A curriculum for foundational Research Data Science skills for Early Career Researchers

RDA/CODATA Summer Schools in Data Science and Cloud Computing in the Developing World WG

Group co-chairs: Hugh Shanahan, Andrew Harrison, Simon Hodson, Robert Quick

Recommendation Title: A curriculum for foundational Research Data Science skills for Early Career Researchers

Authors: Hugh Shanahan, Rob Quick, Marcela Alfaro Córdoba, Gail Clement, Louise Bezuidenhout, Venkat Shanmugasundaram, Sarah Jones, Kevin Ashley, Stephen Diggs, Colin Gillespie, Sara El Jadid, Maria Sorokina, Roger Barlow, Ekpe Okorafor, Gergely Sipos, Alessandro Constantini, Hannah Short

Impact: This recommendation describes the curriculum and example materials to give Early Career Researchers (ECR’s) the foundational skills in Data Science to work with their data. This curriculum combines technical skills, such as Software Carpentry with responsible research practices such as Open and Responsible Research. In 2016 we ran one school in Trieste, Italy. In 2017 we ran two, Trieste and São Paulo, Brazil. In 2018 we ran three, Trieste, São Paulo and Kigali, Rwanda. In 2019 we will run four  schools (Addis Ababa,  Ethiopia, Trieste, Abuja, Nigeria and San José in Costa Rica). At the end of this year approximately 400 students will have been taught on four continents using the curriculum developed here.

Recommendation package DOI: 10.15497/rda00038

Citation: Shanahan, H., Quick, R., Córdoba, M. A., Clement, G., Bezuidenhout, L., Shanmugasundaram, V., … Short, H. (2019). A curriculum for foundational Research Data Science skills for Early Career Researchers (Version 1). https://doi.org/10.15497/rda00038

Abstract

This recommendation describes the curriculum and example materials to give Early Career Researchers (ECR’s) the foundational skills in Data Science to work with their data. This curriculum combines technical skills, such as Software Carpentry with responsible research practices such as Open and Responsible Research. This curriculum is composed of

.) a set of curriculum specifications for the modules run in this curriculum,

.) an example timetable for a 10-day intensive training event,

.) a diagram to show how these modules are connected,

.) a spreadsheet of links to example materials that implement this,

.) metadata for the submission,

.) an impact statement,

.) a document discussing the maintenance plan of the materials.

The purpose of this curriculum is to be deliberately broad and shallow to be delivered over approximately 70 contact hours. It could also form the basis for a much deeper programme which will not be explored further.

In 2016 we ran one school in Trieste, Italy. In 2017 we ran two, Trieste and São Paulo, Brazil. In 2018 we ran three, Trieste, São Paulo and Kigali, Rwanda. In 2019 we will run four schools (Addis Ababa,  Ethiopia, Trieste, Abuja, Nigeria and San José in Costa Rica). At the end of this year, approximately 400 students will have been taught on four continents using the curriculum developed here.

Read it on Zenodo https://zenodo.org/record/3581272