Report of the Instructor Status Survey 2019 #
Author: Annika Rockenberger Date: Nov 7, 2019
Introduction #
Data Collection #
An online survey was created using Nettskjema (University of Oslo web-tool for surveys). The questions asked can be found in the survey document. The survey was then send to the organizers mailing list on Oct 10. A reminder to participate in the survey was sent out to the same list on Oct 16 and Nov 06. On Nov 07, 20 submissions were registered. Assuming that of the 68 subscribers to the mailing list at least 5 are staff support, the participation in the survey was ca. 1/3.
Due to confidentiality reasons, the data this report is based on cannot be published. It is accessible for members of the Board via the University of Oslo G-Suite. The data will be deleted no later than Nov 7, 2024.
Overall Impression #
Overall, the people who responded to the survey are known local instructors, with a few exceptions. Of the 12 people who participated in the instructor training in summer 2019, 4 submitted their answers to the survey.
Critique #
Even though the survey was mainly targeted at instructors, it was open for helpers, too. It was, however, not designed to capture the helper-function properly. This is a flaw. Based on the comments received in the survey, at least two people have been active as helpers and not as instructors.
Are you a certified Carpentries-instructor? #
| Yes | No |
|---|---|
| 13 | 7 |
11 Oslo-based Carpentries Instructors on Carpentries website, cross-check revealed ca. 50% overlap.
How many times per year are you willing to teach or co-teach a Carpentries workshop at UiO? #
| Number of instructors | Teachings per year |
|---|---|
| 13 | 2 |
| 6 | 3-5 |
| 2 | 1 |
| 1* | >5 |
*(as helper)
Which lesson(s) are you comfortable teaching or co-teaching? #
Software Carpentry #
Our staple lessons are Unix Shell, Git, and Python; a good amount of instructors are versed in R, too. We have far less people feeling comfortable teaching SQL and Make.
Data Carpentry #
Significantly less people feel they can teach Data Carpentry. 2 indicated they could teach the Ecology lesson, 3 the Genomics lesson and 2 were comfortable teaching Geospatial Data.
However, 9 indicated they could teach a Carpentries-inspired GitHub lesson.
Support from local UiO-Carpentry community #
Everyone except 2 responded that they feel they get enough support from UiO-Carpentry. The two which responded negatively were asked for feedback (in the form) and answered that they didn’t ask for support or that since they are a helper they didn’t feel it applied to them.
Workshop organisation and support #
Asked whether they feel they know who to set up a workshop website and run a workshop at UiO, 16 answered in the affirmative.
4 stated they did not feel they know how to do those things. Their explanations were that they either didn’t mind since they could ask for information when needed, that they felt they needed to try it out to get used to it or that the question didn’t apply to them since they were helpers, not instructors.
Registration via AMY, Carpentries instructor database #
11 stated they were registered. The list of people doesn’t match the information publicly available on Carpentries.org (however, Carpentries.org states that not all information is shown and that there might be a lag. It is ultimately up to the individual instructor to keep their profile up to date).
9 stated they aren’t instructors, with at least some indicating that they would like to become instructors or are in the process of checking-out.
Anything you would like to let us know #
Ca. half of the participants left a comment. Mostly indicating their willingness to teach (more) and explanations for why they haven’t contributed as much as they would have wanted.