You can too! Running a successful data bootcamp for novices

Abstract

A pre-conference workshop.

Successful outreach on topics such as working with and managing research data can be challenging when teaching novice users. Participants in this workshop learned about v 1.0 (2015) and 2.0 (2016) of a multi-day Data Bootcamp for novice data users in the humanities and social sciences, held at Middlebury College. These bootcamps covered topics such as managing, cleaning, and documenting data, as well as data visualization, mapping, and working with textual data.

In addition to discussion about what worked for Middlebury, participants worked together to determine audience needs, learning objectives, and tools. Workshop ideas that developed focused on active learning methods and free and/or open-source tools and data to increase accessibility. Participants were also able to access and share workshop materials from an Open Science Framework project.

Ryan Clement

Data Services Librarian

I help students, faculty, and staff find, use, and visualize data and other information. My research interests include information and data literacy, data visualization, library assessment, and user experience/service design.