Category Archives: Training opportunities

Online training – Data sharing: legal and ethical issues

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Yesterday I ran an online training session on sharing research data. This session covered:

  • Rights and data sharing
  • Ethics and data sharing
  • Re-using data

The slides from the session are below. OU staff and students can access a recording of the session on Adobe Connect and anyone can access it on You Tube.

This concludes the current batch of online training sessions but we aim to run more in future.

If you have any feedback or if there’s any other training you’d like us to deliver online, feel free to let us know by emailing or commenting below

Planning for Research Data Management: workshop slides

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Yesterday I ran a session on Planning for Research Data Management as part of the Core Skills series.

We talked about the current RDM landscape and looked in detail at Data Management Plans using a DMP template, and ended with a game of DMP Bingo.

The slides are available here:

Thanks to everyone who took part!

A reminder too that we’ll be delivering an online session on the legal and ethical issues around data sharing next week.

This will be run using Adobe Connect; joining instructions can be found on the event pages on My Learning Centre, but if in doubt please email us at library-research-support@open.ac.uk

New MOOC for early careers researchers

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You may be interested to know that a new free MOOC (massive open online course) for research students and research staff has just opened for bookings.  Called Career Management for Early Career Academic Researchers, it aims to support researchers to explore their career options and make career plans:

“Being an early career academic researcher, whether you’re a doctoral student or research staff, can be challenging: should you pursue further academic research? What skills will help you progress in an academic career? What other career options are open to you?

On this course you will answer these questions and more, considering how to manage you career and reflecting on what you want out of a career. You will be encouraged to consider different career options, both within and outside academic research, and build your confidence in marketing yourself in applications and interviews.”

The MOOC is a collaboration between the University of Glasgow, University of Edinburgh, and University of Sheffield, and has been developed by careers professionals who are experienced in working with research students and research staff.

The first course will start on 5th March 2018. For more information and sign up details go to:

https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/career-management

Online training – Working with research data

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Yesterday I ran an online training session on working with research data. This session covered:

  • how good data management can help you
  • information security
  • data storage options
  • file management
  • file naming
  • working with sensitive data

Please find below the slides from the webinar. OU staff and students can access a recording of the session on Adobe Connect. I will upload this recording to YouTube shortly so that the non-OU audience can also access it (update: this is now available on YouTube).

Here are the other sessions we’ll be delivering over the next couple of months:

These sessions will be run using Adobe Connect; joining instructions can be found on the event pages on My Learning Centre, but if in doubt please email us at library-research-support@open.ac.uk

If there’s any other training you’d like us to deliver online, feel free to let us know by emailing or commenting below

Online training: Writing successful data management plans

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Last Friday I ran the first in our series of online training sessions. This morning’s session focused on Data Management Plans.

If you were unable to attend, here are the slides and a recording of the session is available on YouTube.

Here are the other sessions we’ll be delivering over the next couple of months:

These sessions will be run using Adobe Connect; joining instructions can be found on the event pages on My Learning Centre, but if in doubt please email us at library-research-support@open.ac.uk

If there’s any other training you’d like us to deliver online, feel free to let us know by emailing or commenting below.

You asked, we delivered: online training

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We are regularly asked if we can deliver our training sessions online to research staff and students who don’t work at Walton Hall and can’t make it onto campus. In order to satisfy this demand we have arranged a series of online training which will take place throughout January and February in the new year.

Here’s the programme of training, with links to full session details on My Learning Centre:

These sessions will be run using Adobe Connect; joining instructions can be found on the event pages on My Learning Centre, but if in doubt please email us at library-research-support@open.ac.uk

If there’s any other training you’d like us to deliver online, feel free to let us know by emailing or commenting below.

New online training resource for social scientists

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The new CESSDA Expert tour guide on Data Management has been put together by a group of experts in research data management from across Europe who make up CESSDA – the Consortium of European Social Science Data Archives. This consortium includes 11 European social science data archives, including the UK Data Service.

This fantastic new resource aims to help social science researchers to make their data FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable). The guided tour takes you through 6 areas on a journey through the different stages of your project:

  1. Plan
  2. Organise and document
  3. Process
  4. Store
  5. Protect
  6. Archive and publish

As well as numerous examples and expert tips, the tour also includes specific information on data management practices in different European countries.

Curious to take the tour? Visit the online guide at cessda.eu/DMGuide

Training opportunity: Making your research data open

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Image by Jorgen Stamp (CC-BY) at https://digitalbevaring.dk/

Making your data open, Friday 8th December 10-11.30, Research Meeting Room (Library 2nd floor)

There are still spaces available on next week’s training session Making your Data Open. In this session we will look at the hows, whats and whys of data sharing:

  • How can you share your data? We’ll take a look at the OU’s new data repository, ORDO and provide guidance on preparing data for sharing, including sensitive data
  • What data should you share? Do you really need to share everything? What do funders and publishers want you to share?
  • Why should you share your data? We’ll discuss the reasons why data sharing is such a hot topic at the moment and why it’s a good thing to be at the forefront of the data sharing movement.

If you’d like to come along, please sign up on My Learning Centre or email library-training@open.ac.uk.

Getting to grips with Research Data Management

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Yesterday I held a workshop for research staff and students on Research Data Management. As always this was an excellent opportunity for researchers to share their own experiences of data management and exchange tips (and grievances!). In particular there was lots of interesting discussion around the ethical implications of data sharing, which I will be taking forward to help evaluate the advice that we give researchers regarding managing and sharing sensitive, confidential and personal data.

This session was oversubscribed, so if you would have liked to attend but were unable look out for more RDM workshops on the Research Career Development programme next year; or if you are a research group we may be able to set up a bespoke training session with for you – please get in touch.

ORDO on tour… on your desktop!

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ORDO online drop-in: Tuesday 23rd May 14.30-15.00

As part of our ORDO on Tour series of events, we have arranged an online drop-in session at 14.30 on Tuesday 23rd May for any research staff or students who would like to find out more about the system.

ORDO is the OU’s data repository, provided by Figshare. In this session, Megan from Figshare and Dan from the OU will demo the system, including how to upload items, using project spaces for collaborating work, and curating data into collections or branded groups. There will be time for questions at the end, so feel free to bring examples of your own data and explore the opportunities around storing and/or sharing your research outputs!

If you would like to attend, but this time doesn’t work for you, please let us know as we may consider running future online drop-ins should this prove popular.

Instructions for joining
There is no need to sign up  ahead of time; at 14.30 on 23rd May simply:

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