We have started teaching a modified version of the R DC curriculum that teaches Git instead of SQL (because that seems to be more relevant to the majority of our audience). We rely entirely on the RStudio git GUI for this. Although that is a pretty limited interface but not having to learn an additional tool (or command line usage) helps to make git more accessible. Another change we have made is that we don't teach git as a separate lesson. There is a brief introduction to git but the majority of it is taught by demonstrating its use throughout the R part of the course. Based on feedback from the learners this has helped to reduce confusion and made git more accessible. Admittedly, the git part of the course covers only the very basics but the hope is that it will get a larger proportion of the learners to actually use git. I don't have any hard data on this but based on what they say immediately after the course, the proportion of participants who are considering using git certainly seems to be higher than after an SWC course that uses the standard git module.
Cheers, Peter Dr Peter Humburg Statistician Faculty of Human Sciences AHH Level 5 Macquarie University NSW 2109 T: +61 2 9850 9848 E: peter.humb...@mq.edu.au ________________________________ From: Brooks Kieffer, Elizabeth Jamene <jamen...@ku.edu> Sent: Thursday, 17 October 2019 3:21 AM To: discuss <discuss@lists.carpentries.org> Subject: [discuss] Insight on Data Carpentry and Git? Hi everyone, I’m reading the Baker et al article about the initial instance of Library Carpentry (Baker, J., et al, (2016). Library Carpentry: Software skills training for library professionals. LIBER Quarterly, 26(3), 141–162. https://doi.org/10.18352/lq.10176<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/b-LfCk815RCr8x1jU2B1k9?domain=doi.org>). In the Next Steps section, the authors mention learners’ struggles with Git during this workshop, and note that other curricula exclude Git because of its difficulty. Specifically: “…this is a finding of comparable training programmes and is a reason for Data Carpentry not teaching Git and GitHub” (p. 158). There isn’t a citation for the information about why Data Carpentry doesn’t teach Git and GitHub, and the Teal et al article describing Data Carpentry doesn’t mention Git (Teal, T. K., et al, (2015). Data Carpentry: Workshops to Increase Data Literacy for Researchers. International Journal of Digital Curation, 10, 135–143. https://doi.org/10.2218/ijdc.v10i1.351<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/tGVBClx1OYUA0Qp8f9VHEt?domain=doi.org>). I would appreciate any insight and/or links to discussions specifically about this decision to exclude Git from Data Carpentry. I’m not interested in debating the decision. Rather, I’m working on a paper on teaching Git; documentation of this discussion would be helpful supporting information for the paper’s opening contention that Git is difficult to both teach and learn (something that’s not news to this group!). Thanks very much in advance, Jamene Jamene Brooks-Kieffer Data Services Librarian University of Kansas Libraries 785-864-5238 jamen...@ku.edu she/her/hers The Carpentries<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/-wgmCoV1Y2SBjOZRFOB5hW?domain=carpentries.topicbox.com> / discuss / see discussions<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/kjaSCp81gYCv1YKWs2WYCJ?domain=carpentries.topicbox.com> + participants<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/LqsWCq71jxfzKql3Tq2D0r?domain=carpentries.topicbox.com> + delivery options<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/7q8PCnx1Z5UKA8j2UZUjtY?domain=carpentries.topicbox.com> Permalink<https://protect-au.mimecast.com/s/vvdGCmO5wZsABOD3fBAerw?domain=carpentries.topicbox.com> ------------------------------------------ The Carpentries: discuss Permalink: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/T914cb72e74e12319-Md5e5bf51f169d5d158430ffd Delivery options: https://carpentries.topicbox.com/groups/discuss/subscription
