Pre-workshop preparation

These things will help you get the most out of this workshop, by giving you a broad overview at the beginning that you might only get later on in the lesson.

Don’t worry if you don’t have time to do everything here. The most important ones are listed first.

Read “How to help someone use a computer” (5 min)

How to help someone use a computer, by Phil Agre. Summary: Most of our teaching challenge is helping people to overcome bad user interface design.

Browse a CodeRefinery lesson (5 min)

Please take 5 minutes and go through a CodeRefinery lesson and understand the general layout. Don’t go in-depth to any of the material (unless you want, obviously). We would recommend git-intro if you don’t have a preference.

(optional) Watch “The future of teaching” (35 min content only, 45 min with Q&A, or 15 min reading)

The “The Future of Teaching” talk is a summary of many things in this course. You could watch it as a preparation (or if you are reading on your own, as a summary). This is low priority, since we will cover most of these things in the course itself. Watch it on YouTube or read it if you prefer.

(optional) Read “The science of learning” (20 min)

Read this short paper The Science of Learning which provides a brief overview of some key evidence-based results in teaching. This paper is also used by The Carpentries for their Instructor Training workshops.