While summer is often a time to relax and rejuvenate, it is also an opportunity to catch up or advance one’s professional and personal development.

Brock University’s Digital Scholarship Lab is offering several free online interactive workshops throughout July and August open to Brock faculty, students, staff and the wider Niagara community.

Digital scholarship draws upon a broad range of expertise from across librarianship, research data management, data visualization, data processing, digital preservation and digital pedagogy.

A four-part series in July will introduce participants to GitHub, a code-hosting platform for collaboration and version control that allows people to work together on projects from anywhere in the world.

Digital Scholarship Librarian Tim Ribaric says GitHub is a multi-faceted platform that can help “create interesting and dynamic websites all without any hosting fees.”

“It can do quite a lot, but the learning curve can be intimidating,” he says. “Our workshops are the perfect low-stress introduction to the tool that starts from scratch.”

The focus for August is learning about Python, a popular and versatile programming language. In the four-part series, participants will learn how Python can be used for data science, text analysis and machine learning.

“If you’ve never learned to program, it is the best language to start with,” Ribaric says. “You can use it for all sorts of different applications, such as data analysis, artificial intelligence modelling or even data visualizations.”

Two workshops on data visualization are also scheduled this summer to teach participants the basics of data visualization by using ggplot2 in R, a free statistical computing and graphics software, and how to  analyze and create visualizations using geospatial data using QGIS.

“People are starting to express their findings and research in interesting ways, not just in written form,” says Ribaric. “There is a vast landscape of tools out there that can help you create the perfect visualization.”

Participants must register for each workshop, whether it is part of a series or is offered standalone. Although it is recommended to take all workshops included in a series, participants are not required to commit to all four. Some workshops may suggest basic experience with the software to get the most out of the learning opportunity.

Workshop details and registration are available on ExperienceBU. Visit the Digital Scholarship Lab website to learn more about the services and resources available to researchers and community members.

GitHub workshop series

• GitHub repositories and GitHub Desktop — Wednesday, July 6 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
• Collaborating with GitHub and version control — Wednesday, July 6 from 1 to 2:30 p.m.
• Making a free web page with GitHub — Wednesday, July 13 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
• Automating tasks with GitHub actions — Thursday, July 21 from 1 to 2 p.m.

Data visualization workshops

• Data visualization with ggplot2 — Thursday, July 26 from 10 to 11:30 a.m.
• Introduction to QGIS — Tuesday, Aug. 9 from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Python workshop series

• Introduction to Python — Wednesday, Aug. 10 from 10 a.m. to noon
• Python for data science — Thursday, Aug. 11 from 10 a.m. to noon
• Text analysis with Python — Wednesday, Aug. 17 from 10 a.m. to noon
• Machine learning with Python — Thursday, Aug. 18 from 10 to 11 a.m.