PaPOR Trail: An OER on Open Research
Presenter: Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar
Lecturer at the School of Public Health, University College Cork
Abstract
Open research educational resources for undergraduate and postgraduate students are essential to enhance awareness and early engagement with open research practices. The aim of the PaPOR TRaIL project was to develop an open educational resource (OER) on open research for undergraduate and postgraduate students, the PaPOR TRaIL course. Interviews and surveys were conducted to understand student and research supervisor attitudes, knowledge, and experiences of open research, as well as needs and preferences for open research educational content and delivery. Findings from interviews and surveys were integrated with international guidance on best practice on open research to develop the PaPOR TRaIL course. Findings from interviews with 16 students and 14 supervisors demonstrated inconsistencies in open research knowledge and attitudes. Surveys completed by 74 students and 76 supervisors, indicated perceptions of importance of open research and preferences for course content (e.g., open data, reproducibility) and delivery (e.g., videos, templates). Following this, the PaPOR TRaIL course was developed as an OER to include a stand-alone introductory module, and six optional follow-on practice-based modules on specific open research practices. Since its launch in December 2019, nearly 500 students from 15 countries have enrolled in the course.
About
Dr Karen Matvienko-Sikar is a Lecturer at the School of Public Health, University College Cork. Karen is a health psychologist with research interests and expertise in maternal and child health, in particular perinatal mental health and childhood obesity. Karen is also an advocate for use of open research practices, in particular incorporation of open research in undergraduate and postgraduate teaching and learning. She is a Catalyst with the Berkeley Initiative for the Social Sciences and has received a UCC Open Research Award and a commendation from the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science. Karen led development of the Principles and Practices in Open Research course for undergraduate and postgraduate students, which has been taken by ~500 students worldwide.