t he e volution of r esearch d ata m anagement i nstruction at c arleton u niversity wendy watkins...
TRANSCRIPT
THE EVOLUTION OF RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT INSTRUCTION
AT CARLETON UNIVERSITY
Wendy Watkins
Ernie Boyko
Carleton University Library Data Centre
DLI Ontario Training
London, Ontario
April 2015
WHAT’S BEEN DONE IN RDM TRAINING(THAT WE’RE NOT GOING TO TALK ABOUT)
InternationalIASSISTCASRAIOpenRespositories
NationalDLI National TrainingCanadian Science Policy ConferenceCARL
RegionalDLI Regional TrainingRegional/Provincial Library Workshops
WHAT WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT:
OUR LOCAL INITIATIVES - 1 How we got started Professional Research Skills for
Graduate Students Why concentrate on Graduate Students Content of 1st session Evaluation results How we changed things What we learned after round 2 Revamping again
Invitation from the Research Office: Carleton Scholar Project
WHAT WE ARE GOING TO TALK ABOUT:
OUR LOCAL INITIATIVES - 2 2015 update
Another Graduate Student Workshop Carleton Scholar take 2 – A Lesson in
Marketing
Still to come RDM for Academic Computing Committee RDM for Liaison Librarians Redeveloping the Research Data
Management website
The Road Ahead and Miscellany
HOW WE GOT STARTED
Began by teaching librarians (2009)
Realized that was fine nationally and regionally but wasn’t going to work at the local level
Our interested librarians (and there were a few) were better served by meeting in a larger venue
Graduate Studies had run with our UL’s idea of Research competencies, including Data Managment
We thought we’d get a better bang for our buck working with them
PROFESSIONAL SKILLS FOR GRADUATE STUDENTS
Graduate Studies promoted 5 one-day workshops giving practical training in several areas
They took care of the publicity and registration Counted as TA hours for those students with
teaching assistantships Ours was an introduction to research data
management We scheduled it over 2 half-days 1st half day was the theory behind the practice 2nd half day was a review and then a guided tour
of MANTRA It was a sell-out
WHY CONCENTRATE ON GRAD STUDENTS?
First, Grad Studies asked us to do it Felt that grad students were more fertile
ground than faculty Faculty tended to be set in the ways they
conducted their research projects Graduate students were likely involved in
most of the nitty-gritty data work Newer generation; might be more malleable
early in their career Gave us a chance to start off with best
practices at the outset of the students’ research experience
EVALUATION RESULTS
Keeps: Ratings were about 4.7 / 5 Students seemed to be very engaged and
enjoyed the course Loved MANTRA
Changes: Found it difficult to schedule 2 half-days Suggested shortening the theory end and
combining it with MANTRA Wanted it earlier in their research careers—even
at the Honour’s level Wanted it earlier in the academic year
HOW WE CHANGED THINGS
Incorporated their suggestions Reduced the time to one half-day Gave 2 sessions; one each at the start of the
Fall and Winter sessions Cut back on some of the historical detail Condensed some of the principles Simplified the life-cycle part of the
presentation Kept this part to the first ¼ day Kept MANTRA but had them relate it to their
research projects
MORE WORKSHOPS
Grad Studies asked us to give more workshops Again, they advertised Provided TA credit hours for attendance
Jane Fry gets her MLIS and joins the team
Education Development Centre became involved We developed formal learning outcomes
Granting Agencies were also moving
Required a major overhaul
ONCE MORE WITH FEELING: INTRODUCING DATA MANAGEMENT
PLANS
TC3+ discussion paper published Seemed that the granting agencies would be requiring
Data Management Plans Kept the abridged theory session Developed a fillable form based on elements from
the DMPtool template Had students bring in a description of their data
projects to use in an exercise Students who weren’t at that stage simply paired
with others Kept MANTRA on the back burner as a research
resource Students like the practical experience of creating a
plan for their own research
INVITATION FROM THE RESEARCH OFFICE:
CARLETON SCHOLAR PROJECT
Research Administrators developed a skills program for faculty to improve teaching and research skills
Wanted a workshop in Research Data Management in preparation for the TC3+ DMP requirement
Research Office decided that Grad Students would not be included
Advertised to all faculty and sessionals Attendees were one member of the Academic
Research Computing Committee representing the Engineering Faculty and 3 liaison librarians
WHAT THAT TAUGHT US
More than just grad students and faculty had a need for these workshops
Faculty academic computing committee members were being tasked with doing something with students’ research data when they graduated Faculty in Engineering merely handed off the data to
the IT group who had no idea what to do with it
Liaison librarians needed to be brought into the picture
Faculty needed to be lured another way
2015 UPDATE: ANOTHER GRAD STUDENT WORKSHOP
Hybrid of past workshops plus new material Did the usual introduction of:
Defining research data Explaining their importance Extolling the benefits of sharing
Added: Introduction of tools
DMP Builder from the University of Alberta Dataverse from Scholars Portal
Hands-on session with the ‘real deal’ Once again, evaluations were positive
2015 UPDATE: A NEW APPROACH FOR FACULTY
Based on our first try where we attracted NO research faculty, we decided that: Marketing was at fault, not content If researchers don’t have to do something NOW, they won’t
until it becomes NOW
Rewrote the blurb changing from “Managing your research data” to: Your grad students have flown the coop taking your research
data
Attracted about a dozen researchers from several faculties
Lesson: make the pitch relevant to the researchers’ situation
STILL TO COME:
RDM training for the Academic Computing Committee
RDM training for Liaison Librarians
Redeveloping the Research Data Management Website
And most important: Developing an Institutional Research Data Management Policy
THE ROAD AHEAD If RDM is going to be successful at your school you
will need an institutional research data policy Policy should be developed by a broad-based
committee and led by: your Research Vice President your CIO and your University Librarian
Service providers are key and they don’t all live in the library Scientific and computing labs are also essential The library may be a logical place to provide instruction
but leadership will be required if it is to be a player And then the researchers
They are going to be a hard sell Successful case studies are amazingly powerful
TWO EXAMPLES OF BEST PRACTICES PROMOTING RESEARCH DATA MANAGEMENT
Data Day at Queen’s University last May Half-day, with over 50 attendees For more information, talk to Jeff and Alex
Research Data Management Week at the University of Alberta, April 2014 Fully-loaded week of presentations on policy,
services and practice led by senior administrators, service providers and starring researchers
For more information, see Chuck
AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT
Presenting a video that really got our researchers’ attention
Questions?