Creating an Online Training Module on RDM

Creating an Online Training Module on Research Data Management for the University of Bath Research 360 In 2011 the University of Bath was awarded funding by the JISC Managing Research Data Programme to support and develop Research Data Management across the institution. The Research 360: Managing data across the institutional research lifecycle project (Research360@Bath) will develop policies, infrastructure and training resources to help researchers at the University of Bath to get the most out of their research data, realise the benefits of good data management practice and comply with funder requirements. The project team draws on expertise from across the university, including representatives from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, the Research Development & Support Office (RDSO), the Library, the university computing service (BUCS), UKOLN, the DCC and the Centre for Sustainable Chemical Technologies (Chemistry/Chem eng). Building Capacity One aspect of the project work is building capacity among researchers and support staff. The project team have undertaken a series of face-to-face training sessions for postgraduates and researchers, many of these being held in the Doctoral Training Centre (DTC) in Sustainable Chemical Technologies. Such training is highly effective but unfortunately not always cost effective or sustainable. Online Training Module Work Package 6 of the project proposes the development of an online training module for early career researchers that focuses on the current agenda for research data management. The module is to be discipline agnostic, focusing on general issues relating to research data management. The primary audience comprises of researchers, both postgraduate and academic staff, with a secondary audience of undergraduates undertaking research projects and professional support staff wishing to learn more about research data management to support their developing roles in this area. Creation of the module will build on previous JISC-funded work including the MANTRA training module developed by the University of Edinburgh, the Incremental work developed by the University of Cambridge and the University of Glasgow, and the DataTrain work provided by the Archaeology Data Service. On completion the module will be delivered in Moodle, the University of Bath’s VLE, and released as an Open Educational Resource (OER). The project team worked with an external consultant, Mike Highfield, to appropriate content and develop technical aspects of the module. Instructional Design Process The instructional design process consists of four distinct stages: • Derive Learning Outcomes and Objectives: An initial meeting that defined the full scope of the project, what learners will cover and the content and the structure of the learning necessary to achieve this. As a result of this meeting it was agreed to use Xerte, an open source E-Learning developer tool created by the University of Nottingham, for the technical architecture. • Marshalling of Learning Content: Collation of content by subject matter experts. • Design Document and Story Board Specification: Creation of the design document and any associated storyboards capture the precise text on screen or audio narrative. Outlining of the draft visual treatments and details of learning activities. • Content Agreement: Submission of the design document to the Project Board for review. Content is edited and agreed. This poster will look at the instructional design process involved in the creation of the module, decisions taken and lessons learnt.