This presentation gives an overview of a project involving four institutions: Loughborough, Nottingham, De Montfort and Coventry Universities to create an open source repurposable information skills tutorial appropriate for early career researchers. It covers the rationale for undertaking the project, the proposed content, the research conducted and methodologies used which informed the design and final content of the online module.
The module that has been developed is called: Dissemination of your research and includes the following units:
Journals and journal articles
Other forms of publishing
Journal bibliometrics
Author bibliometrics
Networking
The presentation then moves on to look at in some depth the benefits of working in a consortium but also the challenges the group faced as a result of working as a collaboration.
This PowerPoint helps students to consider the concept of infinity.
Lilac 2012 Essential information skills for researchers: A collaborative project to develop an online, open access resource
1. Essential information skills for
researchers: A collaborative
project to develop an online,
open access resource.
Chris Bark,
Coventry University
Liz Martin,
De Montfort University
2. Content
Who we are
Project history and methods
Perceptions and needs - our recent findings
Pilot module content
Demo
Taking a collaborative approach - benefits and challenges
Next steps
3. Who we are...
East Midlands Research Support Group:
Loughborough, Nottingham, De Montfort, Leicester,
Coventry, Northampton and Warwick
EMRSG Project consortium:
Loughborough, Nottingham, Coventry, De Montfort
4. Information handling skills for researchers
project: Why?
Observation of the information handling skills of researchers at all
levels
Increasing internal push for online learning objects
Discussions at a regional library event (Emalink)
Desire for re-usable suite of generic tutorials
Prevent us all reinventing the wheel
5. Project Timetable
Autumn 2009: First meeting
Jan 2010: Funding & initial planning
Spring: Review of current products
Summer: Surveys of researchers' attitudes to learning &
information skills, plus interviews
Autumn: Design & authoring tool selection
Jan-May 2011: Construction of content
May: Evaluation of pilot units
Summer: Editing in response to feedback
Autumn: Start of dissemination
2012: Dissemination
6. Review of current products
Looked at
Pilot
Swim- Denmark
Irish Information literacy programme
Pathway2Information- Nottingham
Open University
I-lit (Cranfield)
Epigeum
7. Researchers’ survey and Interviews
2 surveys conducted:
First survey
Conducted at research conference at
Loughborough (researchers attitudes towards
learning, particularly elearning)
Second larger survey
Created by Sarah McNicoll
224 responses from Nottingham, Loughborough
and DMU
Followed up with 11 face-to-face interviews
8. Researchers’ survey and Interviews
Key results
Include element of hands-on
Ability to complete at own pace at a
convenient time
Visuals and links to external resources
important
Liked learning from peers
9. Design
Selected Xerte as the
authoring tool
Open source
Content can be re-
used and repurposed
Designed for non-
techies
Technical help
10. Areas identified for content
include
Primary Information, to include ethics, information
gathering and archives
Secondary Information, to include effective searching,
information beyond academia and information issues for
projects such as researching funding bids
Promotion of your research (next slide)
Management, to include reference management and
data management
12. Quick live demo of the final
‘Dissemination of your research’
module
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18. Evaluation of pilot module
Conducted by a ‘neutral’ research associate, Michael Norris
Qualitative methods:
Focus groups (Nottingham, Loughborough & DMU)
Observations (Coventry)
Recommendations were produced for whole module, plus
comments on individual units which have aided editing and revisions.
19. Taking a collaborative
approach
Image by Nicola Corboy, used under a Creative
Commons Licence,
http://www.flickr.com/photos/n_corboy/4921290518/sizes/m/in/photostream
21. Our experience: Benefits to us
More motivation
Increased knowledge of other organisations
Sharing of knowledge of tools
Support
Friendship
22. Our experience: Benefits to the project
More time
More money
More ideas
More skills
More potential contacts
23. Our experience - challenges
Different institutional expectations (PGRs or Research
staff?)
Editorial control
Politics and diplomacy, especially regarding deadlines
Cross-institutional file sharing, especially video
24. The Future
Add to Jorum and Xpert as open access
Promotion and Publicity
25. Contacts
Coventry University De Montfort University
Chris Bark Liz Martin
c.bark@coventry.ac.uk emartin@dmu.ac.uk
Judy Thompson
j.thompson@coventry.ac.uk
Loughborough University University of Nottingham
Helen Young Wendy Stanton
h.young@lboro.ac.uk wendy.stanton@nottingham.ac.uk
Ruth Stubbings Jenny Coombs
r.e.stubbings@lboro.ac.uk jenny.coombs@nottingham.ac.uk
Keep in touch with the project at:
www.emrsg.org.uk