Add Contributions and Building locally

Author: SylviaWhittle

README.md

@@ -24,5 +24,30 @@ This course seeks to provide you with conceptual understanding and the tools you
 - Testing file outputs
 - Continuous integration & automatic test-running with GitHub
 
+## Contributions
+
+Contributions are welcome, please refer to the [contribution guidelines](CONTRIBUTING.md) of how to do so and ensure that you adhere to the [Code of Conduct](CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md).
+
+### Build the lesson locally
+
+To render the lesson locally, you will need to have [R][r] installed. Instructions for using R with the Carpentries template is [available](https://carpentries.github.io/workbench/#installation) but some additional setps have been taken to make sure the enivronment is reproducible using the [`{renv}`](https://rstudio.github.io/renv/articles/renv.html) package and an `renv.lockfile` is included which allows the environment to be re-created along with dependencies.
+
+After cloning the repository, you can set up the `renv` and install all packages with:
+``` r
+renv::restore()
+# Optionally update packages
+renv::update()
+```
+Once you have installed the dependencies, you can render the pages locally by starting R in the project root and running:
+``` r
+sandpaper::serve()
+```
+This will build the pages and start a local web-server in R and open it in your browser. These pages are "live" and will respond to local file changes if you save them.
+
+[git]: https://git-scm.com
+[r]: https://www.r-project.org/
+[workbench]: https://carpentries.github.io/workbench/
+
+