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Reflection

  • Author: RB
  • Date: 2025-05-16

Schedule

Time Teacher Topic
9:00 R Intro
9:05 R File transfer using FileZilla
. R Login with terminal
9:50 . Break
10:05 R Login with terminal
. B File transfer using scp
11:00 . Break
11:15 BR Help decide what to pick, split up according to choice
. R (optional) File transfer using rsync
. B (optional) Transfer tips
. B (optional) File transfer using sftp
11:45 B Summary
11:50 R Evaluation
12:00 . Done!

Observations during lessons

During the lessons I observed the timings of me and BC:

Time Who Description
9:04 R Start monologue Introduction
9:11 R Start monologue FileZilla
9:18 R Open BO rooms
9:25 R Done with first visit to BO room
9:50 . Break
10:05 R Start monologue SSH
10:08 B Start monologue scp
10:14 B Start questions
10:17 B Open BO rooms
11:00 . Break
11:15 B+R Start monologues
11:25 B+R Open BO rooms
11:45 B Start monologue wrapup
11:50 R Start evaluation

The goal was to determine the percentage of exercises:

Time Monologue Dialogue Exercise Percentage exercise
9:00-9:50 18 mins 0 mins 32 mins 64 percent
10:05-11:00 9 mins 3 mins 33 mins 60 percent
11:15-12:00 25 mins 0 mins 20 mins 44 percent
9:00-12:00 52 mins 3 mins 85 mins 61 percent

So 61% of the time it was time for exercises.

I also tracked BC moving through different BO rooms in the scp session (he was never in the main room), just to get a baseline of speed:

Time BO room with BC Duration
10:17 1 (start) 6 mins
10:23 2 7 mins
10:31 1 7 mins
10:38 2 6 mins
10:44 1 16 mins
11:00 Break .

My reflection

I am reasonably happy with how this day went: the atmosphere within the little group (me, BC and 4 learners) was very good and it seems people had fun.

What I am conflicted about is that I abandoned the teaching cycle (i.e. no Prior and no Feedback), even though I prepared for it. The reasons were (1) I want to use a short amount of time, to assure BC has proper time to teach, (2) I felt it was not worth it for such a small group.

Three out of four learners had an HPC cluster that uses SSH keys, and hence need a .ppk file for using FileZilla. We pick FileZilla because it is intuitive, but for them it is the opposite. Maybe we should do scp first, as this is easy for everyone. Hence, if most people use Alvis and Dardel, reverse the schedule to this:

Time Teacher Topic
9:00 R Intro
9:05 R Login with terminal [moved earlier]
. B File transfer using scp [moved earlier]
9:50 . Break
10:05 R File transfer using FileZilla [moved later]
11:00 . Break

One learner slowed us down: he had not logged in to his HPC cluster.

During the teaching, I found out that the rsync answers were incomplete, and created an issue to fix it.

While preparing, I did find out LUMI has not documented FileZilla usage. I contacted CSC support. I've already gotten the reply, but not on time for today.

I think me and BC worked well as a teach. For sure, I enjoyed how well we, for example, discuss to have an earlier break. Sometimes BC got what he wanted and sometimes I. We were equals.

In conclusion: I am still unsure how well the teaching went, regardless of the very happy learners.

Evaluation results

Question Mean Comment
I am comfortable using the documentation of my HPC center 4.3 indeed, there was some bad documentation for the HPC clusters used
I can compress and archive files before transferring 4.3 unsure, I have not seen learners struggle with this
I can log in to my HPC cluster using SSH 5 indeed, this is a prerequisite
I can transfer data using FileZilla 4 indeed, this is the hardest and we skipped
I can transfer data using rsync 4.7 unsure, only 2 out of 4 chose to do this
I can transfer data using scp 5 indeed, worked like a charm
I can transfer data using sftp 5 unsure, did anyone do this...?
I can transfer files between clusters 4 indeed, no practice/exercise

The weakest sessions were:

  • FileZilla: this can be improved by encouraging the use of Tetralith
  • The between-cluster file transfer. I agree it did not get its proper attention. Maybe BC already has ideas how to improve this? I would be OK to remove this, as it requires a login on 2 HPC clusters, which I feel is only OK if we give this session a full hour. BC decides!

Say something positive about Richèl

  • Very happy
  • Good positive energy!
  • Richèl explained the concepts in a clear and engaging way, and I especially appreciated the short videos he used to show the implementation, thank you for your time and effort

Great!

Say something about Richèl he can improve

  • (perhaps he's got a bit too much of that energy, it gets somewhat intense at times)
  • No suggestions, I found the workshop well structured and clear

Great!

Feedback from informal dialogue

What went well?

Most things went well.

Great!

The rsync apparently went very well, as the learners were done there quite quickly.

Yes indeed! Putting rsync after scp made it so much easier :-)

Learners went through exercises fast: everything worked as it was supposed to (sure: when I went off-script, things were different).

Great that 'everything worked': it shows we put effort in providing the right answers.

You are a good team, as the energies balance out:

  • Richel can have a bit too much energy
  • Björn can come across as a bit too calm/hesitant

I agree and I think it is fun too. I've played around with this during the course, by giving BC more time with the learners after they spent time with me.

What could be improved?

No idea: it went very smoothly and went very well.

Great!

The teachers did not always know the answer of the questions:

  • Is FileZilla installed on which HPC clusters?
    • Tip: use Thunar on Tetralith to do exactly the same
    • Yes on Dardel or Rackham ...?

I agree, as I simply never thought of this question :-) . Let's answer it!

Conclusion

I would grade my own teaching as 8/10, because we were able to establish a productive, fun and relaxed learning atmosphere, yet I did abandon parts of the literature consciously for unknown reasons.