Computer Workshops - syllabuses, planning, practicalities and experience

===Computer Workshops - syllabuses, planning, practicalities and experience===
===Authors===
Dr. Martin Grayson, UK based scientific consultant, MartinY 14:03, 7 September 2006 (UTC)
===Preface===
This article is submitted to the wikification process because it deals with a real issue but with largely anecdotal evidence and some pure prejudice on part of the principal author. Even so there are still a good number of literature
references and proof for some of the conjectures.
It is hoped that being subject to critical scrutiny and augmentation will make this a rather useful paper.
===Abstract===
Advice
on how to run a computer based workshop is presented and supported by a
description of both successful experience and mistakes from both
sides of the lectern, as teacher and student. There is an emphasis on
how to impart practical skills and to permanently embed them into the
student's portfolio of competences. Methodologies of practice and
retention of skills are discussed. At a practical level how to
conduct the workshop allowing for the different expectations and
pre-existing skills of the participants is discussed. A solution to
some difficulties which are unique to computer usage, such as how to
describe an awkward sequence of keystrokes, is suggested. 
===Preparing a Syllabus===
A syllabus or synopsis for a workshop is very different to a usual
lecture course. There is a greater focus on practical skills and
<I>competences</I>. A workshop formerly run as part of the graduate
training program at a British university was on the use of crystal databases in
research. The students should know the theory from their bachelor's
degree training but are introduced to the computer-based
practicalities of research use of the data. Preparing the syllabus is
essentially assembling a series of prescriptive problems for all to
do which when completed will give a good overview and also provide a
jumping off point for learning any more obscure parts of the
software. The software used was the Cambridge Crystallographic
programs <I>Quest</I> and <I>Conquest</I> (Allen and Kennard,1993),
(Allen and Hoy,1998). This
workshop was taken by the whole postgraduate intake. 
In
research oriented courses it is a good idea to ensure that once the core
competences are imparted each individual student has different
exercises related to their other major project work. 
Another
workshop was run to support research oriented tuition on molecular
modelling. The theory had been outlined in earlier lectures, but it
was not at such a level that the students could be effective
theoretical practitioners because the course prerequisites did not
include the advanced mathematical linear algebra skills which would
be required. It was however to enable the students to steer the
molecular modelling computational systems towards the solution of
practical problems: how to drive the car rather than how to design an
engine. 
===Competence Based Training===
The basic
Competence Based Training (CBT) (Flethcher,1997) theory gives us three
stages of learning: 
<UL>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
	Ignorance</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Conscious
	competence</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.49cm">Unconscious
	competence</P>
</UL>
It is desirable with reference to scientific problems and solutions like to
expand it to 5 stages. 
<UL>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
	Ignorance</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Incomprehension</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Understanding
	with concentration</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Conscious
	competence</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.49cm">Unconscious
	competence</P>
</UL>
So
CBT requires a breakdown of the training into a core set of
competences in which the student much progress from deliberate to
automatic <I>i.e.</I> unconscious practice. This requires
concentration and attention to detail but followed up by enough
practice to begin the way towards unconscious competence. Little
progress can be made towards this goal <I>during</I> a workshop.
Sufficient guidance to future practice must be given, perhaps in the
form of training material to take away. It is highly likely that
follow up practice should begin if possible after a rather short
interval after the workshop and that practicing little and often is
better than a great deal in a short time and then nothing for weeks.
Experiments by Nader, Schafe and le Doux (Nader et al.,2000), the article by
McGaugh (McGaugh,2000) and the book by Rose (Rose,2003) demonstrate that
the <I>first</I> practice after the workshop is important and should
be of the highest quality possible. This is because the <I>first</I>
repetition makes the memory labile and can result in errors or poor
practice being stored in the long term memory. If this is true, it
could explain why sometimes, knowledge fails to transferred to
apparently quite diligent students, and the phenomenon could be
pedagogically very important. 
Pilling (Pilling,1996)
was not satisfied with the usefulness of CBT in a teacher training
context because of the difficulties of defining and measuring the
<I>competences</I>. In many computing situations this would not be
too difficult to define and examine. Other problems raised by
Pilling (Pilling,2006) relate to the paper chase of the skills portfolio
building and proving exercise often used in CBT. This was felt by
many students to be tedious, jargon ridden and generally a waste of
time. This was particularly the case in presenting the evidence for
National Vocational Qualifications (NVQs) which was perceived to be a
classic example of academic stamp collecting. Also it was quite
apparent that students could be <I>creative</I> and <I>innovative</I>
in the production of evidence, a situation not entirely unknown in 
the writing of CVs. However in a context of the personal work
consolidating upon a workshop, none of these problems would apply. Ideas deriving from CBT 
training and practice can be
successfully applied in training computer usage.
===Preparing Knowledge Transfer as a Student=== 
There
are several ways in which one can enhance the chances of a skill
progressing from requiring concentration and consciousness to
becoming automatic. The most important is repeated practice. A good
example is learning to drive a car where even when having
successfully passed the test, driving requires concentration and
deliberation. After a few months of driving regularly everything
becomes unconsciously automatic. The key is regular repetition and
little and often is better than several hours at a single session in
a week according to Jack Dacre, a much admired music teacher who
developed a pedagogy resulting in students who were very accurate
performers. He wrote a very interesting book on his pedagogy which
seems to be now not known to either the internet or the British
Library. 
It is worth
repeating here the story of how the composer Vaughan
Williams wrote his harmonica concerto, helped by fastening the note
chart for the instrument onto his shaving mirror, so he began each
day looking at it during the unconscious act of shaving until a
knowledge of the chart also became unconscious.
It
helps to reinforce mental skills by using as much of the brain and
nervous system as possible almost in the way deliberate memory
techniques are developed, (see (Buzan,1989) and (Cottrell,1999)).
(In mathematics teaching one way of trying to do this is to make a jigsaw
of <I>integration by parts</I> examples so that sorting out the
pieces of card involves a bit of physical as well as mental activity.
<I>Integration by parts</I> however will still remain difficult. A
better example is the way Japanese Railways require their staff to
<I>salute</I> signals. Not only drivers but also lineside track
workers who see a red signal change to green have to salute the
change so that more of the brain is involved in the recognition of
the potentially dangerous event of a passing train.)
Whenever
possible one should never <I>demonstrate</I> to a small group by
typing or mouse moving oneself. Always find a way for the student to
do the physical activity, even if this takes longer. 
===Preparing a Workshop Based Course===
The
preparation for a postgraduate course is not always straightforward
because of the bureaucracy of computer registration, software
licenses and the arcane networking procedures which might be involved
because of security and firewalls. Some clearly see this as an
unnecessary barrier preventing them getting on with their immediate
PhD research. (Students have asked, <I>how many signatures
a week DOES the University want?</I>) Of course much of this has now
been removed by central single point verification systems like Athens
or IP-authentication, but sometimes there must be independent
signatures to agree to individual software licenses. Another
situation might be where there are robust procedures for
licensing postgraduates but undergraduates are a special case. Also
it has not been obvious in different institutions what the
under-graduate / post-graduate status of taught masters / taught
degrees with a <I>M</I> title and masters by research are. 
It is therefore advisable to try out the administrative
procedures a week or so, but not too far
in advance, before the course and do not take anything for granted.
However struggling with bureaucracy and the legal requirements of
computer usage is an important part of research training! 
Another
potential problem is to check that all the computers being used have
the same mark number of the software and the level of the operating
systems is compatible! 
Where
a text and numbers input based program without a Graphical User Interface (GUI)
such as a typical quantum
chemistry package is being taught there is the problem of the file
editor to be used. Unfortunately even if the target group are going
to be UNIX users there is no guarantee of all the participants being
competent in a UNIX editor such as <I>vi</I>. Do you want to include
a session on the editor for everyone? Emphatically no. There are a
couple of obvious ways to deal with this: make some level of UNIX
competence a mandatory prerequisite, or find out in advance and for
the practical sessions put people into editor expert / editor novice
pairings. (This basic peer mentoring needs permission in advance from
the editor mentors!) 
Though
rather obvious it is worth mentioning that if participants have
travelled a distance it is important to have organized a pre-training
coffee and talk as people arrive but not for too long, as the shyer
participants may feel a bit left out if everyone else seems to be
chatting away. It is important to start on time but if there are
significant late arrivals as there often are in these days of traffic
jams and overloaded railway junctions reschedule material
immediately. Begin with something not vital, such as a web
bibliography session which can be replaced by paper handouts or a web
site for the latecomers. Such a session would still be able to engage
the people who are there on time. 
Have
a flexible way of progressing through the course. There should be one
possible line which is very prescriptive, where the students will be
told and assigned everything, so there is no time wasted by it not
being clear what to do next. If you do have focus group style
session, such as <I>what do you as a group require from the software</I>,
all may be well and there may be lots of feedback and discussion.
There also may not be much proactive behaviour from the students, so
be prepared to tell the group what they require, even though they do
not know it, and switch to a more prescriptive style practical
session. (In a music teaching context one of the authors was expounding several
options of how to hold and play an early string instrument. This
produced the response, <I>I do not want to be given a list of
options, I want to be told what to do.</I>) It is useful to
be prepared to give both advice, according to need. 
===Methodology===
It
is not always the case one can work in a training room with a data
projector. Sometimes one might have a computer room or a research
laboratory where one is largely explaining what to type on a one to
one basis. In this case it is good to sit on the left, (for a right
hander), next to the student, and write on scrap paper exactly what
is to be typed, whilst describing what is going on in words. This
ensures an accuracy and lack of ambiguity in what is to be typed. It
is a good idea
to never touch the keys for anyone but if you have to specify 
computing's arcane
formulae like setenv DISPLAY 134.897:0.0 with precision,
in some software the <I>capitalization</I> is important, a nightmare
when giving verbal instruction. Another verbal problem is telling
students to type characters such as !@#~|<>;: and ;. If you
cannot show all on a data projector writing leads to much less
aggravation and mistyping. 
Much
of computational practice is learning to organize yourself and
dealing with procedures which, rather surprisingly as they are
running in a Boolean logical machine, have little logical structure.
It is a good idea at the end of a session to encourage students to
type into a <I>computer file</I> any important pieces of unstructured
knowledge they have picked up or are written on the note papers. The
great advantage of computer files is that they are <I>grep</I> or
<I>find</I>-able and when you think months later <I>how did I connect
the two bits of the molecule together</I> even without indexing your
notes you stand a good chance of finding the procedure. (Indexing your research notes
is a very good procedure but too
time-consuming for most purposes.) Even if there is a good selection
of notes on the web available, searchable personal notes have the
advantage of being compact and specific. 
The
requirement for specific expertise introduces the danger of <I>corporate
amnesia</I> when the departmental expert moves on to another job.
Over the passage of time it is easy to forget which
computer program does a certain procedure which might be incredibly
useful to research or administration but only on rare occasions. A
typical example being if there is infrequent but highly useful
statistical analysis of data towards the end of a long project. Good
lab-book practice helps but the searchable computer file is a good
<I>belt and braces</I> standby. It is a good idea
to produce good ancillary documents to the main manuals issued and
to have all such material in html so that it can be
available via a web portal. 
===From the Training Room Seat===
Issues of concentration and
attention have already been discussed earlier but clearly it makes a great deal of difference to
the learning process if one arrives with the right attitude. Very
often one wants to learn something specific and may not be interested
in the whole course which may be unnecessary for one's future work.
However an attitude which regards the non-useful part of the material
as generic learning practice is to be recommended and it is not
always obvious in advance what is useful. 
However
it is problematic from both sides of the lectern when dealing with a
course which is compulsory and essentially unwanted by the
recipients. (There might be examples of this in areas such as job
evaluation preparation or safety training where essentially the
recipients believe they know what they need to know already and
resent being taken away from what they regard as more important.) 
Where
a workshop runs all day it is also almost inevitable that there will
be an afternoon <I>sag</I> at about half past two and it is advisable
to have something both interesting and prescriptive which will be of
relevance to most participants to try to counter this psychological
effect. 
===Assessment and Feedback===
This is becoming mandatory after a workshop at many institutions.
One
method of assessment used on a post-graduate database course was
that the attendees must produce for the tutor and also for their research
supervisor a page or so of A4 typescript about small piece of
successful original research from the data set being taught. Sometimes this has
required a bit of prompting to get a relevant data search as in
situations such as the student saying <I>my research involves a
monitoring device for only two molecules, how can a search of a
molecular data base be relevant?</I>. It is always possible by
expanding to larger analogy, to find a sequence of molecules to look
for data on, just as the external examiner of the thesis might well
look beyond the two molecules under consideration. 
Ultimately
negative feedback from research students comes if the support does
not give them adequate progress towards their PhD goals. This is very
individual to both the project and the student problems. 
Within
institutions there is often a standard form for student feedback
which has largely irrelevant questions about visual materials and no
questions which are particularly applicable to the practical aspects
of a workshop or the software applications. As each piece of software
potentially requires a different style of teaching it is desirable to
design a feedback form around the competences being initiated by the
training. (Examples might be: <I>Did you feel confident and competent
in your use of the model building component of the software?</I>, or
<I>Do you feel you could formulate a search which would not miss out
any relevant molecules using the structure specification rather than
words and names?</I>) 
Short research workshops have usually been completed with enthusiasm once it
is appreciated that the computer can provide excellent support to a
practical PhD project. If the supervisor of the PhD has special needs
a workshop might expose the possibility of getting access to other software.
===Conclusions===
Some
conclusions might seem obviously good practice but as they are often ignored
they are worth repeating here. 
====From the teaching side: ====
<UL>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
	Use the information you have on the student's pre-workshop skills
	and try to rectify beforehand anything lacking such as UNIX skills
	which may impede the progress of the practical work of the whole
	group. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Be
	prepared to be either prescriptive or responsive according to the
	needs of the group on the day. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">However
	do not lose sight of the core competences which must be imparted to
	all present. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Give
	guidance to future practice as what is imparted on the day might be
	totally forgotten. Give teaching material to take away. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Try
	not to <I>demonstrate</I> too much and find ways for the group to do
	their own typing or mouse moving. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.49cm">Consider
	whether some peer mentoring is appropriate during the workshop. 
	</P>
</UL>
====From the learning side:==== 
<UL>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-top: 0.49cm; margin-bottom: 0cm">
	Come to the workshop with a positive attitude, even if you are
	hoping never to use the computer program again. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0cm">Write
	a practice schedule for afterwards in your diary. 
	</P>
	<LI><P LANG="en-GB" CLASS="western" STYLE="margin-bottom: 0.49cm">Do
	not be afraid to make notes on seemingly trivial problems when using
	software. 
	</P>
</UL>
===References===
*F. H.Allen and O. Kennard, <I>Chemical Design Automation News</I>, 1993.
*F. H. Allen and V. J. Hoy, <I>The Cambridge Crystallographic Database</I>, in P. von Ragué Schleyer, (ed.), <I>The Encyclopedia of Computational Chemistry</I>. Wiley, Chichester, 1998, <B>1</B>, pp155-167.
*T. Buzan, <I>Use Your Memory</I>. BBC Worldwide, 1989. 
* S. Cottrell, <I>The study skills handbook</I>. Palgrave study guides, 1999. 
* S. Fletcher, <I>Designing competence-based training</I>. Kogan Page, 1997. 
* K. Nader, G. E. Schafe and J. E. le Doux, <I>Nature</I>, 2000, <B>406</B>, 722-726. 
*J. L. McGaugh, <I>Science</I>, 2000, <B>287</B>, 248-251. 
* E. M. Pilling, <I>Conceptualising the professional role of further education teachers: an exploration of the adequacy of competence based teacher training</I>, Thesis (M.A.) - University of Sheffield, Division of Education, 1996. 
* S. Rose, <I>The Making of Memory</I>. Vintage 2003.
Category:Education in the Sciences submitted article
Category:Education in the Sciences