April 11, 2013 · 8:00 am

The Mastery Table for Planning Classes

I’m quite taken with the Software Carpentry approach to teaching scientists computer skills, especially since I saw it in action in UW a few months ago. One aspect that I’ve been trying out for my own course is the “mastery table” approach that the Software Carpentry Instructor Study Groups use. Here is a mastery table for teaching version control. I have made a few of my own, but I don’t think I said enough for any novice to leave competent, according to my ambitions. I will keep trying.

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2 responses to “The Mastery Table for Planning Classes”

  1. Mugizi Robert Rwebangira
    April 11, 2013 at 8:50 am

    Interesting concept! I guess a syllabus tries to do a little bit of this by specifying what the students should learn at the end of class, but this goes into a bit more detail. The only issue I see is that a typical 16 week (or even 10 week) academic class covers much more material so there would be a LOT more to write in this “Mastery Table.”

  2. Abraham Flaxman
    April 11, 2013 at 6:08 pm

    Yes, exactly, Mugizi! I am going to have a lot of these by the end of the quarter if I continue, one for each lecture.