Deadline: 14-Sep-20
The United Nations Technology Bank for Least Developed Countries (UNTB) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) are accepting Applications for the second edition of the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) titled: “Research4Life Online Training Tools to develop capacities in information use, scholarly communication and information management in least developed countries” in October 2020.
UNTB and FAO are thrilled to continue a partnership to support the delivery of online training activities for the 47 least-developed countries to enhance the access to recent scientific knowledge, and thus give them the opportunity to participate fully in the global scientific community.
The courses will be delivered with the objective to equip researchers in educational, research, and policy institutions in these countries with the knowledge and the skills required to access and use information effectively and efficiently.
What do you get from this Course?
- The MOOC allows participants to study their area of interest throughout a five-week period. The course covers topics such as the scholarly communication landscape, information literacy skills, advocacy and capacity development strategies. Additionally, it provides discipline-specific information for Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI and GOALI.
- Participants of the course will be provided with a Certificate of Attendance after completing the exam at the end of the course. Those who pass the exam with a grade of at least 7.0, will receive a Certificate of Achievement.
Course Content
- Module 1: Scholarly communication and Research4Life: This module provides an overview on scholarly communication, the publishing landscape, key concepts about Research4Life including the details about the partnership,, programmes’ coverage, eligibility criteria, and registration. Lessons included in this module are:
- Lesson 1.1: Scientific landscape
- Lesson 1.2: Research assessment and bibliometrics
- Lesson 1.3: Research4Life
- Module 2: Discovery and re-use of scholarly literature: This module covers key concepts of information literacy skills and competencies, including academic ethics, licensing and academic collaboration tools. Lessons included in this module are:
- Lesson 2.1: Identifying information sources
- Lesson 2.2: Using information resources
- Lesson 2.3: Intellectual property and copyright – Ethics and plagiarism
- Lesson 2.4: Citing, reference management and collaboration tools
- Module 3: Discipline-specific browsing and searching: This module describes the five Research4Life programmes (Hinari, AGORA, OARE, ARDI, GOALI) in detail, including how to conduct discipline specific search, an introduction to Summon to search across programmes and the bibliometric analysis tools: Scopus and Dimensions, which are provided within Research4Life. Lessons included in this module are:
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- Lesson 3.1: Hinari: Research in Health
- Lesson 3.2: AGORA: Research in agriculture
- Lesson 3.3: OARE: Research in the Environment
- Lesson 3.4: ARDI: Research for Development and Innovation
- Lesson 3.5: GOALI: Research for Global Justice
- Lesson 3.6: Search across Research4Life programmes
- Lesson 3.7: Citation databases
- Module 4: Additional discipline-specific resources: This module focuses on additional discipline-specific resources and services in the five main disciplines of the Research4Life programmes. Lessons included in this module are:
- Lesson 4.1: Health
- Lesson 4.2: Agriculture, forestry, fisheries, climate, food security, related biological and environmental sciences
- Lesson 4.3: Environment
- Lesson 4.4. Development and innovation
- Lesson 4.5. Global justice
- Lesson 4.6. Interdisciplinary resources
- Module 5: Advocate on Research4Life and Facilitate Capacity Development: This module teaches you how to design advocacy strategies to address decision makers and upper management. It also guides you on how to train local groups on how to use Research4Life. Lessons included in this module are:
- Lesson 5.1: Research4Life Advocacy Toolkit
- Lesson 5.2: Training Your Audience on How to Use Research4Life
Certification
At the end of the course, participants do a graded online exam. There are two types of certification for this course:
- Certificate of Attendance: for those who complete and submit the exam at the end of the course
- Certificate of Achievement: for those who complete the exam with 7.0 and higher mark.
Duration
Participants are expected to spend on average six to eight hours per week on lessons and activities, such as contributing to discussion forums and webinars.
Eligibility Criteria
Eligible institutions include: national universities, professional schools (in medicine, agriculture, pharmacy, public health, socio-legal studies, engineering, etc.), research institutes, teaching hospitals and healthcare centers, government offices, national libraries, agricultural extension centers and local non-governmental organizations.
For more information, visit http://aims.fao.org/activity/blog/call-least-developed-countries-register-research4life-massive-open-online-course