Please note that this workshop is only available to individuals based in the South West and Wales, as it is funded by the LEAP South West Digital Health Hub.

LEAP is an EPSRC-funded Digital Health Hub that aims to cultivate a multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial, cross-sector Digital Health community in South West England and Wales. The Hub is providing opportunities for training, research and collaboration through three core programmes and a wide partnership network.

Course overview

This five-session Train-the-Trainer workshop series is designed to help participants develop confidence, structure, and practical skill in teaching technical topics such as programming, data science, research software engineering, and reproducible research.

Teaching technical skills presents distinctive challenges: learners often arrive with varied levels of confidence, prior knowledge, disciplinary background, and access needs. This course introduces participants to practical pedagogical approaches that can be applied directly in technical training environments, including workshops, taught modules, research group training, community-led sessions, and informal support contexts.

Across the series, participants will explore how people learn, how to structure technical lessons effectively, how to support diverse groups of learners, and how to use feedback, reflection, and assessment to improve their teaching practice. The course combines short taught components with interactive exercises, group discussion, reflection, and practical application. By the end of the series, participants will have developed a stronger pedagogical toolkit for designing and delivering inclusive, engaging, and effective technical training.

Intended audience

This course is intended for anyone involved in, or interested in becoming involved in, teaching technical skills related to programming, data science, reproducible research, research software engineering, or computational research methods.

It is particularly suitable for:

  • University educators teaching programming, data science, computational methods, or digital research skills.
  • Research Software Engineers who deliver training, mentoring, or technical support.
  • Researchers, postgraduate researchers, and technical specialists who support others in learning coding or data skills.
  • Learning technologists, training coordinators, and professional services staff involved in digital skills provision.
  • Members of research communities, coding clubs, or communities of practice who design or deliver peer-led training.
  • Anyone who wants to improve their confidence and effectiveness when teaching technical material to learners with mixed levels of experience.

The course is suitable for both new and more experienced trainers. Regardless of your teaching experience, participants should have an interest in improving how they design, deliver, and reflect on technical training.

Prerequisite knowledge or preparation

No formal teaching qualification or prior pedagogical training is required. Participants should ideally have some experience of, or be currently involved in (or expecting to become involved in), one or more of the following:

  • Teaching, training, mentoring, demonstrating, or supporting learners.
  • Programming, data science, research software engineering, reproducible research, or another technical research skill.
  • Designing or delivering workshops, taught sessions, self-study materials, or community training.

The course focuses on how to teach technical skills effectively. Participants do not need to be expert programmers or data scientists. However, this course will not cover technical content in specific programming languages or software tools that participants may intend to use or teach.

Before the first session, participants may be asked to reflect briefly on their own teaching or training context, including the kinds of learners they support, the challenges they encounter, and the skills they would most like to develop during the course.

Learning aims

At the end of this series of workshops, participants will be able to:

  • Explain the learning process and factors that influence its success.
  • Compare a range of teaching methods and evaluate their effectiveness for specific groups of learners, from novices through intermediates to experts.
  • Adapt teaching methods for diverse backgrounds and effectively manage varying skill levels and learning needs within the classroom.
  • Demonstrate a range of pedagogical techniques tailored to delivering technical training.

What participants will gain

By taking part in this workshop series, participants will:

  • Gain practical frameworks for designing effective technical lessons.
  • Build confidence in teaching programming, data science, and related technical skills.
  • Learn strategies for supporting learners with varied backgrounds and skill levels.
  • Develop approaches for making technical training more inclusive and accessible.
  • Explore methods for encouraging motivation, confidence, and learner independence.
  • Practise using reflection, feedback, and assessment to improve teaching.
  • Leave with ideas and tools they can apply directly in their own teaching or training context.

Capacity

Recommended capacity: 20 participants.

This workshop series is designed to be interactive and discussion-based, with a strong emphasis on participant engagement, reflection, group work, peer feedback, and tailored support to help participants apply the learning in their own contexts. The capacity has been selected to align with this ethos.

Course Agenda

  • This session introduces core ideas about how adults learn, with a focus on the specific challenges of teaching technical skills. Participants will explore key learning theories, including constructivism, behaviourism, social learning theory, and adult learning theory, and consider how these theories can inform the design and delivery of technical training.

     

    Participants will reflect on their own learning preferences and consider how learner backgrounds, motivations, confidence levels, and prior experiences can shape engagement with technical material. The session also introduces approaches for supporting a diverse range of learners and creating more learner-centred teaching environments.

     

    Topics include:

    • How people learn technical skills.
    • Adult learning theory and learner motivation.
    • Constructivism, behaviourism, and social learning theory.
    • Learner profiles and learning preferences.
    • Supporting varied backgrounds, confidence levels, and learning needs.

     

  • This session focuses on how to design structured, outcome-driven lessons for technical topics. Participants will explore instructional design approaches such as the ADDIE model and backward design, and consider how these can be used to create clear, coherent, and engaging technical training.

    The session also introduces Bloom’s Taxonomy as a tool for aligning learning objectives, activities, and assessment. Participants will consider how to design lessons that build progressively, support mixed skill levels, and use scaffolded exercises to develop confidence and practical understanding.

    Topics include:

    • Instructional design for technical training.
    • ADDIE and backward design.
    • Writing effective learning objectives.
    • Using Bloom’s Taxonomy to structure progression.
    • Lesson planning for mixed-ability groups.
    • Incremental complexity and scaffolded exercises.
    • Project-based learning and authentic technical tasks.

  • This session explores how to create inclusive, supportive, and motivating learning environments for technical training. Participants will examine Universal Design for Learning and consider practical ways to make teaching materials, exercises, and classroom activities more accessible and flexible.

    The session also focuses on common challenges faced by learners who are new to programming, data science, or other technical domains. Participants will explore strategies for reducing programming anxiety, supporting confidence, fostering a growth mindset, and helping learners choose appropriate learning pathways.

    Topics include:

    • Universal Design for Learning.
    • Inclusive and supportive learning environments.
    • Common barriers for new technical learners.
    • Assessing learner skill levels.
    • Supporting learners with different levels of confidence and experience.
    • Growth mindset in technical education.
    • Reducing programming anxiety.
    • Collaborative and peer-learning approaches.

  • This session focuses on how learners monitor their own progress, how trainers provide effective feedback, and how teaching practice can be improved over time. Participants will explore metacognition and self-regulation, considering how these concepts can help learners become more independent and reflective.

    The session also examines feedback and assessment in technical training. Participants will consider how to design formative and summative assessment activities, how to provide timely and actionable feedback, and how to use learner feedback and data to refine teaching materials and delivery.

    Topics include:

    • Metacognition and self-regulated learning.
    • Supporting learners to monitor their own progress.
    • Immediate, incremental, and constructive feedback.
    • Moving from direct instruction to facilitation.
    • Designing formative and summative technical assessments.
    • Using learner feedback to improve teaching.
    • Reflective practice and continuous improvement.

  • The final session gives participants an opportunity to consolidate their learning across the course. Participants will reflect on their strengths, identify areas for further development, and create an action plan for applying what they have learned in their own teaching or training context.

    The session includes individual reflection, peer discussion, group feedback, and planning for ongoing professional development. Participants will leave with a clearer sense of how they can continue to develop their teaching practice beyond the course.

    Topics include:

    • Reflective practice.
    • Identifying strengths and development areas.
    • Peer learning and shared experience.
    • Applying course learning to participants’ own teaching contexts.
    • Creating an individual action plan.
    • Continuing professional development as a technical trainer.

Registration

Please note that this workshop is only available for individuals based in the South West and Wales as it is funded by the LEAP Digital Health Hub.

LEAP is an EPSRC-funded Digital Health Hub that aims to cultivate a multidisciplinary, entrepreneurial, cross-sector Digital Health community in South West England and Wales. The Hub is providing opportunities for training, research and collaboration through three core programmes and a wide partnership network.

This workshop is free of charge to members of the LEAP community. To register, please complete our form with some brief information about yourself including your role, organisation, your own current or planned teaching or training and the kinds of learners you support and the skills you would most like to develop during the course. Tickets will be allocated to relevant people on a first come first served basis.

Apply via our form

If you would like to contact the team, please email us at learn@hdruk.ac.uk