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Introduction

Training and skills development are the cornerstone for building an effective ecosystem wherein the users and providers can take full advantage of the new possibilities offered by the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). Through the federation of data and research infrastructures across Europe, EOSC aims to provide seamless access and research data reuse in a robust, secure, scalable and flexible way 1. To achieve this vision, in parallel with the advancements of technologies and development of resources and services, it is imperative that all traditional activities that are part of the research lifecycle are transformed using Open Science (OS) approaches. This entails empowering a diverse set of stakeholders with skills that can help them understand and employ the benefits of OS and EOSC services. And, as the EOSC ecosystem is continuously evolving, the need for continuous upskilling will remain. Having this is mind, the training and skill development activities should be implemented in a sustainable manner by building and supporting growing communities of trainers and developing high-quality reusable training materials.

The Findability, Accessibility, Interoperability and Reusability (FAIR) guiding principles 2 are at the heart of the EOSC activities defining the features that all data resources, tools, services and infrastructures should have to promote discovery and reuse by third-parties. The principles act as a guide when choosing specific implementation choices aiming to ensure that the created digital artefacts are Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. The approach to upskilling stakeholders to engage in EOSC should follow the same values, in particular when it comes to the development of materials that can be used for training sessions, or self-paced learning about different aspects of OS and EOSC. The benefits of focusing on the development of FAIR learning materials go beyond the long-term investment for the EOSC training community including other aspects such as:

  • Expanded base of learners
    • Encompassing not just targeted trainees or OS students, but any interested party that would like to use the provided learning material, thus not only supporting, but actively boosting lifelong learning experiences;
  • Improved learning process
    • As FAIR learning materials mean that learners can easily find and access learning content, obtain more in-depth understanding of an offered course or training before actual enrolment, or go back to refresh their knowledge on a given topic;
  • High-quality learning materials
    • FAIR learning resources can be adapted and revised, and in this way more easily kept up to date, translated and localized to a specific context;
    • The metadata that accompanies the learning materials offers clear information regarding licensing fostering reuse through adaptation and development of enhanced learning content;
    • Existing learning resources can be revised and reused to build various learning aggregations such as learning paths or certification requirements;
  • Sustainable education
    • By integrating FAIR practices, educational institutions contribute to a more sustainable educational ecosystem. Reducing redundancy, maximizing resource utilization, and embracing openness support the efficient use of educational resources.
  • Scalability and efficiency
    • FAIR materials can be easily distributed and shared, allowing educational institutions and organizations to scale their educational offerings more efficiently.
  • Consolidated network of instructors
    • Trainers and teachers can create or review learning materials in a collaborative fashion. Training/learning materials development regarding OS and EOSC are still in its early stages with many initiatives and parallel activities needing to be aligned and harmonised. This process has already started with the activities of the Training and Skills EOSC Working Group 3 and continues with the activities in the new EOSC projects such as Skills4EOSC as well as the new task forces such as the Upskilling Countries to Engage in EOSC Task Force 4. On the journey to achieving a FAIR-by-design approach in developing learning materials for EOSC, there are many challenges that need to be tackled:
  • Finding existing FAIR learning materials on a given topic
    • Many initiatives and parallel activities regarding OS and EOSC training/learning materials need to be aligned and harmonized. This process should focus on the produced initial body of available learning materials currently scattered on different platforms and repositories. Providing a single point for searching and accessing learning materials is still an open issue that is currently being tackled by projects such as EOSC Future 5;
  • Learning materials formats
    • Most of the available learning materials can be found in closed formats making them difficult to be reused by other instructors, especially when adaptation is needed. Also, the available content is mostly slide handouts, video recordings of webinars or short packaged courses, while the accompanying material such as exercises, quizzes, instructional guides, etc. are difficult to find or extract;
  • Extra effort
    • It is clear that making learning materials FAIR adds a considerable overhead on the already lengthy process of development of new learning resources. Thus, awareness is needed that additional time, resources and competencies are required when aiming to produce high-quality FAIR learning materials with enough granularity to ensure maximum re-usability.

Aiming to further support the EOSC training and skills community, one of the goals of the Skills4EOSC project is to develop a comprehensive FAIR-by-design methodology that will cover all aspects of the process of developing FAIR learning materials. This methodology is envisioned as a tool that can be used by the community of training/learning materials designers helping them upskill their traditional design process by paying attention to ensure FAIRness of the produced learning content.

The purpose of this document is to introduce the concept and principles of the FAIR-by-design methodology, including all relevant aspects and necessary skills. It discusses the concept of modelling and describing learning materials, the related work regarding training metadata and materials development, to then propose a FAIR-by-design methodology for developing training materials by augmenting the instructional design process.

This document represents the initial handbook on FAIR-by-design methodology that will be used as a basis for preparing practically oriented training on how to design FAIR learning materials. Together with the provided checklists, the training that will be conducted during the second year of the Skills4EOSC project will focus on practical examples and use cases that showcase the implementation of the methodology proposed in this document. In this way, all learning materials developed within the project are to be FAIR-by-design.

  1. European Commission. European Open Science Cloud (EOSC). URL: https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-2020-2024/our-digital-future/open-science/european-open-science-cloud-eosc_en (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩

  2. Mark D. Wilkinson, Michel Dumontier, IJsbrand Jan Aalbersberg, Gabrielle Appleton, Myles Axton, Arie Baak, Niklas Blomberg, Jan-Willem Boiten, Luiz Bonino da Silva Santos, Philip E. Bourne, Jildau Bouwman, Anthony J. Brookes, Tim Clark, Mercè Crosas, Ingrid Dillo, Olivier Dumon, Scott Edmunds, Chris T. Evelo, Richard Finkers, Alejandra Gonzalez-Beltran, Alasdair J.G. Gray, Paul Groth, Carole Goble, Jeffrey S. Grethe, Jaap Heringa, Peter A.C ’t Hoen, Rob Hooft, Tobias Kuhn, Ruben Kok, Joost Kok, Scott J. Lusher, Maryann E. Martone, Albert Mons, Abel L. Packer, Bengt Persson, Philippe Rocca-Serra, Marco Roos, Rene van Schaik, Susanna-Assunta Sansone, Erik Schultes, Thierry Sengstag, Ted Slater, George Strawn, Morris A. Swertz, Mark Thompson, Johan van der Lei, Erik van Mulligen, Jan Velterop, Andra Waagmeester, Peter Wittenburg, Katherine Wolstencroft, Jun Zhao, and Barend Mons. The FAIR Guiding Principles for scientific data management and stewardship. March 2016. URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/sdata201618 (visited on 2023-03-07), doi:10.1038/sdata.2016.18. ↩

  3. European Commission. Directorate General for Research and Innovation. and EOSC Executive Board. Digital skills for FAIR and Open Science: report from the EOSC Executive Board Skills and Training Working Group. 2021. URL: https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/59065 (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩

  4. EOSC Association. Upskilling countries to engage in EOSC. URL: https://www.eosc.eu/advisory-groups/upskilling-countries-engage-eosc (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩

  5. EOSC Future. Training and Skills - EOSC Future Public - Wiki. URL: https://wiki.eoscfuture.eu/display/PUBLIC/Training+and+Skills (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩