Instructor Notes
Schedule
The curriculum is intended to be delivered in 2 parts over six half-days. Part 1 takes 4 half-days and teaches the theory of lesson design as well as implementing lessons using The Carpentries Workbench. At the end of part 1, learners are expected to have an outline for a whole lesson, and a detailed plan for some of its individual sections/episodes. Part 2 takes 2 half-days and teaches collaborating effectively on open lesson development projects. There is an extended break for lesson trial runs between parts 1 & 2, where learners are expected to conduct mini pilots of their lessons with the intended target audiences.
Below is a suggested schedule that can be used as a guideline to plan the content and timings for each teaching session.
Part 1
Day 1
| Time | Session Title |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 09:45 | Introduction |
| 09:50 - 10:00 | Break |
| 10:00 - 10:30 | Lesson Design |
| 10:30 - 11:05 | Identifying Your Target Audience |
| 11:05 - 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 - 12:05 | Defining Lesson Objectives/Outcomes 1 |
| 12:05 - 12:15 | Break |
| 12:15 - 13:00 | Defining Lesson Objectives/Outcomes 2 |
| 13:00 | End |
Day 2
| Time | Session Title |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 10:05 | Example Data & Narrative |
| 10:05 - 10:15 | Break |
| 10:15 - 11:20 | Episodes |
| 11:20 - 11:30 | Break |
| 11:30 - 12:15 | Designing Exercises 1 |
| 12:15 - 12:25 | Break |
| 12:25 - 13:00 | Designing Exercises 2 |
| 13:00 | End |
Part 2
From experience, half-days 5 & 6 can probably be delivered in less than the scheduled amount of time and could potentially be folded into 1 half-day of teaching, for learner teams that are more experienced in working with GitHub.
Day 5
| Time | Session Title |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 10:05 | Reflecting on Trial Runs 1 |
| 10:05 - 10:15 | Break |
| 10:15 - 11:05 | Reflecting on Trial Runs 2 |
| 11:05 - 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 - 12:00 | Collaborating with Your Team 1 |
| 12:00 - 12:10 | Break |
| 12:10 - 13:00 | Collaborating with Your Team 2 |
| 13:00 | End |
Day 6
| Time | Session Title |
|---|---|
| 09:00 - 10:05 | Collaborating with Newcomers 1 |
| 10:05 - 10:15 | Break |
| 10:15 - 11:05 | Collaborating with Newcomers 2 |
| 11:05 - 11:15 | Break |
| 11:15 - 12:00 | Project Management and Governance 1 |
| 12:00 - 12:10 | Break |
| 12:10 - 12:30 | Project Management and Governance 2 |
| 12:30 - 13:00 | Wrap-up |
| 13:00 | End |
Training Themes
Lesson Development as a Learning Process
A recurring theme in this training is the discussion of the benefits of piloting a new lesson and treating teaching as an opportunity to learn and improve the lesson. We have found it helpful to frame the discussion this way and to draw on our own experience when talking about the ways in which piloting a lesson can help to improve it. For example, when teaching the assessments or narrative section you might discuss a time when you piloted a workshop and realized there was a concept missing in the demo/narrative that learners needed in order to be able to complete the exercise.
Why do we adapt Nicholls’ approach?
We use a modified version of Nicholls’ five phase paradigm for curriculum design throughout the training. Nicholls’ paradigm describes a process, commonly referred to as backward design, where those who wish to develop a new curriculum first begin by defining exactly what their learners will be able to do after they have completed the lesson/training/course. The subsequent stages of the curriculum design process involve designing content to directly meet those stated outcomes.
- Select learning outcomes
- Choose learning experiences to help learners achieve these outcomes
- Develop content to support these experiences
- Assess learner progress towards desired outcomes
- Evaluate chosen outcomes, experiences, and content based on this assessment
The Carpentries community specialises in relatively short-format workshops, typically lasting less than a week and including no opportunities for any assessment after the teaching has finished (a summative assessment). To account for this, our lessons (and this training) place an emphasis on formative assessment: assessment of learner progress that takes place while the teaching is still going on, to give instructors opportunities to evaluate the teaching and lesson content before the end of the workshop. The process we follow in this training reflects that emphasis, giving more attention to the design of these formative assessments (and particularly exercises) as the equivalent to the learning experiences described by Nicholls.