Coding Club: Transferring quantitative skills among ecologists peer-to-peer

Gergana Daskalova, University of Edinburgh and Isla H. Myers-Smith, Ecology, University of Edinburgh, Scotland

Statistics anxiety and code fear pose barriers to academic and professional achievement. We will introduce Coding Club as a model for enhancing data science fluency through innovative peer-to-peer workshops and online tutorials. We will showcase successful ways to create online teaching content and develop online courses. We will discuss how to build confidence, emphasize learning by doing, eliminate hierarchy and keep training open to everyone. Through Coding Club (https://ourcodingclub.github.io), we have seen quantitative training reach large and diverse audiences and reshape career paths. We will summarize the philosophy behind taking a different yet successful approach to quantitative training.