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.

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

11. Content of Pilot module

12. Quick live demo of the final
‘Dissemination of your research’
module

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

20. Mindmap of wider collaboration

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

26. Questions?