Welcome to Mozilla Science Lab's Study Group Orientation!

Hello! Thanks for dropping by.

You're reading an online handbook for the Study Group Lead Orientation. A Mozilla Study Group is an informal, in-person meet-up for scientists and researchers who want to know more about code and open research practice. This training will help you start your own Study Group. You can access the entirety of this training as a pdf via this gitbook export, though the quality of the images isn't as great.

How to Use this Training and What to Expect

This series is designed for completion online, as a solo training experience, done at your own pace. There are five sections, some with videos and assignments or activities to read and work through. You'll probably need ~4 to 6 hours to complete this training. If you'd like to connect with experienced Study Group Leads or other newcomers like you, to network and compare notes, see the below, in "How to Connect and Get Help"!

Here's what's in the book:

• In the first section, you'll get a sense of what Study Groups are all about, and why you might want to lead one.
• In Section 2 you'll get tips on how to facilitate great Group meetings and learn about formats for sessions.
• In Section 3, we'll walk you through how to work with the collaboration platform GitHub. You'll set up your Group project's GitHub-powered website, and a collection of files called a repository. These will enable you to work together and share materials and code.
• In Section 4, you'll get a whirlwind introduction to some of the key issues and resources related to "open" research.
• In Section 5, you'll learn more about Mozilla, the Mozilla Science Lab, and why we're so excited about Study Groups and open research.
• And, finally, in Section 6 you'll get tips on how to grow your group, from communication and recruiting strategies to planning sessions and meetings over the long term.

Before you get started, check our map to see if there’s already a Study Group in your area.

If there's a Group nearby, get in touch with them and attend a meeting. If not, keep reading!

How to Connect, and Get Help!

We encourage Study Group Leads from different groups to connect and share resources! We aim to gather a group of aspiring Study Group Leads to work through this training twice a year, roughly aligned with the Fall-Spring Academic Calendar.

If you're joining us at one of those times, please join us for Office Hours (check the schedule here). A Mozilla Staff memeber and a seasoned Study Group Lead will be available by video chat or phone to answer your questions.

You can also join our Chat room on Gitter mozillascience/studyGroup, a web-based chat client that's associated with the Study Group Rep. Sign-up using your GitHub ID to join! The Gitter chatroom is open 24 hours a day, and it's a great place to ask questions, share news and ideas, and just hang out with other Study Group Leads. (If you've never used GitHub before, that's OK! You'll learn all about it in Section 3 of this training!)

We hold regular Study Group Calls to share and discuss new resources, materials and ideas for Study Groups, to plan Sprints and other inter-group collaborations, and to network and connect! These are video conference calls, but you can also dial in toll-free by phone. Check our Events page for the details about the next call.

Finally, if you have a question or problem, you can reach out to Zannah Marsh, Mozilla's Learning Strategist, or Aurelia Moser, Mozilla's Community Lead. The best way to do this is file a GitHub issue in this Study Group Orientation repository, or ping us on the Gitter Chat. This is basically a comment or question that we'll see and respond to. (Again, it's OK if you're not familar with GitHub and GitHub issues-- all will be explained in Section 3.)

Help us grow and improve this book!

Check out ourissues (a list of items that need help or fixing), to see what you can do to improve or add to these materials. If you're new to GitHub, again, a quick look at section 3 should help explain how this works. We'd love your help!