# R consortium ISC Proposal: Software Carpentry R Instructor Training 

[Laurent Gatto](http://lgatto.github.io/about/)[^1],
[John Blishak](https://github.com/jdblischak),
[David LeBauer](https://sites.google.com/site/dlebauer/),
[Greg Wilson](http://third-bit.com/greg-wilson.html) and
[Jonah Duckles](http://jduck.net/cv)

[^1]: lg390@cam.ac.uk

> This proposal is
> [publicly available](https://github.com/lgatto/SC-ICS-Proposal/blob/master/SC-ISC-proposal.md)
> and welcomes suggestions and contributions from the community.

## The problem

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R is in high demand - an ever increasing number of people from various
domains are keen to learn it and further improve their skills. While
there is an enormous amount of R teaching material, both commercial
and
[freely available](http://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/),
there is arguably a shortage in qualified instructors who possess
skills in **R** and in **effective teaching methodology**. This
shortage of qualified instructors substantially hinders the expansion
of adequate and long-lasting skills in R programming and data science
throughout the community.

The [Software](http://software-carpentry.org/) and
[Data Carpentry](http://www.datacarpentry.org/) organisations develop
and teach workshops on the fundamentals of programming and data skills
needed to conduct research. Their mission is to provide researchers
high-quality training covering the full life cycle of computational
and data-driven research. They strive to *teach researchers in
science, engineering, medicine, and related disciplines the computing
skills they need to get more done in less time and with less pain.*
The quality and success of the Software and Data Carpentry bootcamps
is assured by high-quality, pedagogically sound, collaboratively
developed and openly-available teaching material and **instructors**,
who themselves are trained in effective teaching methodology. This
training is organised by the Software Carpentry itself to assure an
evidence-based and coherent teaching methodology. It has already
organised several instructor training courses which were well attended
and well received, and has accumulated substantial experience
([1](http://software-carpentry.org/blog/2015/09/rebooting-instructor-training.html),
[2](http://software-carpentry.org/blog/2015/12/instructor-training-checkout-procedure.html)).

## The plan

<!-- > How are you going to solve the problem? Include the concrete actions -->
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We would like to organise a 2-day in-person
[Software Carpentry instructor training](https://swcarpentry.github.io/instructor-training/)
that is focused on teaching R programming:

> These instructor *training course introduces the basics of
> educational psychology and instructional design, and shows them how
> to use them to teach programming to free-range adult learners. Each
> lesson includes a theory of how people learn or a teaching
> technique, with a specific focus on applying these ideas and tools
> to computational instruction. It is necessarily shallow, but we hope
> it will be useful and convince you to learn more.*

The exact date, location and list of
[participants](https://github.com/lgatto/SC-ICS-Proposal/blob/master/participants.md)
will be chosen so as to maximise and diversify participation. We will
offer 20-24 places. Participants will be required to demonstrate good
knowledge of R and, ideally, to also be familiar with Software and
Data Carpentry teaching techniques. We will also ask for a commitment
from instructors being trained to go back to their home institutions
and deliver a workshop within 6-12 months, so as to maximise the
impact of our effort.

The location of the instructor training is currently open for
discussion. Current suggestions include, but are not limited to, a
useR conference or the Cambridge University Bioinformatics training
facility (see this
[issue](https://github.com/lgatto/SC-ICS-Proposal/issues/9) for
details and discussions). Host organisation will need to provide a
room with AV and a white board or flip chart, as well as, if possible,
breakout space for small group activities.

While the instructor course is not targeted towards any specific
programming language and focuses on education psychology and
instructional design, this ISC-funded instructor would be dedicated to
the R language. The training involves many practical activities where
students are asked to illustrate the course concepts by developing
specific examples and exercises related to their language and
domains. In the frame of this course, the programming language would
be R and many domains will be relevant to data science in general, and
the R community in particular. The R-based outputs of the exercises
and assignments will be directly beneficial to R community, as they
will be directly applicable to many existing R teaching material, in
particular the openly available
[Software](http://swcarpentry.github.io/r-novice-inflammation/) and
[Data Carpentry](http://www.datacarpentry.org/R-ecology/) material.

## How can the ISC help

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We would like to request financial support from the ISC to organise
and promote the course. In addition, we will also benefit from
logistics support from the host organisation.

## Budget

<!-- > Please note that the budget for the ISC is currently limited. We are -->
<!-- > likely to fund one or two projects with a budget of $20-30k -->
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We request a total of **$10K**, including $8K for general training
revenue and $2K travel budget.

Instructor training revenue go into the Software Carpentry general
revenue that supports: (1) The Executive Director's salary (Jonah
Duckles) - major activities: building partnerships, ensuring stability
and sustainability of the organisation; (2) the Instructor Training
Director (Greg Wilson) - major activities: development and maintenance
of instructor training curriculum and instructor training; (3) the
Project Coordinator (Maneesha Sane) - major activities: organising
workshops and day-to-day operations, leads a global network of program
coordinators in other countries; (4) focused development of the AMY
workshop logistics application (5); other operating expenses such as
web hosting, equipment, supplies etc. and (6) activities in lesser
served communities around the world. The travelling budget will
support the travelling and accommodation of the course instructor.

## Dissemination

<!-- > How will you ensure that your work is available to the widest number -->
<!-- > of people? What open source license will you use? How will host your -->
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<!-- > work? We encourage you to plan at least two blog posts to the R -->
<!-- > consortium blog: once to announce the project, and one to write up -->
<!-- > what you achieved. -->

We will rely on the main R,
[Software Sustainability Institute](http://software.ac.uk/) and
Software/Data Carpentry discussion channels to advertise the
instructor course. All the course materials (instructor training and R
courses) are available CC-BY license; so will any additional material
prepared for this R-specific event. The names of the newly trained
instructors will be advertised widely for them to further disseminate
what they have learned, organise new courses and further promote local
instructor communities. We will will broadcast the course and its
outcome broadly over social media and through blog posts on the R
consortium, Software Carpentry blogs and local communities to (1)
foster broad interest and diverse participation and (2) maximise the
outcomes for the community in general and the participants themselves.