Call for Pilot Workshops: Neuroimaging Lessons

An important step in the process of developing a new lesson is the moment when material is taught for the first time by someone other than the original author(s). In our description of the lesson life cycle we refer to these events as beta pilot workshops. After teaching the new lesson material, Instructors provide feedback to the lesson developer(s) to enable the lesson to be further polished in final preparation for an official release.

Introduction

Two of the lessons in a collection on neuroimaging analysis, under development in The Carpentries Incubator, are now looking for beta pilot hosts. Developed by Erin Dickie, Jerrold Jeyachandra, Michael Joseph, Jason Kai, Ariel Rokem, and Olivia Stanley, Introduction to MRI Data Analysis and Functional Neuroimaging Analysis in Python are designed to teach newcomers the basics of MRI and fMRI imaging analysis and are part of a multi-institutional neuroimaging curriculum development group that also includes J.H. Legarreta, N. Bhagwat, P.J. Toussaint, B. Selby, J. Desjardin, T. Strauss, P. Bermudez, J.B. Poline. The lessons can be taught together in a single workshop, with the introductory lesson serving as a foundation to the content on Functional MRI analysis.

Are you interested in teaching/hosting a pilot workshop of this material?

Here are a few more details to help you decide if the lesson is right for your audience:

• The lesson requires that learners are already familiar with the basics of Python programming as taught in either of the Software Carpentry lessons, Plotting and Programming in Python and Programming with Python.
• The material is expected to take 6-7 hours to teach.
• Beta pilot workshops require a minimum of two certified Carpentries Instructors.
• The lessons can be taught with local Jupyter installations, or via the Binder instances that are available for each lesson repository.

If you would like to host a pilot of the lesson at your institute/organisation, please take a few minutes to fill out this short application form before the end of Wednesday 24 March 2021 (anywhere on Earth). We ask hosts to apply so that we can collect the information the lesson authors need, to coordinate the pilot process and maximise the impact of the pilots on the lesson material.

As these two lessons are parts of a larger Neuroimaging collection, with the other components also under active development in The Carpentries Incubator, hosts of these pilot workshops are likely to have further opportunities to trial lessons in the future. For example, the group is currently on track to pilot a diffusion imaging analysis workshop, and in addition, are in the early stages of planning a workshop on the analysis of anatomical (T1) data.

If you have any questions about lesson development and the beta pilot process, please contact Toby Hodges.

For more information about the lessons themselves, please contact Jerrold Jeyachandra.