Train-the-Trainer program 🧩

In a previous newsletter post I talked about my idea for the Digital Research Academy. With a pilot of the Train-the-Trainer program we're getting closer to making it a reality 🚀.

Digital Research Academy

Idea: Build a trainer network and teach Open Science, Data Literacy, and Research Software Engineering skills.

Learn more

Join the DRA community

A lot of people seem to like the Digital Research Academy idea. To move it forwards together, we created a mailing list.

Join the mailing list!

Thanks to everyone who showed interest in the Digital Research Academy idea so far. It is so amazing to learn from everyone! 🫶

A Pilot of the Train-the-Trainer Program

You are all experts in your field, the tools that you use and the way you work. The train-the-trainer program wants to ensure that each trainer has the ability to teach their skills to others.

Part 1: Learning about Didactics

In this part we will learn how to be(come) good trainers. We will do so by teaching each other principles of teaching that are based on best practices. We want to break the bad habit of teacher-centered teaching and work according to evidence on how people learn well. Didactics-lesson preparation and teaching can be done alone or in pairs.

Each trainer (pair) prepares one lesson. We will choose lesson topics together as a group.
After each session we make notes about our key take-aways.
We all give feedback on the lesson content and how it was taught.

Part 2: Practicals

In this part we will put our new knowledge into practice by teaching a course. Courses may be taught alone or in pairs. The format and type of course can be chosen freely. It just needs to feel like a course and not just a one hour session.

These courses will already be official Digital Research Academy courses and course participants will pay a fee for participation (we can offer stipends). This way we can finance the trainer training and learn how well the course (type) sells.

Each trainer (pair) prepares a course. The topic and course format is up to the respective trainer (pair).
At least two other trainers serve as peer reviewers and give feedback both during course development and after the course was run.
Feedback needs to be implemented into the course (material) after the course was run.
Course material is made available under a CC-BY license as part of the Digital Research Academy material collection.

Interested in joining?

As this whole thing is an experiment, we'd like to run a pilot of this train-the-trainer program. We've already collected a small fun group of future trainers and would like to offer the possibility for you to join as well.

Dates:

Option 1: August 28 - September 1, 10:00 - 12:00 CEST, online
Option 2: September 4 - 6, 10:00 - 16:00 CEST, in Munich (board, lodging and travel self-paid)

Application procedure:

Send an email to dra@heidiseibold.de with the following info:

Subject: Train-the-trainer + your name
Your name, location (city + time zone), phone number
Who are you? (2-3 sentences)
Why are you interested in becoming a trainer for the Digital Research Academy? (2-3 sentences)
What are the topics you'd like to teach? (list of topics)
Which of the two date options would work best for you? Would you be able to join the other option, too? If none of the options work, please still apply as we will offer further trainings if these go well 🤓

This is a first pilot and it will not be perfect. Also, we will not be able to include everyone. Please be patient with us 🫶