A national approach to improve discoverability and accessibility of digital research skills training events, materials and trainers

Ms Ann Backhaus¹, Melissa Burke², Kathryn Unsworth³, Anastasios Papaioannou⁴, Darya Vanichkina⁵, Kay Steel⁶, Mark Crowe⁷, Mortaza Rezae⁸, Jon Symon⁹, Christopher McAvaney¹⁰, Nick May¹¹

¹Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, Kensington, Australia
²Australian BioCommons, Brisbane, Australia
³Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), Melbourne, Australia
⁴Intersect, Sydney, Australia
⁵Sydney Informatics Hub, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
⁶Federation University, Ballarat, Australia
⁷Queensland Cyber Infrastructure Foundation Ltd (QCIF), Brisbane, Australia
⁸Curtin University, Perth, Australia
⁹The University of Newcastle, Callaghan, Australia
¹⁰Deakin University, Victoria, Australia
¹¹CSIRO, Melbourne, Australia

Introduction

The discoverability of training events, materials and trainers has long been a challenge for the Australian digital research skills community. The distributed nature of training requires a federated approach to enable access to and visibility of authoritative training to aid skills uplift across the sector.

Task

The National Training Registry (NTR) Working Group was formed at the ARDC Skills Summit in 2020. Armed with a common objective, the Working Group sought to find a solution. After scanning the landscape to see how others had tackled this problem, ELIXIR’s TeSS platform was identified as an exemplar. This partnership with ELIXIR and an exchange of the TeSS infrastructure resulted in the Digital Research Skills Australasia (DReSA) portal.

DReSA is currently in beta with further development earmarked over the next six months. Development also involves the socialisation and testing of DReSA, and exploration of a sustainable model.

Action

In this BoF, we will introduce DReSA to skills trainers, training providers and seekers of training. During the BoF, attendees will enter their training events and materials information into DReSA, become familiar with the search capability and provide feedback on the experience.

Several lightning talks will focus on existing and emerging sustainability models with time allocated for discussions on a suitable model and future developments for DReSA.

Results

NTR Working Group members will facilitate this BoF. Outcomes will be shared with the skills community at the 2021 ARDC Skills Summit to gain consensus on a sustainable model for DReSA. Feedback will inform further development.

Biography:

Bio to come