Carpentry@UiO 2023 Annual Report #

Report written by Elisa Pierfederici, Sofie Gilbert and Matthew Good (University of Oslo library)

Workshops held #

• A total of 11 workshops
• Three 2-day Carpentry workshops (R, Tidyverse, R-Tidyverse)
• Six 1-day Carpentry workshops (R, Unix Shell, Git and SQL)
• All workshop were held in-person

Workshop evaluation #

Spring semester #

In the Spring semester workshops, participants appreciated the thorough coverage of basics in spreadsheets and R, the friendly atmosphere, and the knowledgeable instructors. The structured, step-by-step approach and the availability of immediate assistance were highlighted as major strengths. The workshops were also commended for their suitable pace and starting from the basics.

However, attendees suggested improvements such as more information on applications, spreading the content over three days for a better pace, higher-level workshops, and more comprehensive material coverage. A pre-session for technical setup and slower pacing in certain sections were also recommended.

Instructors and helpers were praised for their effective problem-solving support and clear explanations, especially for non-intuitive coding aspects. While the workshops were well-received for their beginner-friendly approach, there was a desire for advanced content and better preparatory resources.

Fall semester workshops #

Participants really liked the hands-on approach and how easy it was to learn different tasks, especially in bash and Python. They appreciated the interactive sessions, the immediate help available, and the encouragement to ask questions.

However, they suggested some improvements: including more advanced topics, making the learning environment more comfortable, adding more challenging tasks, and extending the workshop duration to cover the material more thoroughly, especially for beginners. Overall, the feedback was very positive, with strong support for continuing these courses.

Social events #

• CarpentryUiO Community Social Gathering (September 7)
• Carpentry@UiO end of year party (December)

Organisation #

Board #

The last Carpentry board election was held in March 2020. Although it was previously established that elections were to take place every two years from that point, the election was postponed due to the pandemic. However, an election will be held in December 2023. As of November 2023, the Board consists of the following members:

• Chair: Lex Nederbragt

• Vice-chair: Mohamed Abdelhamid

• Communications officer: Anne Bergsaker

• Secretary: Désirée Treichler

• Community events officer: Elisa Pierfederici

• Elections officer: TBD

• Annika Rockenberger (appointed by UiO library)

• Sofie Gilbert (appointed by UiO library)

• Matthew Good (representing DSC)

The Board can be contacted via Board @ carpentry dot uio dot no. The Board had five meetings during 2023, minutes for the meetings can be found in (organisational/meetings), “yyddmm_board-meeting.md”.

Elections #

On December 7, 2023, an election will be held for new Carpentry@UiO leadership at the annual End of Year party. The positions available are:

Board Members (4 positions)

• Two members for 3-year terms
• Two members for 2-year terms

As we do not elect specific roles during the election, such as the chair or others, the elected members will determine the roles of the board themselves. Therefore, as of the current date (11-27-23) we do not have the newly elected board members’ names.

New roles #

Two new roles have been established this year.

• Community events officer: Organise regular community events, for example once per semester.
• Elections officer: Recruit community members to stand for election, coordinate the election, this role should preferably be held by a board member rotating off the board at the next election.

Website #

Workshop page #

• Where: https://www.ub.uio.no/english/courses-events

Website #

Workshop page #

• Where: https://www.ub.uio.no/english/courses-events/courses/other/Carpentry/

• Focus: Descriptions of typical lessons covered and format of the workshops.

• Structure: Having a sub-directory that contains files that are about each workshop (called “Carpentry”).

Community page #

• Where: https://www.ub.uio.no/english/writing-publishing/dsc/carpentry-uio/index.html

• Focus: Introduction of Carpentry@UiO as a community.

• Structure: Currently a single page under DSC’s site. Giving info about who we are, what we are doing, and how to get involved, as well as an explanation of the Carpentries.

TO DO FOR 2024 NOTES #

• When sending the post-workshop survey send also link to DSC newsletter

• Continue to open the courses for a number greater than the actual capacity, this helps to prevent low turn-out even when people deregister.

• When sending out reminder emails (1 week before workshop) add that there is a waitlist, asking people to please deregister if they do not intend on attending, this also helps to prevent low turn-out.

• Course information needs to be made more visible for the participants in the site and sending an e-mail with set-up instructions in advance

• Make a recurrent social event for the community (once a month)

• The Board should host information meetings of some form for new Carpentry@UiO members

Email Templates (all can be found in the Teams Carpentry@UiO folder): #

• Continue to send a reminder email to registered participants one-week before the workshop.

• Continue to send a reminder email to registered participants with the pre-workshop survey 2 days before the workshop.

• Continue to send a post-workshop email to registered participants immediately after the workshop, including the post-workshop survey link.