Online Community

Ongoing support is provided to participants during the academic year to continue their professional learning and ensure they can successfully carry out instructional plans at their home institutions. The project team provides a range of activities designed to support participants and inform curriculum refinement throughout the year. These following are guided by findings from our prior research found to be strongly associated with successful online communities: 

Monthly Check-Ins

Throughout fall and spring, the project team will facilitate formal monthly check-ins with participants on progress made towards implementing instructional plans developed duringthe Summer Workshop. The check-ins will also be used to gather feedback on curricular modules used by instructors. Guest speakers from our advisory board and other invited guests will also lead sessions on LA topics during check-ins. These sessions will be informed by the community, as well as more specialized topics in advanced methods.

Virtual Module Sessions

These session are offered several times each month so participants can learn about research methods they were unable to experience during the Summer Institute, as well to model instructional use of the modules in a fully online context. The workshops are led by members of the project team as well as by past LASER Scholars.

Asynchronous Activities

Facilitated discussion channels and informal Q&As are hosted on our Slack workspace, which includes both current and past participants from prior LASER Institute cohorts. Discussions focus on shared problems of practice such as adapting instructional modules to local contexts or working with students who have limited programming experience, as well as topics related to module content such as R packages, conceptual overviews, and essential readings. 

Resource Repositories

A key deliverable of this grant is a freely available website that houses all the curriculum materials needed to teach, and learn from, the LASER curriculum. These materials consist of both project team and member-generated content hosted on GitHub and a new curriculum website currently under development. These website include materials for each module as well as supporting materials for instructors such as pedagogical tips, information on computing infrastructure, technology stack, and logistics for set up.