Carpentry Workshop Initiative: The carpentry workshop will form part of a digital scholarship initiative offered by the Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST) library focusing on strengthening open infrastructure capabilities. The workshop’s main goal is to capacitate both the researchers and students’ community with foundational computing and data skills needed to conduct research throughout the research life cycle. It supports the principles of open infrastructure by providing accessible training materials, promoting collaboration and knowledge sharing through building local communities of practice around open tools/platforms. The workshop plays a crucial role in the BIUST community as it would upskill them for the big data era and enable them to effectively integrate these new skills into their professional discipline and make them part of daily practice.
Funding Area: Capacity building / Construcción de capacidad
Problem Statement: The rapid generation of large amounts of data is enabling multiple ways of collecting data in a complex academic research landscape. This avalanche of data not only presents great opportunities, but also many challenges related to managing, analyzing and sharing data as it emerges. However, many disciplines are challenged to incorporate this class of information into teaching, learning and scientific advances. The emerging gap between data collection and research progress can be attributed to a lack of training for both students and researchers. There is limited possession of crucial skills of effectively finding, accessing, managing, and analyzing various types and amounts of data. There is a high demand for data literacy skills as data gets bigger and more complex, people need new skills and perspectives on making use of data that they have. The proposal to host a Data Carpentry Workshop at BIUST will address the noted gap as observed within the teaching, learning and research community. It is intended to increase data literacy skills by introducing data skills, coding and basics of data science with the aim of upskill them and improve their ability to use data effectively resulting in quality research outcomes. The community will be introduced to open tools, applications and processes for data organization, management, and analysis.
Proposed Activities: Training Workshops: Intensive, hands-on 3-days in person workshop from 9am to 16:30 pm committed to build a community of computation scientists and engineers in science, technology and engineering disciplines. Target: 30 participants per session Learning objectives: Best practices in data organization, cleaning, management, analysis and visualization. Lessons: Aligning The Carpentries project to BIUST strategic plan Data Organization in Spreadsheets OpenRefine for Data Cleaning Data Analysis and Visualization in R Plan/timeline: 14- 16 November 2023 29-30 April 2024 12- 14 November 2024 (Intentions is to host them during study week where postgraduate students and researchers are not too busy) Requirements: A computer with a Mac, Linux, or Windows operating system (not a tablet, Chromebook, etc.) Data set from participants previous research work/in areas of their work but instructors would always have sample data sets. A few specific software packages installed- Open Refine, R and RStudio, Tidyverse Certified Carpentries Instructors teaching core curriculum of Data Carpentry, Library Carpentry and Software Carpentry Monthly Friday morning Coffee and Carpentry Meetups:, Aims to build a local user community of interested members who will have the opportunity to meet and share experiences, brainstorm future activities as well as to collaborate with one another because It takes a supportive community to help people integrate new skills and make them part of daily practice. (Intentions is to hold them on the second Friday of the month, first one is planned for 8 December 2023)
Openness: The Carpentries project is a non-profit, volunteer-led organization. It consists of communities of instructors, trainers, lesson maintainers, helpers, and supporters who teach foundational computational and data science skills to researchers. Skills are taught through short, impactful workshops, often targeted to specific research domains. This initiative aims to provide BIUST postgraduate students and researchers with an opportunity to learn about data management, content, and tools, reducing barriers to entry and imparting the skills that are needed for continuing learning and engaging in the field of data science. Participants would be trained on open software tools such as Open refine, and R focusing on scientific computing and data handling. The proposed training workshops would also provide attendees with the core data skills for efficient, shareable, and reproducible community research practices. This is most needed as a cost saving strategy at this critical time when the university has huge budgetary constraints. It further supports the institutional strategic objective of enhancing research and development. This will be a groundbreaking training in Botswana and participants will be encouraged to cascade the learning points countrywide. The workshop would be taught by trained, peer, volunteer instructors but the institution would cover their accommodation expenses. Lessons are distributed under the CC-BY and are free for re-use or adaptation, with attribution.
Challenges: Wi-Fi/Internet connectivity might pose challenges but the Directorate of Information Technology would be engaged to ensure that the venue is well equipped/set. Our computer laboratories have old computers that are very slow, but attendees would be encouraged to bring their own devices. Technical Skills: There is a technical skills gap as one staff is a certified carpentry instructor specializing in library carpentry. As such team members will be capacitated by attending both regional and international carpentry workshops. Low turnout, but a month before the event, the workshop would be advertised across all media. Different levels of technical knowledge by participants but a pre workshop survey would be administered and reviewed to better understand attendees needs and adjust accordingly.
Neglectedness: NO
Success: An increase in the number of events and activities held, offering Carpentries Core curriculum of Library Carpentry, Software Carpentry and Data Carpentry. Growing number of users attending training workshops and monthly Friday coffee and carpentry meetups. BIUST community’s engagement/ participation in Carpentries’ project locally, regionally, and internationally. An increase in number of certified carpentries instructors Application of learning in day to day processes/operations.
Total Budget: $ 24970.00
Budget File: pdf
Affiliations: The Carpentries organization: - It is a non-profit, volunteer-led organization. The team would use its training materials that are publicly available under creative commons licenses and instructors. Our lessons would be customized based on community needs.
LMIE Carveout: The World Bank Report states that Botswana is a low- and middle-income economies, therefore this project shall be facilitated by Directorate of Library Services at Botswana International University of Science and Technology (BIUST). BIUST library is developing initiatives that are aligned to the university strategic objectives and leveraging on emerging technologies to deliver user centric services. It is working with research community to effectively participate in the entire research lifecycle through digital scholarship initiatives. Carpentry workshops are an example of these initiatives, designed to teach basics in scientific programming and assist participants to enhance the quality and efficiency of their research. This initiative would shape the quality of research in BIUST.
Team Skills: Members of the BIUST library have taken part in Carpentries projects, including: ● Fours have participated in Library carpentry. ● Three have participated in Data carpentry learners. ● One is a Carpentry maintainer. ● One is a Certified Carpentry Instructor. The team shall promote skills sharing and collaboration through organizing interactive coding workshops using carpentries curriculum. But the community's needs would be taken into consideration when using the carpentry curriculum, therefore we shall deviate from the standard curriculum and provide specific topics to the user community.
How Did You Hear About This Call: Word of mouth (e.g. conversations and emails from IOI staff, friends, colleagues, etc.) / Boca a boca (por ejemplo, conversaciones y correos electrónicos del personal del IOI, amigos, colegas, etc.)
Submission Number: 45
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