CSCCE news Archives

CSCCE Canvas user survey update 1: An update to our offboarding policy

Since 2023, CSCCE has used Canvas LMS as a way of streamlining course delivery for trainers and providing a consistent learner experience in terms of accessing materials and assignments. This year, we’ve been taking some time to assess the sustainability of our technology stack (see earlier posts about our new Credible digital badging platform and our switch to Zeffy for training registrations), and Canvas is next on our list!

When we first introduced Canvas, we did not have an offboarding policy, which over time has resulted in an ever-growing roster of past learners with access to the platform. This has created administrative and financial costs for us, but before we made any move to restrict access, we wanted to learn more about how our course participants actually use the platform.

So, in early August 2026, we distributed a user survey to just over 200 of our past learners, focusing on participants in our multi-week, general registration courses as well as those learners who went on to join the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program.

We were interested both in how they used Canvas while a course was in session (to navigate to course materials and homework assignments), and whether they then continued to access materials via Canvas after the course ended. We also asked some additional questions about community programming and ongoing opportunities to get involved at CSCCE.

This blog post shares a brief summary of what we learned about Canvas use from the survey, and how we’re using that information to update our offboarding policy. We’ll share more about what we learned from the additional sections of the survey in a future blog post.

Before we go any further, we want to stress upfront that all past CSCCE learners have ongoing access to course materials via CSCCE’s Google Drive – access that will NOT be going away as we institute our new Canvas access policy.

If you have any questions about the contents of this post, especially if you are a past learner uncertain about how to access your course materials, please contact training@cscce.org.

Infrastructure update: CSCCE launches Credible, a new digital badging platform

We’re continuing to make some updates to our technical infrastructure as existing tools change their features and pricing plans. We wrote recently about how we’ve moved to Zeffy for training registration and now we’re excited to share that we’ve moved our digital badging to a new homegrown platform, Credible.

Congratulations to our newest CSCCE certified community manager!

Each quarter, we celebrate the participants who recently completed the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program. As a modular program, individuals graduate on their own timelines, and this quarter we said “congratulations” to Tajuddeen Gwadabe, who joined the program while supporting the Catalyst Project through OLS, and since moved to a new position at the Masakhane Research Foundation.

In this blog post, you can read more about Taj’s journey through the program, which learners can personalize to meet their needs and interests, and learn about Quarterly Skills Share sessions (one of the components of the Certification Program). If you’re interested in learning more about the program, or enrolling in it yourself, please send an email to info@cscce.org.

MEET ALL CSCCE-CERTIFIED COMMUNITY MANAGERS

How did the pilot Birdaro training program go? Feedback from participants – and our learning program design

For 12 weeks at the end of 2025, CSCCE hosted a pilot cohort of a new online training program for leaders in scientific open source projects. The Birdaro training program, funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, set out to address some of the human challenges related to the sustainability of OS projects and how they scale; interpersonal dynamics, documentation debt, governance, and more.

VISIT THE BIRDARO WEBSITE

As we worked to recruit an initial cohort of OS leaders, we asked them what their most pressing needs were, and responsively designed a pilot training module that focused on governance and documentation.

We received applications to participate from twice as many projects than we could accept in just a short period of time. We take this as a sign that there is a large appetite for this kind of training in the STEM OS ecosystem – and in a future blog post we plan on sharing more about our vision for Birdaro as a series of related training modules and collaborations that result in new resources to benefit the community at large.

But, for now, we wanted to share how the pilot cohort went, and in what ways participants found value in the program. If you would like to talk to us about Birdaro, including suggestions for future sponsors of the program, please reach out to info@birdaro.org.

“This training helps build an understanding of the important social aspects to technical work. The specific regard to distributed team work and coordination in open source technical projects is unique.” – Birdaro 2025 participant

The Birdaro training program: Working with OS projects to reduce their documentation debt (Part 2)

This post originally appeared on the Birdaro blog. Birdaro, which is powered by CSCCE, offers leadership development for open source projects. In 2025, we ran a pilot cohort of the Birdaro training program that focused on governance and documentation in open source. This post is one of several reflecting on the outcomes of the pilot cohort.

From September-December 2025, we worked with 24 scientific open source projects through the pilot cohort of the Birdaro training program. This multi-week training module, funded by the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, focused on governance and documentation in open source (OS), and included training sessions facilitated by CSCCE staff and discussion forums for participants to learn from each other.

This post is the second in a 2-part series (read part 1) focusing on how the Birdaro training program supported participants in creating community playbooks – a proactive formula for curating documentation and making it available (and usable!) to the audiences who need it. If you haven’t read the first post already, we suggest you take a read to gain some more context about Birdaro, playbooks, and the different ways they can positively impact OS projects.

*Projects highlighted in this blog post: CIB Mango Tree, The R Project, RSpace, and The Dataverse Project.*

The Birdaro training program: Working with OS projects to reduce their documentation debt (Part 1)

Addressing documentation debt through playbook creation

The choice to focus on governance and documentation for this pilot cohort was informed by our understanding of participant needs (60% of applicants identified creating contributor guides and team playbooks as a priority training area), as well as a broader appreciation of the challenges facing the scientific open-source ecosystem.

New resource for Zulip community managers: A CC BY Quick Start Guide template

In January 2026, we hosted a community Tools Trial on the open-source community platform Zulip, which some communities are using or considering as an open-source alternative to Slack. It was a really informative session, and our expert speakers did an excellent job of highlighting how the platform works, how to manage a migration from Slack, and how you as a community manager can make life easier for your members, as well as showcasing some of Zulip’s more “advanced” features.

You can find a recap of the call in this blog post (which includes recordings and resources), but that’s not the only outcome from the Trial! We worked with speakers Samantha Wittke and Danny Garside to create a CC BY Zulip Quick Start Guide – and it’s now available for download and reuse!

DOWNLOAD THE ZULIP QUICK START GUIDE

Congratulations to our newest CSCCE-Certified community managers!

Each quarter, we celebrate the participants who recently completed the CSCCE Community Manager Certification Program. As a modular program, individuals graduate on their own timelines, and this quarter we’re celebrating two people who progressed through their requirements side-by-side: Jody Peters (University of Notre Dame / Ecological Forecasting Initiative (EFI)) and Pooneh Sabouri (Florida International University / STEP UP).

In this blog post, you can read more about these dedicated STEM community managers and their time in the program, as well as an early look at what we’re learning about the impact the program is having on the individuals who take part. If it inspires you to learn more about certification with us, please send an email to training@cscce.org (please note: completing Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF) is a prerequisite for the program, and registration is currently open for our next cohort!).

MEET ALL CSCCE-CERTIFIED COMMUNITY MANAGERS

Upcoming CSCCE training courses to enhance your community engagement and content design skills

Registration is now open for two of CSCCE’s multi-week training courses: Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF26W) and Content Design (CODE26Sp).

In this blog post you can find out more about each training (but please reach out to training@cscce.org if you have any questions), including various resources to support your participation.

In service of our ongoing commitment to “shining a light on the less visible,” we’ve also included some information about what it means for us to run live, cohort-based online trainings like these, and why it’s so important that we fill each cohort we offer.

CSCCE Community Book Club: The Five Dysfunctions of a Team

Coming up on Wednesday, 11 March 2026 at 11am EDT / 3pm UTC, we’re planning a live, 90-minute community book club session co-hosted by CSCCE community member Jody Peters (University of Notre Dame / Ecological Forecasting Initiative community manager).

The book club will focus on The Five Dysfunctions of a Team by Patrick Lencioni, a short fable that is used to explore a model outlining five things that are essential for a healthy, collaborative team (or working group, steering committee, or sub-community). If you haven’t read the book yet, but are curious and would like to join us for our book club session, rest assured, it’s not a long read (or listen!). If possible, we do ask that you read the book before the call, but we will also offer a recap of the key themes at the beginning of the session.