring high-quality assessment to all of The Carpentries core activities - including curriculum development and maintenance, workshops, and community development. Congratulations Kelly!

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.

Welcome to the 2022 Trainers Leadership Committee!

Wed, 18 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

In February, the Trainer community held its second annual election for Trainers Leadership, a Committee intended to provide governance and development support to our growing subcommunity of amazing people who teach Instructor Training.

In their first year as an elected body, Trainers Leadership made great strides towards establishing their role and improving the support structures for the Trainer community. These included:

Establishing meeting procedures, adopting a variation on Martha’s Rules, identifying ways to use public and private channels to prioritize transparency, and creating GitHub templates and other structures to facilitate future work.
Reviewing and planning a replacement for the (former) Trainer Agreement. A new proposal for a Certification Renewal Process for Trainers was presented to the full community and ratified during the election in February.
Detailing governance and management structure for relevant processes, including oversight of Instructor checkout, Instructor Training curriculum maintenance, and the process of scheduling Trainer community meetings.
Overseeing a major update to the Instructor Training Curriculum
Defining a decision-making partnership with the Trainer community. Conversations so far suggest that Leadership is trusted and expected to take responsibility for action, reserving community consultation for focused, impactful choices.
Seeking and receiving approval from The Carpentries Executive Council as a formal Committee! This took time because this group has a governance role, making it different from other Committees, and there were not yet any guidelines for that aspect of their role. Trainers Leadership will continue to report to the EC as a Committee, but they can also now look to the new Lesson Program Governance policies where applicable.

As part of their commitment to transparency, details on these and other accomplishments of this productive group are available in the reports and issues sections on the Trainers repository!

Become an Instructor and help bring data and coding skills to people across the globe!

Tue, 10 May 2022 00:00:00 +0000

We often receive inquiries from people who are interested in becoming certified Carpentries Instructors or in recommending an opportunity for certification to a friend or colleague. In this post, we will review a few frequently asked questions and share a new avenue for priority admission to our Open Instructor Training program.

How can I be trained as a Carpentries Instructor?

Carpentries Instructor Training seats can be purchased for groups and individuals through Membership and A-la-carte seat purchases. In addition, we offer free access to individual applicants through our Open Instructor Training program. Anyone with an interest in becoming certified as a Carpentries Instructor can apply to this program. Applications are scored periodically and admitted in order of rank as seats become available.

Report back from University of Calgary Libraries

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

This post originally appeared on the Library Carpentry website

By Chris Erdmann

Thanks to the University of Calgary Libraries

Thanks to the University of Calgary Libraries for recently hosting both a Library Carpentry Workshop (28-29 August) and a Carpentries Instructor Training for Librarians (30-31 August). The events were possible thanks to support from John Brosz, Renee Reaume, Susan Powelson, Ingrid Reiche, Paul Pival, Calum Center, and University of Calgary Libraries staff. The Taylor Family Digital Library’s state-of-the-art teaching and collaboration spaces were perfect for The Carpentries hands-on pedagogical approaches used by the trainers and instructors, Juliane Schneider, Karen Word, and Chris Erdmann.

The Totally Bearable Lightness of Being an Instructor ... So Finish that Training!

Thu, 17 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Also, there’s this thing at UCLA going on September 7-8 …

Greetings, my Library Carpentry community peeps! Hope your summer is going as well as mine, which means about as fine as the coffee in Twin Peaks, or a Fellini film - take your pick.

Several months ago, I wrote a post about the amazing time I had in Portland at csv,conf and at the Library Carpentry Instructor Training that Belinda Weaver and Tim Dennis taught, ably assisted by myself, John Chodacki and a spatula. We had a wonderful cohort of instructors-in-training, all of whom I know would rock a room with their Bash and OpenRefine instructional skills.

Instructor Curriculum Updated

Mon, 14 Aug 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Sixty-seven pull requests were successfully merged during the recent update of the Software and Data Carpentry instructor training curriculum. Most of these PRs were merged during the recent 24-hour Bug BBQ that ran over 3-4 August. More than 20 instructors and trainers were involved with the update. A few pull requests remain to be merged before the material is ready to be re-released. This should happen by the end of August.

Instructor Training at Macquarie University

Tue, 20 Jun 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Software Carpentry Executive Director Jonah Duckles and I ran instructor training for new member institution Macquarie University in Sydney on 19-20 June.

There were a few firsts at this workshop - Jonah’s first time as an instructor trainer, my first day in the job as the new Community Development Lead for Software and Data Carpentry, and Macquarie’s first-ever instructor training event.

We may also have had the biggest-ever workshop etherpad, coming in at 1400+ lines, but that would be a tough claim to substantiate. Certainly the eventual size of the etherpad mirrored the deep engagement of attendees, who all worked very hard.

Apply to Become a Carpentry Instructor Trainer!

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

This post originally appeared on the Software 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.

Summary of the 2017 Software Carpentry Steering Committee Retreat

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

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Software Carpentry Steering Committee met in person on June 7-8 in Davis, California. The committee members have unique journeys that brought them through the community to having a seat on the steering committee. Importantly, we have a unified vision for the future of the Software Carpentry Foundation and the roles of the steering committee. Below is a brief summary of the motions passes and detailed description of the five key areas over which the Steering Committee will continue to provide oversight.

Three Instructors, Two Coasts and One Spatula

Wed, 17 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

In the space of a year, interest and participation in the Library Carpentry community has exploded like an amoeba who over-ate at an algae banquet and attempted one too many pseudopods.

For Library Carpentry, though, this is a good thing; the pseudopods are propelling us forward across institutions, disciplines, and continents. The community, grounded in collaborative tools like Github and Gitter (I always want to type Glitter) is coalescing around lesson development and holding new workshops. Why is the buzz so strong? I think it’s a combination of relentless energy from people like Belinda Weaver and Tim Dennis (to name just a few), the acceptance and active encouragement of new people who want to contribute in some way, and the mutual recognition by all of us that in any one thing, we are all absolute beginners, and we all give each other permission to be terrible until we aren’t.

Instructor Training in South Africa 2.0

Tue, 09 May 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

One of the main goals of our community is to make Software and Data Carpentry workshops accessible for all researchers from all disciplines and all regions of the world. In the past three years workshops in South Africa and other African countries have started gradually picking up and I think we may soon see exponential growth!

This has been made possible thanks to a lot of effort and hard work from a number of amazing people, including Anelda van der Walt. In 2014 we realised that the biggest obstacle to running workshops in Africa, was the lack of qualified trainers on the continent. Since then we’ve put significant focus on building a local instructor pool to enable research organisations in the region to run Software and Data Carpentry training. In 2015 several instructors were trained online. Last year North West University at Potchefstroom hosted the first in-person Instructor Training with attendees from South Africa and other African countries. Just last week, between 30th April and 2nd May, we (Anelda, Kari Jordan and Aleksandra Pawlik) ran another Instructor Training in Cape Town with 28 participants.

Instructor Training in Puerto Rico

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

This post originally appeared on the Software 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.

Moving Forward

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

This post originally appeared on the Software 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.

Rubric for Open Instructor Training

Tue, 03 Jan 2017 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Software Carpentry Foundation’s Steering Committee recently resolved to run four open online instructor training sessions per year in order to help support people whom we otherwise might not be able to reach. Since there are likely to be many more applications than spaces, we have developed a rubric for ranking requests for training. This applies only to people who are applying for spots in open training sessions: people who are receiving training through institutional partnership agreements will continue to be nominated by their institution as before.

Instructor Traininig Intercontinental

Thu, 22 Dec 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The end of the calendar year is a usual opportunity to make look back at the past 365 days. The summary of mine would be “Instructor Training Intercontinental”. I have always considered myself to be incredibly lucky working with Software and Data Carpentry and certainly in 2016 I hit another jackpot. I run 7 Instructor Training workshops, in 6 countries on 3 continents. But the highlight was, as it has always been with SWC and DC, the people.

Instructor Training for Library Carpentry

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

This post originally appeared on the Software 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

Sat, 19 Nov 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

(Originally posted on the Data Carpentry blog.)

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.

A Comparison of Online and In-person Instructor Training Workshops

Sat, 22 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I have co-taught three instructor training workshops this year (one online and one in-person with Christina Koch and one online with Greg Wilson.

Overview

Too long to read? Here’s an overview in tabular form.

Feature	In-person	Online
networking	excellent	poor to very good
Etherpad use	poor	excellent
displayed on screen	the web? slides?	the instructor webcast view of other learners
time commitment	prep + class time + travel + paperwork	prep + class time
private communication	in-person	Slack & email
technical difficulties	medium	high

Networking

In-person: I think the most amazing feature of an in-person workshop is the networking. There is something about face to face conversation during activities and over coffee, beer, and dinner that really solidifies personal relations. I became a certified instructor in January 2015 at UC Davis instructor training workshop taught by Greg Wilson, Tracy Teal, Bill Mills, and Aleksandra Pawlik; I consider all four of these people to be close colleagues now, and I’m going to be visiting a handful of other workshop participants in November when I visit California. Also, I regularly talk to SWC/DC instructors on-line, but there is something about meeting them in-person that feels like its the first time we’ve met face-to-face.

Cambridge Instructor Training 19-20 September 2016

Thu, 20 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Last month, Steve and Karin taught an instructor training workshop at the University of Cambridge, sponsored by the R Consortium. The event was organized by Laurent Gatto, a Software Sustainability Institute Fellow, with help from Paul Judge and Gabriella Rustici from the University of Cambridge Bioinformatics Training facility. 25 trainees from a diverse set of backgrounds spent two days getting to know each other and learning how to teach, and several have already completed the checkout process. You can read a full write-up on the SSI website, and we hope to be able to organize a repeat in the new year.

Congratulations to Our New Instructor Trainers

Tue, 04 Oct 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are very pleased to welcome Karin Lagesen and Anelda van der Walt to our team of instructor trainers. Karin and Anelda have been very active in all of our activities–Karin is now in her second year on the Steering Committee, and Anelda has been the driving force behind our growth in South Africa–and we are very grateful that they are willing to give even more to our community.

How Software Carpentry can help you switch careers

Wed, 27 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

You’ve heard how Software Carpentry is important not only to get your research done but also to make it better and thus more likely to be published.

It might even get you a job in your favourite field of research.

But, for those of us who do not like to do the same thing forever, Software Carpentry skills can help you switch to another career.

More on Instructor Training

Tue, 26 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Since we announced yesterday that we are re-opening applications for instructor training, several questions have come in by email and on Twitter. We’ve answered the general ones below, and will update this post as others arrive.

Why are you running open-enrollment classes?: Our primary goal is to increase our reach: many geographic regions and research disciplines are sparsely represented in our instructor pool, or not represented at all, and we are always conscious of the need to maintain and improve diversity.
How does this relate to instructor training for partner organizations?: Partner organizations are guaranteed a certain number of instructor training slots as part of their agreement with us, and those trainings are given priority over open-enrollment offerings.
How many classes are being offered, and how many spaces are available?: We are currently planning to run two classes, each for about 30 participants.
Where will the training take place?: These two classes will take place online, and will run over two full days. We will choose dates and times to accommodate as many people as possible.
How are participants going to be selected?: We will select participants based on previous involvement with Software and Data Carpentry, location, research discipline, previous teaching experience, ability to commit time to teaching and mentorship, and all of the other factors in the application form.
When will selections be made?: We will start notifying people in a few weeks (i.e., the second half of August).
In what time zones will classes take place?: We haven’t decided yet, but they will be aimed at different timezones so that we can accommodate the widest possible range of participants.
Will you offer more open-enrollment classes in future?: Yes.
Wil people have to re-apply to take part?: No: we will keep all applications, and contact people as spots become available to see if they’re still interested.

Reopening Instructor Training

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

This post originally appeared on the Software 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.

We 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 organizations, but would like to teach Software Carpentry, Data Carpentry, or both (as the course is shared by both organizations). If you wish to apply to take part in one of the two open-enrollment classes we will offer this fall, please fill in the form at:

Why attend a Software & Data Carpentry instructor training workshop?

Wed, 06 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

*Note:* the following post was written by Carrie Andrew, University of Oslo, after a request to write a testimonial of her participation in a Software/Data Carpentry instructor training workshop.

The SWC/DC initiative is a cutting-edge program that promotes computer and data skills to those who need the greatest help, but are often the most put-out to learn: beginners. It is taught by an ever-increasing, diverse assemblage of people across private and public, academic and non-academic, research institutions. The common denominator is that all have an interest and motivation to promote computer and data skills within STEM organizations. Even more interesting: The program is designed to be self-destructing. Once educational and research organizations are globally saturated with keen, well-trained individuals who can stand-in as the SWC/DC person(s) for their institutions, the initiative promises to end. When the need is met, it self-destructs, thus promoting change from the bottom-up, a grass-roots initiative for our futures!

Instructor Training Completion Times

Tue, 05 Jul 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

How long does it take to complete instructor training once the class itself is done? Two dozen people who recently qualified told us this:

	Reading Lesson(s)	Writing Exercise	Discussion Session	Lesson Demo	Total
	1.0	0.5	2.0	0.5	4.0
	5.0	1.0	2.0	1.0	9.0
	5.0	3.0	2.0	3.5	13.5
	2.0	0.5	1.0	1.0	4.5
	10.0	3.0	1.0	5.0	19.0
	5.0	2.0	1.0	3.0	11.0
	1.0	2.5	1.0	10.0	14.5
	16.0	4.0	4.0	8.0	32.0
	1.0	1.0	1.0	1.5	4.5
	2.0	1.0	2.0	2.0	7.0
	1.0	0.5	1.5	0.5	3.5
	5.0	2.0	2.0	1.0	10.0
	7.0	2.0	2.0	1.0	12.0
	3.0	0.5	2.0	1.5	7.0
	3.5	1.0	1.0	2.5	8.0
	1.0	1.0	2.0	3.5	7.5
	6.0	1.0	2.0	3.0	12.0
	2.5	1.0	1.0	2.0	6.5
	5.5	1.0	2.5	3.0	12.0
	2.0	2.0	1.5	2.0	7.5
	10.0	2.5	3.0	1.5	17.0
	5.0	1.0	4.0	1.5	11.5
	5.0	3.0	2.0	0.5	10.5
	6.0	2.0	1.5	1.0	10.5
	2.5	3.5	2.0	5.0	13.0
	1.5	0.5	0.8	2.5	5.3
Min	1.0	0.5	0.8	0.5	3.5
Ave	4.4	1.7	1.8	2.6	10.5
Median	4.3	1.0	2.0	2.0	10.3
Max	16.0	4.0	4.0	10.0	32.0

There are a few outliers (which may be due to different interpretations of what time should be assigned where), but overall these numbers are pretty consistent, and will be shared with future training course participants.

Further Analysis of Instructor Training Data

Tue, 31 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Following [Erin Becker's analysis of our instructor training data]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2016/05/first-analysis.html), Byron Smith has done [another analysis](http://blog.byronjsmith.com/instructor-survival.html) using survival statistics. The three key figures are:

First Analysis of Instructor Training Data

Fri, 20 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Following up on [Wednesday's post about instructor training stats]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2016/05/looking-for-a-model.html), Erin Becker (Data Carpentry's new Associate Director) has [posted an analysis](http://www.datacarpentry.org/blog/instructor-metrics/). I was very surprised to discover that less than 20% of people trained over a year ago haven't taught yet: I believed the number to be much higher. 51% of those trained in the last 12 months haven't taught yet, but that's less surprising, since in many cases there simply hasn't been time. Overall, we seem to be doing pretty well...

Looking for a Model

Wed, 18 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Updated: this CSV file has information on who taught when. The three columns are the person's unique identifier, the date on which they first qualified, and the dates on which they taught. (If someone has taught multiple times, there is one record for each teaching event.) People who haven't taught at all are at the bottom with empty values in the third column. Erin Becker's analysis of this data is posted on the Data Carpentry blog and discussed here.

R Instructor Training Applications Open

Mon, 16 May 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thanks to generous sponsorship from the [R Consortium](https://www.r-consortium.org/), 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](https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1py7-vm6ZGHKZD_lixAlaAeQnWk9llEnK5sOEydI2Ipc/viewform). 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](mailto:training@software-carpentry.org).

Please note that as a condition of taking this training:

Summarizing Our Lesson Discussion Sessions

Fri, 29 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

For the first four months of this year, we ran hour-long lesson discussion sessions to give people going through instructor training a chance to ask questions of people who had taught our material several times. Trainees told us they were useful for getting information and as a way to meet more of the community. We have now decided to merge those sessions with our weekly workshop debriefing sessions in order to turn up the volume on both aspects, so this seems like a good time to summarize what we’ve learned so far ourselves.

Instructor Training in South Africa

Thu, 21 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thanks a lot of hard work from Anelda van der Walt and the support from the [North-West University](http://www.nwu.ac.za/), [University of Cape Town](http://www.uct.ac.za/) and [Talarify](http://www.talarify.co.za/) we were able to run the first face-to-face instructor training in South Africa. We trained 23 new instructors from South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Kenya. The event was a great success and we are looking forward to expansion on Software and Data Carpentry workshops South Africa and other African countries.

Anelda has been developing Software and Data Carpentry in South Africa for a while now and her efforts led to this first face-to-face Instructor Training. We started off on Sunday, 17th April . evening with a short ice-breaking session of lightning talks during which the participants talked about “The coolest thing about their job” for 2 minutes. Everyone had something interesting to say. What was even more impressive, nobody ran over time, which is not the usual case.

10 tips and tricks for instructing and teaching by means of live coding

Wed, 20 Apr 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

One of the key teaching practices used at Software and Data Carpentry workshops is ’live coding’: instructors don’t use slides, but work through the lesson material, typing in the code or instructions, with the workshop participants following along. Learning how to teach using live-coding is best done in practice, with feedback from peers (this is why it is included in instructor training). Nonetheless, this post lists ten tips and tricks to help you get started.

An R-based Instructor Training Sponsored by the R Consortium

Mon, 28 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The R consortium Infrastructure Steering Committee awards have been officially announced and we are happy to confirm that our proposal to organise an R-based instructor training was successful.

We will organise an in-person instructor training that will focus on R. While the content of the training will not change as such, code-related exercises and examples that the participants will be working with will be focused on R, and will be made available to the R instructor community to help them improve their teaching. The full proposal is available here.

Software and Data Carpentry Instructor Training Comes to Africa

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

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

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.

Our lead trainer will be Aleksandra Pawlik and several of the more experienced South African instructors will also join the workshop to work with the trainee instructors.

In line with a previous post from Belinda Weaver about helping new instructors through the pipeline, this workshop will form part of a larger 12-month programme to help new instructors truly integrate into the community. The programme, an initiative of the three hosting organisations and currently under development, will include supporting instructor trainees to:

A Proposal for Helping Instructor Trainees Finish

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Instructor training is one way we grow our community worldwide. Yet many people who go through instructor training never go on to teach at a Software Carpentry workshop. Can that be fixed? I suggest that shepherding people though the final stages might help with completion rates.

When the idea of running instructor training in Brisbane was originally mooted, I set up a survey, very early on, to record expressions of interest from people who might want to train. I tweeted that several times in the months leading up to the training. The survey captured name, email address, institution, discipline and how each applicant had heard about the survey. I wish now I had also asked ‘why do you want to train’ or ‘why do you deserve a place over someone else?’ as that would have helped me sift through the candidates.

Should We Combine Debriefing and Lesson Discussion?

Tue, 08 Mar 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Belinda Weaver recently posted [a proposal for helping instructor trainees finish]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2016/03/proposal-instructor-trainees.html). While reading her post and writing out [the current instructor training workflow]({{site.github_url}}/board/pull/81) for the benefit of GSoC students, I started wondering if it might also make sense to combine the workshop debriefing sessions with the trainee mentoring sessions: a couple of regularly-scheduled slots each week (times chosen to accommodate all comers) would be easier to wrangle, and trainees would get to meet more existing instructors and hear about their in-class experiences. We'd still need some sort of sign-up mechanism to keep numbers manageable, and we'd need someone to report back on which trainees had asked well-informed questions, and it would mean less coupling between the discussion and the specific lesson(s) trainees were working on, but the first two aren't new work (we're doing them already) and the third might actually be a good thing, particularly if we follow up on another suggestion and have people attend a discussion *before* submitting their lesson change. Please add comments to this blog post to let us know what you think of the idea, and to [Belinda's]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2016/03/proposal-instructor-trainees.html) to give her feedback as well.

Our New Instructor Pipeline

Tue, 16 Feb 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Last fall, we decided to [reboot]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2015/09/rebooting-instructor-training.html) our [instructor training course]({{site.github_io_url}}/instructor-training/). We've [tried a lot of things]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2015/12/three-flavors-of-instructor-training.html) since then, and one of the biggest successes has been [our new checkout procedure]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2015/12/instructor-training-checkout-procedure.html). In brief:

After completing the instructor training course, the trainee picks one of the core lessons from each of the Carpentries she wants to teach and submit a new exercise for that lesson.

Discussion Sessions

Sat, 02 Jan 2016 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

At the end of last year [we announced a new checkout procedure for instructor training]({{site.baseurl}}/blog/2015/12/instructor-training-checkout-procedure.html). This new procedure has "an hour-long group discussion led by an experienced instructor" and we are looking for instructors interested in lead the sessions.

Plans for 2016

Mon, 28 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Twelve months is a long time. A year ago I was wrapping up my second month without an income and had serious doubts about whether Software Carpentry was going to be viable. Today, our new Executive Director and Program Coordinator are in place, our workshop administration tool is ticking over nicely, we're about to elect our second Steering Committee, we've published our lessons, we have a growing number of partners and affiliates, our reboot of instructor training has taught us a lot, and those are just the things I've bookmarked.

Instructor Training Checkout Procedure

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

After a lot of discussion, we have come up with a new procedure for completing instructor training for Data Carpentry and Software Carpentry. Its goals are to ensure that people are familiar with the lesson material while introducing them to our community. The steps are:

Three Flavors of Instructor Training

Fri, 18 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

It's been a busy few months for instructor training: along with a two-day class at the University of Manchester, we also wrapped up a pilot of a new kind of multi-week course and a two-day version of the same material. We have also been training four new trainers, and have put the first complete draft of the training materials online. Here's some of what we think we've learned so far.

Feedback on Practicum Proposal

Wed, 09 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We have wanted for some time to give newly-trained instructors more experience with workshop materials and our teaching methods before sending them into the field. The mentoring committee and other community members have now created a proposal for doing this, and would like to test it out early in 2016 with participants in the two training session that ran this fall. We have therefore created a short questionnaire to find out whether our plan is feasible and takes us in the right direction.

Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry on Podcast.init

Tue, 08 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

A couple of weeks ago I was interviewed by the Podcast.__init__ team to talk about Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry. The request for an interview actually came in a couple of months ago and I asked Greg Wilson about doing it, telling him I was a big fan of the podcast. He said he'd be happy to have me do it myself, giving me the chance to star in one of my favorite shows. I decided to do it, in pursuit of my goal of promoting Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry (and maybe more public exposure for myself).

Announcing Instructor Training Materials

Mon, 07 Dec 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are pleased to announce that the lessons for our instructor training course are now available online and in this GitHub repository. They have evolved a lot in the three and a half years since we started running this class, and more improvements would be welcome: please file issues or send pull requests to fix, extend, or otherwise improve the material.

December Instructor Training - Announcing Selected Groups

Mon, 30 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thank you to all the teams that applied for instructor training that sent us applications. Selection of the teams was a very difficult tasks because

the applications were excellent,
we had a small amount of time to discuss all the applications and
we need to improve capacity to support the demand we see for instructor training.

The mentoring subcommittee has selected the teams that inform at their cover letters that booked a room for the instructor training at

December Instructor Training Selection Debrief

Wed, 25 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Many of you who applied for instructor training in December are undoubtedly receiving disappointing news. We had 250 applicants on 45 teams from a wide range of locations. I'd like to talk through a few things about this process and how it played out as I think it will help the community understand the situation we were in with instructor training demand and our ability to meet demand.

Applications for December Instructor Training Are Now Closed

Fri, 20 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Applications to take part in December's two-day instructor training class are now closed. We received more than three dozen applications from four continents, including over 400 people, and will let people know early next week whether they have been selected. Groups that we can't include in this round will be given priority to take part in the new year.

Clarification about December Instructor Training

Fri, 06 Nov 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Since we announced that the applications for December Instructor Training we have received many questions. We are now amending the announcement to clarify some things that have come up.

Call for Applications to December Instructor Training

Mon, 26 Oct 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

This blog post was amended with the information from this other post.

This blog post was updated with the answers that we got so far.

As we announced previously, we will run another round of the free/open Instructor Training in December. People who are interested in participating in this round can now apply to take part.

Rebooting Instructor Training

Mon, 14 Sep 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Instructor training has been key to Software Carpentry's growth, but it was clear by the time our last online class finished in April that we couldn't and shouldn't keep doing it the way we had been: couldn't because of the time it ate up, and shouldn't because it wasn't doing enough to prepare people for actually teaching.

After five months of thinking, talking, and revising, we finally have a plan for rebooting the course. We are going to run it twice between now and the end of the year: once in the usual multi-week format, and once more compressed into two full days. We are also going to introduce some preparatory requirements, mentoring for new instructors, and mini-lessons to help ease people into organizing and running workshops. Finally, we will start training a few more people to run instructor training so that we can afford to give trainees more personal attention.

The full proposal is included below, and we will be contacting people who have applied for instructor training over the next few days to invite them to take part. I apologize right now for not being able to offer everyone a place right away, but if this reboot goes well—and I think it will—we should be able to start clearing the rest of our backlog soon.

Training Lessons

Fri, 26 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I wrote about our experiments with the format of instructor training back in May. At that time, we had run the class as:

a multi-week online class,
an in-person two- or three-day class, and
a mixed mode with the trainees physically together for two days with the trainer coming in via teleconference.

We have since tried the mixed mode twice with the trainees at three different sites (three universities in Arizona for one run, and universities in Cape Town, Sheffield, and Ann Arbor for the other). We've also gathered a lot of feedback on what people want from instructor training and what its prerequisites should be. Here's what we've learned.

Recycling Training Course Material

Sun, 21 Jun 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Over the past two years, more than 200 people have written multiple choice questions and other assessment exercises as part of Software Carpentry instructor training. Many of these are very good, some are excellent, and they all deserve a second look to see whether they should be integrated into our lessons.

Online Instructor Training Revisited

Tue, 19 May 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We have now run instructor training in three formats:

an in-person two- or three-day class,
a multi-week online class, and
a hybrid version in which the trainees are co-located, but the trainer comes in via the web.

We've also gathered a lot of feedback on what people want from instructor training and what its prerequisites should be. Based on all of that, we're going to try to combine the best features of everything we've done so far.

Software Carpentry Set to Explode in Australia and New Zealand

Sat, 21 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Given the global success of Software Carpentry (10,000 learners and counting), it's easy to forget that the first two-day workshops were held only three short years ago. Excited by the potential of the project in those early days, Josh Madin (Macquarie University) and myself (University of Melbourne) pooled our funds and got Greg Wilson out to Australia to run the first ever workshops outside of Europe and North America. Since those initial Sydney and Melbourne workshops in February 2013, an additional 15 have been held around Australia and New Zealand and there are a dozen or so active local instructors.

Workshops in March at Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Mon, 02 Feb 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I will be teaching a two-day Software Carpentry instructor training course on March 10-11, 2015 at Lawrence Berkeley Lab, and a one-day course on web programming on March 13, 2015. Details are given below; the instructor training is open to LBL staff and to graduate students and staff associated with the Berkeley Institute for Data Science, while the web programming class is reserved for LBL staff alone.

Instructor Training at UC Davis

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

On Tuesday and Wednesday of last week, we ran a live instructor training class at UC Davis. Over 40 people from all across the country got a lightning introduction to the basics of educational psychology and instructional design, and had a chance to hear how and what we teach.

Plans for 2015: Instructor Training

Wed, 03 Dec 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Instructor training has been going well: it looks like more than 50% of people who participated this summer and fall will complete and start teaching for us, which is a new record. What's even better is that we have 136 people signed up for the next online course. Even if only half of them complete, it will enlarge the pool of instructors by more than a third, and broaden our coverage both geographically and across disciplines.

The question now is when that course should start. Teaching a group that size will take two full days a week, and in the short term, I need to focus on building partnerships, getting grant applications out the door, and overseeing election of our Steering Committee.

Instructor Training Stats

Sat, 22 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

The Software Carpentry Foundation's board asked me for some stats on instructor training, and I thought other people would find them interesting as well:

Replacing the Teaching Blog

Thu, 13 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We've been using a WordPress blog to manage instructor training for the past two and a half years, and while it's served us well, it's clear that we've outgrown it. It's also clear (to me at least) that we should get instructors started on GitHub earlier, so replacing WordPress with a GitHub-backed blog seems like it would serve a dual purpose.

Our requirements are:

Instructor Training at TGAC

Thu, 06 Nov 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Hayley London has written a great summary of the instructor training at TGAC in Norwich in October. Aleksandra Pawlik, Bill Mills, and I enjoyed meeting everyone, and I look forward to returning soon.

Instructor Training at UC Davis in January 2015

Wed, 03 Sep 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

Thanks to support from Prof. Titus Brown, I will be running an intensive in-person version of our instructor training course at UC Davis on January 6-7, 2015. This will be followed on January 8 by a third day of activities focusing on teaching computation and biology; for details, please see Titus's post and keep an eye on this blog for more information as well.

Registration Open for Instructor Training in Norwich in October

Mon, 09 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

As we announced last week, we are running a two-day version of our instructor training course at The Genome Analysis Centre in Norwich, UK, on October 22-23, 2014. Registration is now open, and we look hope to see you there.

Instructor Training in Norwich, October 2014

Thu, 05 Jun 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We are pleased to announce that we will be running a two-day version of our instructor training course at The Genome Analysis Centre in Norwich, UK, on October 22-23, 2014. Registration details will be available shortly, but if you are interested in taking part, please mark your calendar and keep an eye on this blog, or the announcement page, for details.

Our thanks to the good folks at TGAC for making this possible—we look forward to an engaging couple of days.

Learning to Teach Never Ends

Wed, 28 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

A month ago I took part in the first face-to-face Software Carpentry Instructors Training run by Greg Wilson from Software Carpentry and Warren Code from University of British Columbia. Unlike most of 40 participants, I had already completed the instructors course which Greg regularly runs online. My primary aim to attend the face-to-face training was to observe and learn how to run it because the plan is that the Software Sustainability Institute (which I work for) will support running such training in the future. So I attended the training in Toronto as a certified instructor and also as a Software Carpentry co-admin in the UK. Wearing different hats allowed me to look at the event from different perspectives and this is probably why it took me so long to write this post.

A Training Veteran Weighs In

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

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I'm not sure if I qualify as a "instructional training veteran", but having participated in both the online Software Carpentry (SWC) instructor training, and two versions of the Instructional Skills Workshop (ISW) (on which the latest "live" SWC training was modeled) at the University of British Columbia, I'd like to share a few comments comparing my experience with both and what I've valued from each. Feel free to add your own impressions of the SWC or other instructional training in the comments at the end.

How to Improve Instructor Training

Fri, 02 May 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We ran a three-day intensive version of our instructor training course in Toronto earlier this week. The 40 attendees seemed to find it useful, and I'm very grateful to UBC's Warren Code for co-teaching, and to the University of Toronto's Jennifer Campbell for her presentation on MOOCs and flipped classrooms, but there are a few things we'll do differently next time around. They're listed below in no particular order; comments from attendees (and everyone else, particularly people who've been through the online instructor training) would be very welcome.

From Training to Engagement

Fri, 21 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

I was interviewed about Software Carpentry earlier this week, and the interviewer's second question was, "Don't scientists all learn how to program these days as part of their education?" The answer, even today, is "no": the average scientist might know more about calculus and statistics than someone who did a degree in marketing or graphic design, but she probably doesn't know any more about how to build software and share data on the web.

Brent Gorda and I started Software Carpentry in 1998 to fix that. Our goal was to teach our colleagues the equivalent of basic lab skills for scientific computing so that they could get more done in less time and with less pain. As the project grew, I realized that this problem wasn't specific to scientists: almost everyone who uses the web spends hours or days doing things that a few simple programs could do for them faster and more reliably.

Wrapping Up Round 7 (and a Reminder About Instructor Training)

Sun, 09 Feb 2014 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We had the wrap-up meetings for Round 7 of instructor training this past Thursday. The full summary is on the training blog, but the key points are:

We need to include a lesson early in the course on the structure of the materials in our repository, and how to configure things for a workshop. We'll do a trial run on Thursday, February 20, in the usual time slots (10:00, 14:00, and 19:00 Eastern); please have a look at the Etherpad for connection details on the day.
People want a chance to watch more experienced teachers in action. One possibility would be to set up something like SmarterCookie or Edthena, where teachers upload videos of themselves in action so that other people can comment on what they do and how they do it. We will think about ways and means and see what we can set up in the next couple of weeks.

Our thanks once again to everyone who stayed with us through what turned out to be a longer-than-usual run of the course: I look forward to teaching with you all some day soon.

Finally, there are still seats available for the live three-day version of the instructor training course, which will run in Toronto on April 28-30, 2014. If you'd like to learn more about teaching in general, and teaching programming in specific, please sign up.

Instructor Training Statistics

Fri, 23 Aug 2013 00:00:00 +0000

This post originally appeared on the Software Carpentry website.

We started running an online training course for Software Carpentry instructors last fall. It's been going pretty well:

72 people signed up for the four rounds we ran between September 2012 and March 2013; 41 of them completed.
39 enrolled in the fifth round that started in May 2013; we expect one third to complete it over the next couple of weeks.
23 enrolled in the sixth round that started this month.

An average completion rate of 40% is pretty low compared to most university courses, but it compares favorably with the 5-10% completion rates of most MOOCs, and 9 of the 29 who dropped out of the first four rounds re-enrolled in a later round. Almost everyone who tells us why they dropped out blames real life getting in the way, but there's undoubtedly sampling bias in that: some people just disappear and stop responding to email.

The curriculum is now pretty stable (though we'll continue to tweak it based on feedback from learners and lab meetings), and feedback from people who've gone through it has mostly been positive. If you'd like to take part in a future round, please get in touch.

Instructor Training on The Carpentries

GenAI in Workshops: A Bonus Module to Instructor Training

Why now?

Introducing the new Instructor Trainers Leadership Committee for 2024

Changes to Instructor Checkout

What has changed?

Welcome to the 2023 Trainers Leadership Committee!

Announcing our new Director of Assessment

A Message from Erin Becker

Tell Us What You Think of the Instructor Training Checkout Process

Welcome to the 2022 Trainers Leadership Committee!

Become an Instructor and help bring data and coding skills to people across the globe!

How can I be trained as a Carpentries Instructor?

Report back from University of Calgary Libraries

Thanks to the University of Calgary Libraries

The Totally Bearable Lightness of Being an Instructor ... So Finish that Training!

Instructor Curriculum Updated

Instructor Training at Macquarie University

Apply to Become a Carpentry Instructor Trainer!

Summary of the 2017 Software Carpentry Steering Committee Retreat

Three Instructors, Two Coasts and One Spatula

Instructor Training in South Africa 2.0

Instructor Training in Puerto Rico

Moving Forward

Rubric for Open Instructor Training

Instructor Traininig Intercontinental

Instructor Training for Library Carpentry

Open Instructor Training

A Comparison of Online and In-person Instructor Training Workshops

Overview

Networking

Cambridge Instructor Training 19-20 September 2016

Congratulations to Our New Instructor Trainers

How Software Carpentry can help you switch careers

More on Instructor Training

Reopening Instructor Training

Why attend a Software & Data Carpentry instructor training workshop?

Instructor Training Completion Times

Further Analysis of Instructor Training Data

First Analysis of Instructor Training Data

Looking for a Model

R Instructor Training Applications Open

Summarizing Our Lesson Discussion Sessions

Instructor Training in South Africa

10 tips and tricks for instructing and teaching by means of live coding

An R-based Instructor Training Sponsored by the R Consortium

Software and Data Carpentry Instructor Training Comes to Africa

A Proposal for Helping Instructor Trainees Finish

Should We Combine Debriefing and Lesson Discussion?

Our New Instructor Pipeline

Discussion Sessions

Plans for 2016

Instructor Training Checkout Procedure

Three Flavors of Instructor Training

Feedback on Practicum Proposal

Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry on Podcast.__init__

Announcing Instructor Training Materials

December Instructor Training - Announcing Selected Groups

December Instructor Training Selection Debrief

Applications for December Instructor Training Are Now Closed

Clarification about December Instructor Training

Call for Applications to December Instructor Training

Rebooting Instructor Training

Training Lessons

Recycling Training Course Material

Online Instructor Training Revisited

Software Carpentry Set to Explode in Australia and New Zealand

Workshops in March at Lawrence Berkeley Lab

Instructor Training at UC Davis

Plans for 2015: Instructor Training

Instructor Training Stats

Replacing the Teaching Blog

Instructor Training at TGAC

Instructor Training at UC Davis in January 2015

Registration Open for Instructor Training in Norwich in October

Instructor Training in Norwich, October 2014

Learning to Teach Never Ends

A Training Veteran Weighs In

How to Improve Instructor Training

From Training to Engagement

Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry on Podcast.init