Reflection¶
- Author: RB
- Date: 2025-09-05
I was well prepared for the fourth iteration of this course:
for me there was not much new. Me and BC reversed the order and
now scp gets to go first. This meant that BC also did the introduction.
I would have the summary at the end as extra, which is trivial
to do.
I did miss doing the introduction. I feel I know the purpose of an introduction (even) better, as I wrote that material. Maybe I should do it next time anyways? We decided against this, to have less switches, yet I think that it would be fine: I feel me and BC are a great team.
- [ ] Suggest RB doing the introduction again
I predicted 6 learners, where BC predicted 15. BC was right: I would say on average we had 15 learners. I did write down 17 unique attendant names, of which 2 dropped out within 30 minutes.
During my parts, I was happy that there was enough time to connect to most of the learners in the breakout rooms. I enjoyed my time with this group.
There was a group that found a mistake in my course material, which I fixed during the course: there was plenty of time.
One thing that can be improved is -also suggested by BC- to have all learners get the Zoom room URL from a course project: 2 out of 15 learners had to be given extra attention to make this work.
- [ ] All learners must find the Zoom room URL on the NAISS course project
BC also suggested to do a NAISS login course. This would be easy, as we already have most materials for it. I would be happy to teach this.
- [ ] Consider doing a NAISS login course
I think the cluster-to-cluster file transfer did not take off: as far as I've seen, not a single learner did this. This could be explained by the topics at the vote (I copy-paste):
| Teacher | Topic | Why to pick |
|---|---|---|
| R | File transfer using rsync |
More powerful version of scp |
| B | Transfer tips | General applicable tips |
| B | File transfer using sftp |
A command-line file transfer 'portal' |
I think there should be an extra row for cluster-to-cluster transfer.
- [TODO] Suggest to add an extra row at the voting session
One thing I like a lot is this table in the summary:
| HPC Cluster | scp |
FileZilla | rsync |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alvis | Easy | Hard | Medium |
| Berzelius | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Bianca | Hard | Easy | Hard |
| COSMOS | Easy | Medium | Medium |
| Dardel | Easy | Hard | Medium |
| Kebnekaise | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| LUMI | Easy | Hard | Medium |
| Pelle | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Rackham | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Sigma | Easy | Medium | Easy |
| Tetralith | Easy | Easy | Easy |
| Vera | Easy | Medium | Easy |
I think Bianca's scp documentation is below par.
I miss sftp there. As it is his session, maybe BC can help add a column
for that? On the other hand, I would agree that removing sftp would be
fine too: already with scp and FileZilla, the learners are able
to transfer files in a rather comfortable way.
- [ ] Ask BC to add an
sftpcolumn if he thinks it is worth it
Evaluation results¶
RB positive¶
- Good and clear instructions
- Goes for both of you: the enthusiasm and being organized
- The instructions are clear, the process is smooth, and he is always ready to help. Really appreciate how approachable and well-organized.
- Thanks for making the course very interactive and sharing a lot of inputs and encouraging to try out new things.
- Both teachers were positive and helpful
- Very enthusiastic, knowledgeable and patient. He made me feel I want to know more.
- He gives feedback all the time
- He was extremely helpful throughout the course and managed meetings very effectively. He maintained a positive, energized attitude. When I encountered issues, he worked with me to find solutions and provided his support.
RB improve¶
- Nothing
- Would be nice to hear more in depth explanations in the breakout rooms, so more experienced people can also take advantage of Richèl's knowledge and experience.
This is a good point! I failed to do a proper Feedback here!
- [ ] Try to go deeper in the breakout rooms
Other feedback¶
- Probably a live-stream-walk-through session will be good. This combine with pre-recorded video will help the students.
- Nice (naiss...) course with different levels, and enthusiastic teachers Björn and Richèl.
- The course website is good and looks clearly a lot of effort was put in. Looking forward to any other courses on HPC offered by your team
- Instead of just sending us to group rooms and documentation web pages, it would be good to first go through the most important commands for each task, for example the general rsync command for a file, a folder etc. and what to think of. Now it seemed as if it was different for different clusters, which it is not. Group rooms were still useful, but this would make the course go faster so that we could learn more.
I need to think about this a bit. I am unsure if giving more info at the
start helps. I think I should not overwhelm learners with info.
Also, rsync was an extra session that had one command: rsync.
On the other hand, showing a minimal use could be insightful.
- It was very useful to get an overview of the tools available! Björn and Richèl are very patient and experienced. It would be nice to have more time to discuss with the teachers about the pros and cons of tools and when to use them.
- Even though FileZilla is open source, I couldn't try it given the IT policies
Something we cannot help. But we should take it more into account!
-
[ ] Take into account: not all tools can be installed!
-
The course was helpful. Good team work in the zoom rooms was key, and I appreciated that the teachers were stopping by to ensure we were on track. I would suggest to facilitate the zoom link of the course also via mail, even if it is the same moment the course starts. The reason for this is that the first part of the course is about connecting to the server, a prerequisite that was already needed to obtain the zoom link. I missed the first 15 minutes of the course as I was struggling with that. Another suggestion is to include instructions for Windows users, for example in the FileZilla transfer and rsync parts. Thanks for the course!
I think BC and I do well to reward the learners that prepare. I see this learner would indeed miss the boat, but the whole point is to be all prepared when being in the course.
Adding Windows instructions would be fine with me, would I have a Windows computer. But maybe a BC, Linus or Jayant would enjoy doing this?
- The course was valuable
- The course website is clear, structured and encourages students to try out of things themselves. The amount of links and documentation to various clusters is amazing. The course is very interactive and the teachers are very supportive and lively during the zoom sessions. It encourages the students to try out of things and interact with other students to first figure out solutions among themselves before the teachers step in to solve. I like the course.