CSCCE trainings Archives

The rationale behind the design of our modular curriculum for STEM community managers – and the opportunities that it affords

Back in 2016, we started work on the first ever curriculum for STEM community managers – initially delivered via our Community Engagement Fellows Program while CSCCE was getting started at AAAS. Right from the outset, we were using the words “modular curriculum”.

In this post, CSCCE’s Director, Lou Woodley unpacks i) what we mean by a modular curriculum, ii) how different modules can create different “flavors” of learner experience to retain engagement across the overall curriculum, and iii) what benefits and opportunities come by designing in a modular way.

Congratulations to our newest CSCCE-Certified community managers (Q3 2026)!

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 one of our earliest registrants, Kevin Gott (Computer Systems Engineer at NERSC) alongside longtime CSCCE collaborator Maria Doyle (Community Manager for Bioconductor).

In this blog post, you can read more about Kevin and Maria’s journey through the program. If learning more about their training path inspires you to consider pursuing 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

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.

Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF26F)

Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals is an eight-week course designed to offer new or existing community managers core frameworks and vocabulary to describe their community’s purpose, refine or create strategic programming to engage community members around their shared goals, and identify ways to lower barriers to member participation. While the content is designed for any level of learner, it should not be thought of as a “beginner” course. Rather, it is intended to create common ground so that scientific community managers can converse across disciplines, more efficiently learn from one another, and build successful engagement strategies that are grounded in theory.

Each week, participants will meet virtually (using Zoom) for a 90 minute lesson and a 90 minute Co-Lab. While lessons will involve structured presentations and activities, Co-Lab time is for discussion, reporting out, and seeking feedback from instructors and fellow learners.

Each week will also include approximately 90 minutes of homework, for a total time commitment of 4.5 hours per week.

Our Fall offering of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF26F) will run on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Thursday, 22 October until Thursday, 10 December 2026.

The key dates are:

Social hour: Thursday, 22 October at 10am – 11am EDT / 2pm – 3pm UTC
Monday lessons: 26 October; 2, 9, 16, 23, 30 November; 7 December at 10am – 11:30pm ET / 2/3pm – 3/4:30pm UTC*
Thursday Co-Labs: 29 October; 5, 12, 19 November**; 3 December at 10am – 11:30pm ET / 2/3pm – 3/4:30pm UTC*
Graduation: Thursday, 10 December at 10am – 12pm EST / 3pm – 5pm UTC

*Daylight savings time adjustments in late October/early November may impact the precise timing of live sessions in your area.
**We will not hold a Co-Lab on Thursday, 26 November in observance of the US Thanksgiving holiday.

Registration deadline: 1 October 2026

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.

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.

Content Design (CODE26Sp)

Content Design (CODE) is a six-week course that introduces a strategic approach to designing and creating community-engaged content that energizes and inspires your community members. During the course, we cover the fundamentals of writing clear and actionable prose. However, this course should not be thought of as a “writing 101” course – instead, it’s a design approach that can impact how you create a range of different content types for your community.

Our Spring offering of Content Design (CODE26Sp) will run on Tuesdays and Fridays beginning Tuesday, 21 April until Friday, 29 May 2026.

The key dates are:

Tuesday lessons: 21, 28 April; 5, 12, 19, 26 May at 10am – 11:30am EDT / 2pm – 3:30pm UTC
Friday Co-Labs: 24 April; 1, 8, 15, 22, 29 May at 10am – 11:30am EDT / 2pm – 3:30pm UTC

Registration deadline: Friday, 3 April 2026

More information is available on the CODE webpage.

Scientific Community Engagament Fundamentals (CEF26W)

This eight-week course is designed to offer new and existing community managers a core set of actionable skills and strategies. Participants meet twice a week, with lecture-style content interspersed with discussion and project work.

Our winter offering of Scientific Community Engagement Fundamentals (CEF26W) will run on Mondays and Thursdays beginning Thursday, 19 March until Thursday, 7 May.

The key dates are:

Social hour: Thursday, 19 March at 12pm – 1pm EDT / 4pm – 5pm UTC
Monday lessons: 23, 30 March; 6,13, 20, 27 April; 4 May at 12pm – 1:30pm EDT / 4pm – 5:30pm UTC
Thursday Co-Labs: 26 March; 2, 9,16, 23, 30 April at 12pm – 1:30pm EDT / 4pm – 5:30pm UTC
Graduation: Thursday, 7 May at 12pm – 2pm EDT / 4pm – 6pm UTC

Registration deadline: Thursday, 5 March 2026

More information is available on the CEF webpage.