Report Carpentry@UiO 2021 #
Workshops held #
Two-day Data Carpentry Workshop #
- November Data Carpentry: Social Sciences and Humanities Using R - on-site
One-day workshops #
- December Carpentry: Databases and SQL - on-site
- November Carpentry: Plotting and Programming with Python (Novices) - on-site
- October Carpentry@UiO: Writing and Publishing on the Web Together Using GitHub - on-site
Mini-workshops #
- May Carpentry@UiO Data Analysis and Visualization in R and Tidyverse (Novices) - online
- March Carpentry: Plotting and Programming with Python (Novices) - online
- January Carpentry pilot Workshop (Online): Introduction to Conda for (Data) Scientists - joint coordination by Digital Scholarship Center, CodeRefinery, Finnish Geospatial Research Institute FGI, UiT: The Arctic University of Norway and Aalto University - online
In numbers #
Workshop modes #
- Three online workshops
- Four on-site workshops
Workshop types #
- One 2-day DC workshop
- Three 1-day Carpentry workshops (Python, SQL)
- One 1-day Carpentry@UiO workshop (R Tidyverse)
- Two half-day Carpentry@UiO workshops (GitHub, Conda)
Workshop participation #
Date | Topic | Venue | Registered_Attendees | Total_Registered* | Show-Up |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2021-12-07 | SQL | on-site | 12 | 18 | 10 |
2021-11-30 | Python | on-site | 30 | 73 | 20 |
2021-11-22 | Data Carpentry SSH | on-site | 28 | 35 | 20/13 |
2021-11-03 | GitHub | on-site | 12 | 15 | 4 |
2021-05-25 | R Tidyverse | online | 21 | 56 | NA |
2021-03-02 | Python | online | 52 | 124 | NA |
*including all registered attendees, all on waiting list and all de-registered
Workshop evaluation #
In 2020, the community managers together with the library and the Board decided to stop with sending out post-workshop evaluations. We did this mainly due to “feedback fatigue” which we experienced during 2019 already. Since we are now registering all official Carpentries workshops and official free-standing Carpentries modules with the Carpentries’ database AMY, we have access to their pre- and post-workshop surveys.
At the same time, we set a general reflection around workshop evaluations in motion with the wish to re-phrase and shorten workshop feedback forms. This work is still ongoing. Plans are to create a new feedback form in 2022.
In the meantime, “sticky-note feedback” is occasionally collected at on-site workshops. This is mainly used for workshop de-briefing with instructors and helpers. The transcribed feedback is kept in a secure cloud storage space and can be accessed upon request.
General themes of all modes of feedback that we received during and after workshops are:
Requests #
- learners request (more) advanced workshops for the same tools, especially R and Python
- learners request more frequent workshops
- learners request workshop for other tools, like Matlab, SPSS, etc.
- learners request either online - or on-site workshops
Appreciation #
- learners appreciate the availability of helpers
- learners like the “atmosphere” of Carpentries workshops
- learners appreciate the slow pace and the focus on participatory live coding
Social events #
- An online onboarding session (September)
- Carpentry@UiO community fika (October)
- Carpentry@UiO yule brunch (December)
New instructors #
Period Aug 2020 - Aug 2021 #
Six spots were available with the Aug 2020 - Aug 2021 membership.
- three successfully completed the instructor training checkout procedure in 2021 (HK, moved on to BI; EM, at Norsar; SI, moved on to NGI)
- one postponed checkout to early 2022 (BL, at UiO)
- two seats were not taken
Period Aug 2021 - Aug 2022 #
Six spots were available with the Aug 2020 - Aug 2021 membership.
- two were sent to promising candidates
- four not assigned
- two rolled over from previous period
New helpers #
The community was lucky and recruited a couple of new helpers during 2021
Board #
The Board had five meetings during 2021. Read the minutes for each meeting here:
- 2021-02-09 Board Meeting
- 2021-04-30 Board Meeting
- 2021-06-11 Board Meeting
- 2021-08-10 Board Meeting
- 2021-11-04 Board Meeting
Website #
The Carpentry@UiO website hosted on GitHub underwent a re-design process led by community and board member Tobias Busch. The website now has all information relevant to the community in one place and can be found here: https://uio-carpentry.github.io/. Documentation for the website is available here: https://github.com/uio-carpentry/uio-carpentry.github.io#readme.
In addition, the Carpentry@UiO information pages hosted at the University of Oslo library have been restructured and underwent a general and customized re-design process. Community member and former board member Naoe Tatara has led the customized re-design process and the restructuring. The main website with information about Carpentry@UiO at the University of Oslo library can be accessed here: https://www.ub.uio.no/english/writing-publishing/dsc/carpentry-uio/. The library publishes all workshops and free-standing Carpentries modules in the Digital Scholarship Center’s course catalogue for Carpentries workshops: https://www.ub.uio.no/english/courses-events/courses/other/Carpentry/.
Information about Carpentry@UiO activities and community is now concentrated on two sites, where one is maintained by the community (GitHub) and the other maintained by the University of Oslo Library (DSC)
Outreach #
Community manager and board member Annika Rockenberger initiated an outreach action to address fluctuations in the community during Covid-19 and as a general measure of promoting Carpentries activities at the University of Oslo library, UiO and beyond. The community manager announces workshops via the DSC’s course catalogue, mailing lists (announcements and digital humanities) at UiO, and Twitter. The library designed and ordered two beach flags with the Carpentry@UiO logo to be put up alongside workshops and community events for increased on-site visibility. In addition, the library designed and ordered 100 coffee mugs with the Carpentry@UiO logo and is planning to hand them out to instructors, helpers, and other supporters of the community. We also designed 500 vinyl stickers (laptop stickers) that we distribute at workshops and among the community for branding and visibility.
Carpentry @ UB #
The University of Oslo library is a silver member of the Carpentries, also for 2021.
Preparations for a briefing about Carpentry@UiO (community and workshop activities) for the library’s leadership team and the University of Oslo’s Fagråd for eInfrastruktur are underway with presentations in Jan 2022 and Dec 2021, respectively.
Currently, the Carpentry@UiO community is managed by Annika Rockenberger (Humanities and Social Sciences Library) and Aino Rinhaug (Digital Scholarship Center).