The SIB Training group is dedicated to making training materials accessible and reusable by all. We do this not only by sharing our own course materials, but also support others who do the same and participate in developing standards.
The benefits of sharing
Have you ever learned something from an open online tutorial or course? Well, you are not alone. Nowadays, freely available online educational materials are part of almost everyone’s learning journey. An increasing number of educators share their materials, because it widens their audience, encourages collaboration and allows them to get acknowledged for their work. However, sharing with reuse in mind is no easy task. For example, the material must be accessible with stable links, have standardized descriptions, and should be easy to find. The Open Research Data best practices and FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable) were developed to support the reuse of digital objects. At the SIB Training group, we apply and help others to implement these practices for training materials.
Open and FAIR training initiatives
The SIB Training group has been and continues to be involved in several initiatives to encourage open and FAIR training, both within and beyond SIB. Solid international collaborations are very important because describing and indexing training materials requires common standards with a large support base.
Current and past international collaborations and deliverables:
- Ten simple rules for making training materials FAIR: a landmark paper on making training materials FAIR. Developed by the ELIXIR Training Platform
- FAIR training handbook: A guide for making training materials FAIR. Developed by the ELIXIR Training Platform
Read the news - Co-leading the ELIXIR FAIR Training Focus Group
- Bioschemas training profiles: A standard to describe training material and courses. Developed by the ELIXIR FAIR Training Focus group, GOBLET and ISCB.
Internal activities and deliverables:
- Open and FAIR SIB training materials
- Glittr.org: a database of open training materials hosted on GitHub and GitLab
- FAIR training task force: a group of FAIR training enthusiasts within SIB that aim to catalyze FAIR training practices within SIB, national and international institutions.
Join us!
Are you looking for support to share your training materials? Do you want to know more about applying the FAIR principles to training materials or do you want to collaborate with us? Contact Geert van Geest.