QCIF has produced 15 more digital skills instructors this month to help Queensland researchers.
QCIF led online Carpentries instructor training from 15–18 June, with 15 participants from QCIF and QCIF Member universities.
Nine QCIF staff received instruction, including Bioinformatics staff and each of the eResearch Analysts at James Cook University and USC.
Three Griffith University staff, two from the University of Queensland and one from QUT completed the Queensland numbers.
QCIF Skills Development Manager Dr Mark Crowe was one of the workshop’s trainers. “Having new instructors will particularly help introductory programming (R, Python and Unix) and statistics workshops, our two highest-demand training areas,” he said.
The other two trainers were librarian Masami Yamaguchi from Griffith University and Liz Stokes, a Senior Research Data Skills Specialist at the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC).
As the training was held online, and The Carpentries is a global organisation, seven people from the US joined the workshop, as did one from New Zealand and one from Sydney.
All 24 workshop attendees will need to complete further certification activities online before becoming fully qualified Carpentries instructors, just as Dr Marlies Hankel, a QCIF eResearch Analyst at UQ, recently did. (Marlies will focus on teaching Unix and high-performance computing and is gaining experience in Python.)
The Carpentries is a non-profit organisation teaching foundational coding and data science skills to researchers worldwide. QCIF is a proud platinum member of The Carpentries.
Want to become a Carpentries instructor?
QCIF currently offers a range of workshops, including on software programs R, Python, Unix, SPSS and REDCap; bioinformatics platform Galaxy Australia; and more general courses, such as working with sensitive data.
Late last year, QCIF announced it was seeking casual training instructors for 2021 who are enthusiastic about helping researchers learn new digital skills.
Instructors may teach workshops in their local area or travel to teach.
Please contact Dr Mark Crowe if you are interested in becoming a casual Carpentries instructor.