15. About this class¶

This course was first developed by Ben Welsh for an October 2016 “watchdog workshop” organized by Investigative Reporters and Editors at San Diego State University’s school of journalism.

Since then it has grown into a six-hour, hands-on training that has been taught as a massive, open online course at the University of Texas at Austin, become part of Stanford’s curriculum and been offered at an unbroken string of annual conferences organized by the National Institute for Computer-Assisted Reporting. Several classes have been streamed live, with more than one available as a recording.

The class has frequently been taught with and by others, including James Gordon, Andrea Suozzo, Cheryl Phillips, Iris Lee, Gabrielle LaMarr LeMee, Melissa Lewis, Aaron Williams, Derek Willis, Joe Germuska, Kae Petrin, Eric Sagara, Serdar Tumgoren, Simon Willison, David Eads, Amy Schmitz Weiss and Katlyn Alo.