About
The Carpentries is a non-profit project with the aim of building global capacity in essential data and computational skills for people conducting and supporting research, so that research can be efficient, open, and reproducible. It is an open and inclusive community of learners and instructors “that promotes and models the importance of software and data in research”.
The project is founded mainly through grants and the support of its member organizations, the majority of which is constituted by universities.
Online material
Lessons, including teaching material and exercises (with solutions) are developed collaboratively, using evidence-based teaching practices, and are made freely available online, under a CC BY licence.
Lessons are organized in different curricula and curricula are grouped under three main categories:
Software Carpentry Software carpentry aims at teaching basic programming skills. Its curricula focus on three core topics:
- the Unix shell
- version control with Git
- a programming language (Python or R)
Supplementary lessons include: - using the tool “Make” for automation
- Databases and SQL - MATLAB
Library Carpentry Library Carpentry are bespoke for people working in library- and information-related roles but many lessons from its curriculum can be relevant for students of ancient writing cultures , such as the lesson on Open Refine.
Data Carpentry Data Carpentry trains researchers in the core data management skills. Data Carpentry workshops are domain-specific, in order to teach resarchers the skills most relevant to their domain and use examples from their type of work. Currently no curriculum tailored for the Humanities exist, but many modules from the other curricula can be useful and can be taken as a starting point for teaching. See, for example the module Data Management with SQL for Ecologists in the Ecology Curriculum.
In addition to the official curricula, lessons on a wide variety of topics can be found in the Community Developed Lessons catalogue, where lessons developed by members of the community.
This catalogue comprises:
- lessons which have been peer-reviewed (from the Carpentries Lab)
- lessons still in the testing phase or under development (from the Carpentries Incubator).
Languages
Even though most teaching material is in English, some material in Spanish has also been developed.
Workshops
One of the core activities of the Carpentries is to organize free workshops around the world, held by their community of trained instructors. Here you can find the calendar of upcoming workshops
Notice that, although instructors hold the workshops on voluntary bases, workshops may have a certain cost, due to travel and administration expenses.
Trainer instruction
The Carpentries offer the possibility to take short (mostly) online courses to become a certified Carpentries instructor. These courses are not meant to teach you about Carpentries lessons contents (already covered by the online material), but to introduce to the principles of the Carpentries code of conduct and pedagogy, with special attention to themes like online teaching and live coding.
The access to courses is either through one of the member organizations or through the Open Instructor Training Program. Instructor courses are given at no cost.
Local communities
The Carpentries is a worldwide organization, with active regional and local communities, typically based in universities and similar institutions.
The Carpentries and the study of ancient writing cultures
Teachers and students of ancient writing cultures can profit from the Carpentries in the following ways:
- they can attend to live/online workshops to learn about a given digital method/tool which can be applied in their research
- they can attend to instructor training courses to learn how to teach these subjects
- teachers can use existing lessons and adapt them to the needs of their courses and modules, adding examples from their subjects and focusing on themes on functionalities which are more relevant for their area of expertise.