The Future of Online Workshops

It has been 20 months since The Carpentries convened a Task Force to address the urgent demand for remote Carpentries workshops. To date we have run over 700 online workshops. With the feedback and recommendations we have received from Instructors and Host we have been able to provide updates to the Official Guidelines for teaching Carpentries Workshops Online.

We know that the transition to online workshops presents its own set of pros/cons and it may not have been easy but our community rose to the occasion. The demand for our workshops did not suffer, in fact, we saw an increase with requests for Centrally-Organised workshops.

Now What?

The Core Team has reviewed the existence of online workshops and has decided that ONLINE WORKSHOPS ARE HERE TO STAY! In September, a project team was formed to decide what each department needs to address to ensure that online workshops are as effective, efficient, and successful as possible.

There will be several new developments taking place at the top of the year for Online Workshops. We will be updating our documentation and providing resources to better equip those involved with running online workshops. All of the changes will not happen immediately. We will keep you updated.

Get Changes from the Source

We would like you to hear first-hand the plans for making online workshops permanent. There will be several updates and changes to the current workflow of online workshops and we want the community to be aware of these changes. You are invited to attend one of two Community Calls 7 December 1400 UTC and 8 December 000 UTC. You can sign up on the etherpad.

These calls will update the community on plans the Core Team have to make it easier to participate in online workshops. In addition, we would like to gather feedback from the community regarding their experience to help us further develop and create successful online workshops. If you are not able to attend, but would still like to give input about online workshops you can add comments to this issue on this GitHub Repo.

Acknowledgement

The work The Core Team is doing would not be possible without the hard work of our Community Members. Your blog posts, your responses to the surveys, and your emails allowed us to identify the areas that need improvement and the successes of online workshops. As always, Thank you for ALL that you do in The Carpentries community.