Teaching

Summary

Aalto RSE spends a significant amount of time teaching, because that’s a good way to help the widest number of people. It also helps to bring projects into us. When we see something that is taking up a lot of our support time, we can add it to our courses to save time long-term.

Teaching isn’t just being in front of people and talking, but there are very many parts to our collaborative teaching: co-teaching, collaborative notes, livestream broadcasting, lesson development, organizing courses, and more.

Main challenges/pitfalls

  • Getting use to the CodeRefinery teaching style (though once you are used to it, it’s actually less work)

  • Managing time for lesson maintenance and development.

  • Teaching with the mindset of a learner (and what thy need to know), not trying to teach them to be like you, an experienced RSE.

Expectations / checklists

  • Take part in the Instructor kickstart program.

  • Optionally, take part in CodeRefinery “train the trainer”

  • Begin by co-teaching working lessons with experienced instructors. Do this 1-2 times.

  • Prepare before teaching: Teaching plan and Lesson review checklist.

  • Set up you computer for teaching following all the best practices (in addition to all the other things you learn during the instructor kickstart).

  • Take on the role of primary instructor during workshops.

  • There are other things you can do as well:

    • Broadcasting

    • Video editing

    • Course organizing

    • Major lesson development

    • etc.

External materials

Other

  • Course arrangement

  • Teaching philosophy

Training program: materials

Exercises

Teaching-1: Explain a game

Purpose: have some fun while practicing rigorously explaining new concepts to a group (and also practicing evaluating how well the explanations went and giving recommendations to a colleague). We use these lessons in our teaching.

Preparation: Watch or (read) the “Motivation to CodeRefinery instructor training” (teaching tech vs teaching games) material

The task:

  • Choose board games and divide into groups appropriate for the games. In each group, there should be ~1-2 people who knows the game, and it’s new to the rest (this is flexible)

  • The 1-2 teachers make a teaching plan in accordance with the lessons in the info. (you don’t have to teach the whole game, or do a complete play-through.) Treat it is our SciComp teaching: not the full picture, but enough to get someone interested and get started. (If there’s a schedule, it may give you an idea of how many minutes you have to teach.)

  • Teach others the game. The learners pay close attention to the way the game is being taught (perhaps taking notes; without interrupting the teaching too much). You can use this exercise sheet that lists the points from the material to assist in note-taking.

    Special notes:

    • Manage time well and decide the proper level of detail. Don’t get stuck on small things.

  • When time is up, everyone discusses how the explanation went:

    • What went well and didn’t go well?

    • How would you improve it next time?

    • Also use the opportunity to practice constructive criticism - find a way to say what you think nicely but directly, even if it’s not comfortable.

Teaching-2: Practice a course intro

Take one of the lessons we teach (or something new) and a partner (for team teaching), and give a 3-5 minute intro of the lesson to your group. Pretend that you are livestream teaching to a broad audience.

Others: give feedback and discuss.