Incubator Lesson Spotlight - Reproducible Computational Environments Using Containers: Introduction to Docker

The Incubator Lesson Spotlight highlights a lesson under development by our community in The Carpentries Incubator. In this first feature of the series, we look at the progress being made on the Reproducible Computational Environments Using Containers: Introduction to Docker lesson, and hear from the authors about how The Carpentries community can get involved with the ongoing development of this lesson.

Lesson Profile

• Title: Reproducible Computational Environments Using Containers: Introduction to Docker
• Lesson Pages: https://carpentries-incubator.github.io/docker-introduction/
• Lesson Repository: https://github.com/carpentries-incubator/docker-introduction

Learning Objectives

After this lesson, learners should..

• Know what containers are and how they can be useful
• Know how to find and use containers created by someone else
• Know how to create and share your own containers
• Understand how to take the next step in your use of containers

Target Audience

Our target audience is researchers who want to learn how to use containers to help manage computational environments and enhance the reproducibility of their research results. Learners should have some experience with the Unix shell, e.g., from having completed the Software Carpentry lesson, “The Unix Shell”.

Lesson Progress

This lesson is probably best described by the beta stage of the lesson lifecycle. It has been taught by the maintainers several times and we’ve heard from others who have taught it as well. The lesson has typically been copied and customised to make it suitable for the learners within a given workshop and it can also be used as part of a two-day workshop in combination with the Singularity lesson. We are currently working on editing it to make it easy for anyone to teach, and making improvements to help teach this to a novice audience.

How You Can Help Develop This Lesson

We would love to hear feedback from anyone who has taught the lesson on how it went, things that went well or could use improvement. We are also aware that there are many lessons on containers out there and would be keen to receive contributions from the wider community to help improve this open source lesson.

Please give us feedback via issues on the GitHub repo or the #docker-intro-lesson channel within the Carpentries Slack team.

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About This Series

Incubator Lesson Spotlight is a regular feature in The Carpentries blog and Carpentries Clippings newsletter, highlighting the great work our community is doing to develop new lessons in The Carpentries Incubator. Developers of any lesson in the Incubator are encouraged to submit details about their material for inclusion in the series. If you would like to increase the visibility of your lesson and encourage Carpentries community members to contribute to its ongoing development, fill in this short form.