---
# System prepended metadata

title: BYOC_blog

---

# Bring your own classroom to a CodeRefinery workshop

## BYOC to socials and chats

### X  and Mastodon (very short)

Bring your own classroom to a CodeRefinery workshop! Provide a learning space, without organizing a full training by yourself. Materials are open, lectures streamed, the only thing you have to do is facilitate the learning experience!
Read more: https://coderefinery.org/blog/bring-your-own-classroom/
#RSEng

### LinkedIn (can be some 3 paragraphs or so)

:bulb: CodeRefinery is teaching good enough FAIR research software development practices in two workshops a year with all open source lesson materials (https://coderefinery.org/lessons/#lessons-that-we-teach-in-our-tools-workshops).

:calendar: The next iteration will be September 10-12 and 17-19 9-13 CEST (info and registration: https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/) and we have four ways for YOU to be part of and support it:

1. Advertise to your network; check our communications page for advertisement texts: https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/communication/
2. Be a learner or observer; register via https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/ .
3. Become a co-instructor for any of our lessons, you will be onboarded and never alone; a nice way to start your teaching journey or expand your teaching horizon :) If this sounds interesting to you, send and e-mail to support@coderefinery.org or come to one of our open planning meetings every Monday at 14 CEST: https://hackmd.io/@coderefinery/team-meeting
4. "Bring your own classroom" - You do not have the capacity to provide a workshop on version control and other FAIR research software development practices yourself, but know your community would need it? -> Provide a space to watch the CodeRefinery workshop together! 
We also wrote a blog post about this model including feedback from previous classrooms: https://coderefinery.org/blog/bring-your-own-classroom/ 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at support@coderefinery.org

#FAIR #ResearchSoftware #Collaboration #OpenAccess #CodeRefinery

### Chats (RSE, or other that we have access to; can be similar to LinkedIn)

:bulb: CodeRefinery is teaching good enough FAIR research software development practices in two workshops a year with all open source lesson materials (https://coderefinery.org/lessons/#lessons-that-we-teach-in-our-tools-workshops).

:calendar: The next iteration will be September 10-12 and 17-19 9-13 CEST (info and registration: https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/) and we have four ways for YOU to be part of it:

1. Advertise to your network; check our communications page for advertisement texts: https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/communication/
2. Be a learner or observer; register via https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/ .
3. Become a co-instructor for any of our lessons, you will be onboarded and never alone; a nice way to start your teaching journey or expand your teaching horizon :) If this sounds interesting to you, send and e-mail to support@coderefinery.org or come to one of our open planning meetings every Monday at 14 CEST: https://hackmd.io/@coderefinery/team-meeting
4. "Bring your own classroom" - You do not have the capacity to provide a workshop on version control and other FAIR research software development practices yourself, but know your community would need it? -> Provide a space to watch the CodeRefinery workshop together! 
We also wrote a blog post about this model including feedback from previous classrooms: https://coderefinery.org/blog/bring-your-own-classroom/ 

If you have any questions or suggestions, please contact us at support@coderefinery.org





#### Chats and posters

- deRSE : SW
- CodeRefinery (events): :heavy_check_mark: 
- Ambassador mailing list to share further: 
- RSE (UK) :heavy_check_mark: 
- ...



:::danger

Newest version, including image: https://github.com/coderefinery/coderefinery.org/pull/887 

:::

Abstract RSECon24: https://virtual.oxfordabstracts.com/#/event/49081/submission/156

Goal: Explain the concept and benefits; invite organizations to send their classrooms

Why would someone be interested? 
    - Need in own community
    - No knowledge or capacity to host own course
    - Become part of CodeRefinery community


## Bring your own classroom to a CodeRefinery workshop

CodeRefinery, supported by the Nordic e-infrastructure collaboration (NeiC), is dedicated to enhancing FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) research software development practices. Our workshops aim to provide essential training in research software development, and we’re continually exploring new methods to make this learning process effective and inclusive. 

**A Collaborative Effort Across the Nordics**

CodeRefinery hosts two workshops annually, supported by a wide network of Nordic universities and organizations. This collaboration helps us make Research Software Engineering (RSE) practices widely accessible and inclusive, reaching learners from varied academic backgrounds and levels.

**Open Source Learning Materials and Inclusive Workshops**

At CodeRefinery, we believe in open access to education. Our workshop materials are freely available online (https://coderefinery.org/lessons/), and sessions are streamed live and recorded for on-demand access (LINK). This ensures that anyone can benefit from high-quality training, regardless of their location.

During the workshops, we utilize a collaborative document that allows participants to interact with instructors in real-time. For us, this tool bridges the gap between traditional in-person instruction and the virtual environment, fostering an engaging and interactive learning experience for everyone.

**Scaling with Community Support: The Role of Local Partners**

An innovative aspect of CodeRefinery's approach to online workshops is the collaboration wit local partners to scale the workshop experience while maintaining a sense of community. Local partners organize viewing rooms, either online or in-person, where learners can gather to watch the live stream, discuss the material, and collaborate on exercises. A local team leader facilitates discussions and provides learners with support and encouragement. 

This setup not only scales the workshops to accommodate a larger number of learners but also preserves the interactive and community-centric atmosphere of smaller workshops. It encourages learners to learn from each other, share their experiences, and apply the skills they are acquiring in a supportive group environment. Through the support from a local team lead from the same organization, possibly even the same domain, discussions can be more comfortable and targeted on learners own work. 

Local partners have the flexibility to engage in the workshop preparation and organization as much as they wish, though it is not required. We offer a one-hour onboarding session prior to the workshop to orient you on the workshop proceedings and share insights on managing a local team. This session also provides ample opportunity for questions and discussions. Following the workshop, we actively seek feedback from both learners and local hosts, including team leads. This iterative process has been invaluable in refining and enhancing the workshop experience over time.

**Many ways to join the experience**

CodeRefinery’s workshops are more than educational events—they’re a step towards more open and collaborative research practices. You can get involved as a learner, team leader, or local partner. We welcome your participation!

If you can’t join us directly but want to support our mission, consider becoming a CodeRefinery ambassador (LINK). 

To stay updated on upcoming workshops and opportunities, visit our website (LINK) or subscribe to our newsletter (LINK). Let’s work together to advance FAIR research software practices!

If you’re interested in bringing your own classroom to our next workshop, contact us at support@coderefinery.org."

---

**Storyline idea:** 

- Covid forced us to move online
    - done in different ways
- traditional online teaching in "Zoom"; moving the teaching to zoom
    - accessible, recording, chat
    - lost human connection to instructor but also especially other learners, learning together, coffeebreak chats
- we could go back now to in-person teaching, and partly we do, but we also thought of another way that fits us well:
- best of both worlds: streaming + bring your own classroom
- the CodeRefinery workshop
    - content
    - approach
- how can you bring your own classroom
- BYOC not "end of line"
    - further development of existing materials into own training
    - contributing CR to adjust to own needs
- If you cannot BYOC but want to support: ambassador

THANKS to all supporters!

---

Other discussions on the format: https://coderefinery.org/blog/workshop-plan/
Discussion on teams: https://coderefinery.org/blog/2022/11/28/teams/
'reverse hybrid': https://coderefinery.org/blog/2022/11/07/reverse-hybrid/

**Other notes:**

- no time/expertise to develop/provide course to teach RSE practices
- don't know if your researchers have need for this/ testing would be great
- CodeRefinery workshop setup 
- Bring your own classroom idea
- piggyback something existing
- intermediate step on the way to provide own course
- Feedback from people that did this (NL (Paula and other), FI (Enrico), Spain, Norway, Heidelberg)
- Ambassador
- outreach, support, community of practice

---

## Feedback collected 

Paula Martinez Lavanchy, TU Delft: 

> Our collaboration with the CodeRefinery initiative started in 2020, when we collaboratively organised a Train-the-Trainer activity and co-organizing a CodeRefinery online workshop where TU Delft researchers joined as participants and our data stewards and research software engineers joined as helpers. Since then, we have been ‘bringing our own class’ to the CodeRefinery workshops by joining the streaming of the lessons from the classroom with our participants and helpers.

> The CodeRefinery initiative has helped us and benefit TU Delft researchers in several ways:
    - The possibility of joining the workshops allowed us to advance with the implementation of our Vision for Research Data & Software management training and the implementation of TU Delft Research Software Policy by providing high quality and well-received training on FAIR software practices.
    - The involvement of our data stewards, software engineers and trainers as helpers in the CodeRefinery workshops have also provided them with a great opportunity to continuously improve their skills and learn from this great community.
    - The CodeRefinery learning materials are openly available and of excellent quality. We often refer our researchers to use them as consultation materials on our websites and/or guides.


Lisanna Paladi, EMBL: 

>We represent an established training entity within our institute (EMBL), and decided to present your workshop in the same way we present ours: adding your event to our calendars, having an internal registration to sort out rooms, and explaining that we will have the only role of helpers during your streamed lessons. I think that this worked well in advertising the opportunity and providing locally the essential pre-workshop installation assistance, but it posed a significant challenge: those that didn’t read carefully the workshop description on our website expected us to be the instructors and higher levels of interactivity with them. 
Besides this point on expectations management, I think your format really allows to reach the biggest possible audience, while also fostering the creation of local communities. We had in-room discussions during the breaks and created a local chat channel for the participants. That was used also in the following days while they were testing the skills learned on their setups. We were inspired by your format in designing ours for the BioNT project (let us know if a statement from that too would be useful).


---

## E-mail to classroom hosts, sent on 23.7.24

Email draft to people that at some point provided an in-person possibility (NL (Paula and other), FI (Enrico), Spain, Norway, Heidelberg)

Hei XX,

I am writing to you since you have organized a local CodeRefinery classroom in the past. We are now working on a presentation about the "bring your own classroom" concept for the RSECon24 this September in Newcastle.

It would be incredibly helpful if you could provide us with a few sentences (1-3) about how this has worked for you and what were the benefits? We would like to then use these statements for a blog post and the conference talk on the topic.

In addition, we would also like to cordially invite you to becoming a CodeRefinery ambassador. More information about the program on our website: https://coderefinery.org/join/individuals/#coderefinery-ambassador

If that sounds interesting to you, please sign up for our ambassador mailing list: https://postit.csc.fi/sympa/subscribe/coderefinery-ambassadors/ 

Thank you for your time and looking forward to working with you again!

On behalf of the CodeRefinery project,
  Radovan Bast and Samantha Wittke


PS: Upcoming workshops, please share with your network and join us if you have time:

- CodeRefinery train the trainer, 4 modular sessions every Tuesday morning between August 13 and September 3. Join any of the sessions that interest you; no need to be or aspire to be a CodeRefinery instructor! More info and registration: https://coderefinery.github.io/train-the-trainer/

- CodeRefinery online workshop on tools and techniques for "good enough" FAIR Research Software Engineering practices for researchers, 6 half days between September 10-19. More info and registration: https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-09-10-workshop/

- Same workshop but fully in person is also offered August 27-29 in Gothenburg: https://coderefinery.github.io/2024-08-27-gothenburg/

- Build systems course and hackathon organized by PDC Stockholm with CodeRefinery partners in October. Four course days plus local hackathon and support sessions. More info and registration: https://www.pdc.kth.se/about/events/build-systems-course-and-hackathon-part-i-1.1346795, Hackathon/Support session (FI): https://ssl.eventilla.com/build-systems

After summer holiday season we will also restart our community sessions, stay tuned! 



