The training “Quickstart to Research Data Management” (translated from the Greek title “Quickstart στη Διαχείριση Ερευνητικών Δεδομένων”) was successfully concluded on Wednesday 27th of November 2024. The five-session training was conducted online, from October 30 to November 27, with a dedicated group of researchers meeting every Wednesday to participate in the sessions and activities.
The participants, a total of 26 researchers from multiple disciplines, participated actively in the discussions, and expressed their enthusiasm about this training initiative as well as they voiced their concern in topics that came up. The sessions were structured in an interactive way, in order to engage the participants as much as possible. The sessions took place in Zoom and during them the participants were asked to take part in break-out rooms to discuss their projects, other times to discuss the exercises that needed to be completed during the sessions. Polls and quizzes were also part of the sessions with the participants filing them out.
The comfortable atmosphere that was created between the participants and the trainers at the start of the first session continued on. The participants were asked to add a slide, in Google slides, with information about themselves. A slidedeck of both the participants and the trainers introductions was created and was used to make the introduction at the first session. This is one of the factors that contributed to the active participation of the researchers.
A big part of the interactivity of the sessions can be attributed to the open discussions. They were open for everyone to voice their concerns and questions regarding topics of, for example, ethics as well as their excitement about some of the tools that were presented to them. The hands-on experience on using some of the tools, along with some additional options presented to them, added to their positive experience of the training.
As part of the training the Projects platform (controlled access to members only), provided by Learning Planet Institute, was used. The participants used the platform, mainly, to have access to their individual projects and to comment and voice their questions regarding their project. There were also interactions between the participants in the comment sections. Throughout the training, participants completed the exercises provided to them each week.
At the end of the last session the participants were asked to complete two evaluations. The Evaluation Feedback on the Miro website was done on the spot. They were given additional minutes to complete it. The Office Form Evaluation was shared to them together with the Evaluation Feedback on the Miro website, but they will be given more time to complete as we will share it with them again through email.