Welcome to the January 2019 update for the MOOC! We hope that you are all having a great start to the year, and managing to take some time for yourself to relax in between catching up after the festive break.
One of the top things we have done to kick off 2019 is release a brand new video introducing the pilot module on Open Research Software and Open Source:
This module is designed to help to equip us with the relevant knowledge and tools to transform software and other research components into something that can be openly accessed and re-used by others. So far, dozens of people have been completing the tasks, getting certified for their efforts, and taking big steps towards making their research workflows more open and efficient. Simple and effective.
This video helps to answer a key question: Why is Open Source Software important for you and your research? To help with this, we have spoken with 6 researchers across the world who use Open Source Software in their daily practices, and can testify to the great impact it can have on their research workflows. Because Open Source is just as much about the people as it is the technology.
Starring: Peter Murray-Rust, Heidi Seibold, Konrad Förstner, Anna Kostikova, Ina Smith and Abby Cabunoc Mayes #OpenHeroes
Don’t forget that you can also:
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Join our open Slack group, where we post funding and event opportunities, discuss updates and developments to the MOOC, and generally have a good chit-chat and connect with other like-minded folks.
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Join our open development team on GitHub, where you can join one of a number of groups to assist with the development of the MOOC. No coding experience necessary!
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Re-use, share, and adapt everything we have created for use off- or online. It’s all openly licensed without restriction just for this! You don’t even have to be within the MOOC platform, it’s all yours to do what you want with.
In the near future, we expect to launch our next module on Open Principles, and are just putting the finishing touches on the material there. This module will be freely available online here shortly.
This week, we also headed to Groningen in the Netherlands, were we delivered a workshop at the Hanzehogeschool (applied sciences) about how to use ‘Open Science’ to develop your digital profile as a researcher. We had a great discussion with people there, and provided instruction on how to use services such as ORCID, ImpactStory and the Open Science Framework. Our slides for this are, of course, available online here (Task 2), in PDF, ODP, or PPTX formats - whichever suits you best! The presentation is fully customisable and re-usable too, so please feel free to use it for your own workshops.
The whole point of this project is to be as open and accessible as possible to everyone, while encouraging the growth of the open community around the world through peer-to-peer training and learning, and ultimately help to set the default to open!
An example of the certificate you get upon completion
As always, please do consider helping us out by spreading the word, inviting your friends and colleagues to join us, and giving feedback on how things are going so far. This is a huge, openly collaborative effort, and we will learn together as a community and help set the default to Open!