Organizing a CodeRefinery workshop

Anyone can organize a CodeRefinery workshop and teach the CodeRefinery lessons which are licensed under CC-BY. However, making it a successful workshop requires careful planning and preparation. Here we will go through practical aspects of organizing a workshop.

Email templates

A collection of email templates:

When adding new ones, add to an existing page (make a new section) or. Try to avoid too much markdown formatting, so that a rendered version can be copied to plain text email easily still.

Select a workshop coordinator

One or two persons coordinate the workshop preparation and debrief. This does not mean that they do all the work - they are encouraged to delegate tasks - but they make sure that nothing gets forgotten.

Before the workshop

First steps

Recruit instructors - having at least 3 instructors is highly recommended.
Find 1-2 workshop helpers with an appropriate background.
Reserve dates (coordinate this with the instructors)
Reserve room
Select a workshop coordinator
Workshop coordinator creates a ticket with a checklist on https://github.com/orgs/coderefinery/projects/4 and takes it (self-assigns)

Lecture room

Start looking for an appropriate lecture room early.
See this list of requirements for the lecture room.

Set up workshop page

Import the template at https://github.com/coderefinery/template-workshop-webpage to your username or the coderefinery organization, and name it like “2019-10-16-somecity”.
Update the required fields in index.md and push the commits. The page should now be served at username.github.io/2019-10-16-somecity/.
If the workshop will be customized to the needs of a particular audience, modify the schedule accordingly.
If the workshop should be listed on https://coderefinery.org:
- (Fork and) clone https://github.com/coderefinery/coderefinery.org
- Under coderefinery.org/_workshops/, add a file named like 2019-10-16-somecity.md which contains the fields permalink, city and dates. For example:
```
---
permalink: https://username.github.io/2019-10-16-city/
city: Somecity
dates: October 16-18, 2019
---
```
- send a pull request with your new file.
Create a registration form following Indico event setup.
Open and test registration

Announcing the workshop

Twitter
Email persons who registered to notify-me form
Use local mailing lists and all channels possible

For self-organized workshops:

Write an email to support@coderefinery.org to get a pre-workshop survey link and registration form on https://indico.neic.no

Distribute the work

Make sure lessons are distributed

Preparing lessons

Go through the lesson material you will be teaching and think about how you intend to teach it, and how much time you will be spending on each episode.
Are there any unsolved issues that you can fix?
Go through the instructor guides of the lessons you will be teaching.
- Review the intended learning outcomes, and try to keep these in mind while teaching.
- Try to memorize the typical pitfalls and common questions.
Go through the lesson presentation hints.
Go through the helping and teaching guide, and request all helpers to go through it too.

Prepare practicals

Order catering (coffee, tea, water, fruit, something sweet, etc.)
Organize sticky notes
Organize extension cables if needed
Organize alternative wireless for those without Eduroam (if any)

Communication with participants

Send out practical information, including installation instructions, around 2 weeks ahead. Here is a template.
Emphasize that all software should be installed before the workshop starts, and point out the configuration problems and solutions.
Remind registered participants that they are either expected to show up or to cancel participation
Also ask those without Eduroam to speak up.
Maintain waiting list if needed
Make sure we have enough pre-survey answers
Close registration on the workshop page

1-2 weeks before the workshop

Workshop coordinator organizes a call with all instructors and helpers to discuss the schedule to leave no doubts about timing. Also discuss the survey results.
Point helpers (and instructors) to the tips for helpers.

Right before the workshop starts

Prepare a shared Google doc or https://hackmd.io with global write permissions, consider creating a memorable short-link (e.g. bit.ly)

Create exercise repositories

The collaborative Git lesson requires exercise repositories to be set up. For this follow the instructor guide in the lesson material.

Workshop preparation checklist

This checklist can be set up as an issue under https://github.com/coderefinery/coderefinery.org/ or on another repository to keep track of the progress

- [ ] reserve dates
- [ ] decide workshop organizer
- [ ] (online) prepare Zoom link or (in-person) book lecture room
- [ ] announce (twitter, notify-me, mailing lists)
- [ ] team of instructors complete
- [ ] workshop website up
- [ ] lessons distributed
- [ ] prepare lessons
- [ ] create exercise repositories
- [ ] (in-person) prepare practicals (coffee/tea, sticky notes, extension cacles)
- [ ] (online) Zoom roles distributed
- [ ] registration open
- [ ] team of helpers complete
- [ ] registration closed
- [ ] enough pre-survey answers
- [ ] install instructions sent
- [ ] pre-workshop briefing held, helper training
- [ ] survey results shared with co-instructors/helpers

As participants arrive

Emphasize to participants that you need to sit with someone - don’t work alone.
Try to have participants sit next to someone with a similar operating system if they have no preference, since they will face similar problems.

Introduction talk

See https://github.com/coderefinery/workshop-intro
Have a 10 minute ice-breaker session where participants and instructors introduce themselves and either describe their research in 2-3 sentences or what they hope to get out of the workshop.

During workshop

While teaching, keep these tips in mind
Don’t start off with tech details, say why this is important.
Try to stick to the material, although some excursions are useful.
Keep up interactive feel by encouraging and asking questions
Keep time
For presentations which have shell commands, create a cheatsheet/reference on the board in real time.
Remind participants about sticky notes.
Make sure we take regular breaks (at least a short break each hour)
Give participants some time to also experiment (do not rush the classroom through exercises)
Encourage optional feedback at the end of each day or end of each lesson on sticky notes. Process the feedback immediately and adjust your teaching (pace etc) accordingly
Create GitHub issues for points which are confusing or problematic
Take active part even in the lessons you’re not teaching, e.g. by asking questions and (politely) interject with clarifications when you think something is confusing to the learners
Wrap up, say what you taught and why, and what comes next.

At the end of workshop

Give credit to those who contributed and helped
Use https://github.com/coderefinery/workshop-outro

Post-workshop

Process and distribute feedback to co-instructors and others (e.g. type up in shared document)
Debrief with instructors
Process certificate requests

Post-workshop survey 

To measure the long-term impact of CodeRefinery workshops it’s useful to send out a post-workshop survey. This survey can identify which topics taught in workshops are particularly useful and which have less benefits for the participants.