Previous work

When it comes to implementing the FAIR principles to research datasets, there have been many projects and initiatives such as FAIRsFAIR and GO FAIR 1 that were tackling different aspects and challenges of accomplishing the goal of FAIR research data production. It is, however, not so straightforward to apply the FAIR principles to other research output as it is recommended for datasets. Lately, there have been substantial efforts on extending the FAIRness idea to other types of research output as highlighted by the work done by the Research Data Alliance that has extended the application of FAIR principles to research software 2.

The use and development of learning materials has very specific features that needs to be adequately addressed in order to truly implement the FAIR principles, particularly when it comes to describing the materials using a metadata schema or combining materials with dissimilar licensing information. This is why the specific issue of FAIR learning materials has been of importance in the work of different EOSC projects, groups and alliances.

For example, the ENVRI-FAIR project has aimed at developing FAIR training materials integrated into a training platform and catalogue and its deliverable outlines some example steps taken to produce the materials 3. Substantial efforts towards the creation of high-quality training materials have been done by ELIXIR in collaboration with Global Organisation for Bioinformatics Learning, Education and Training (GOBLET) providing a training platform, but also a comprehensive training toolkit and other important training related information targeting specifically the bioinformatics community 4. ELIXIR has also published the FAIR Training Handbook that aims to guide the development of FAIR training materials and is being continuously updated 5. They have also worked on a metadata standard for describing training metadata in bioinformatics. The FAIRsFAIR project has published a report on harmonising metadata for FAIR training materials exchange 6, and this work has later been picked up and continued by the Research Data Alliance. EOSC Synergy is another example project that has produced an online training handbook 7 that serves as a facilitator kit for online training development. At the moment one of the most important efforts on the topic of making FAIR training materials is presented in the Ten simple rules for making training materials FAIR 8 that lays out the essential requirements needed to ensure that the training materials are FAIR. As the FAIR principles do not require the data in question to be Open, there is a growing community, particularly in the US, that goes beyond the FAIR requirements and fosters the development of Open Educational Resources (OER) 9 which are supported by UNESCO. In essence, OER are learning materials that implement all of the FAIR principles using their own specific metadata schema for description, and, in addition, are required to be fully open for use and reuse. Some of the European projects, such as TRIPLE 10, have adopted the OER approach and aimed towards fully open materials 11. All recommendations and available guidebooks on how to make OER have been taken as valuable input in the definition of the proposed FAIR-by-design methodology, with the option on having the finally produced materials fully open for use and reuse as a recommended practice. Thus, using the proposed methodology one can choose the level of openness of the materials with which they are comfortable with making the methodology applicable in various scenarios by supporting the idea of as open as possible, as closed as necessary.

The FAIR-by-design methodology proposed in this document aims to build upon all of the work done already in the EOSC and larger OER community and help tackle the challenges of practical implementation of the FAIR principles in the process of development of learning materials. For these purposes, the task has initially gone through an analysis phase where the current efforts, both EOSC and OER related, have been identified and their approaches to learning materials development have been studied. Existing best practices available in the identified guidelines and handbooks, together with the proposed rules for making training materials FAIR have then been extended where necessary and mapped into stages and steps in the proposed methodology. This has enabled the FAIR-by-design methodology to be developed as an extension of the fundamental instructional design process thus ensuring that the FAIR aspects and particularities are addressed as early in the design as possible supporting an efficient development effort.

  1. GO FAIR. GO FAIR Resources. URL: https://www.go-fair.org/resources/. ↩

  2. Neil P. Chue Hong, Daniel S. Katz, Michelle Barker, Anna-Lena Lamprecht, Carlos Martinez, Fotis E. Psomopoulos, Jen Harrow, Leyla Jael Castro, Morane Gruenpeter, Paula Andrea Martinez, and Tom Honeyman. FAIR Principles for Research Software (FAIR4RS Principles). 2021. Publisher: Research Data Alliance. URL: https://zenodo.org/record/6623556#.YqCJTJNBwlw (visited on 2023-03-07), doi:10.15497/RDA00068. ↩

  3. ENVRI FAIR. D6.2 FAIR training materials catalogue & integration with Common Training Platform. June 2021. URL: https://envri.eu/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/ENVRI-FAIR-D-6-2.pdf. ↩

  4. ELIXIR. ELIXIR Training Platform. URL: https://elixir-europe.org/platforms/training (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩

  5. FAIR Training Handbook. URL: https://elixir-europe-training.github.io/ELIXIR-TrP-FAIR-training-handbook/. ↩

  6. Phil Barker and Angus Whyte. Harmonizing Metadata for Exchange of FAIR Training Materials. Technical Report, Zenodo, December 2020. Version Number: 1.1. URL: https://zenodo.org/record/4434615 (visited on 2023-03-07), doi:10.5281/ZENODO.4434615. ↩

  7. Helen Clare, Linas Cepinskas, Ellen Leenarts, and Mateusz Krzyzanek. EOSC Synergy Online Training Handbook materials. October 2022. Publisher: Zenodo. URL: https://zenodo.org/record/7254522 (visited on 2023-03-07), doi:10.5281/ZENODO.7254522. ↩

  8. Leyla Garcia, Bérénice Batut, Melissa L. Burke, Mateusz Kuzak, Fotis Psomopoulos, Ricardo Arcila, Teresa K. Attwood, Niall Beard, Denise Carvalho-Silva, Alexandros C. Dimopoulos, Victoria Dominguez del Angel, Michel Dumontier, Kim T. Gurwitz, Roland Krause, Peter McQuilton, Loredana Le Pera, Sarah L. Morgan, Päivi Rauste, Allegra Via, Pascal Kahlem, Gabriella Rustici, Celia W. G. van Gelder, and Patricia M. Palagi. Ten simple rules for making training materials FAIR. May 2020. URL: https://dx.plos.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007854 (visited on 2023-03-07), doi:10.1371/journal.pcbi.1007854. ↩

  9. UNESCO. Open Educational Resources. URL: https://www.unesco.org/en/open-educational-resources (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩

  10. TRIPLE. Triple – Transforming Research through Innovative Practices for Linked Interdisciplinary Exploration. URL: https://project.gotriple.eu/ (visited on 2023-03-07). ↩

  11. Lottie Provost, Francesca Di Donato, Erzsébet Tóth-Czifra, Suzanne Dumouchel, Emilie Blotière, and Yin Chen. Open Science Training in TRIPLE. June 2023. URL: https://open-research-europe.ec.europa.eu/articles/3-39/v2 (visited on 2023-08-07), doi:10.12688/openreseurope.15430.2. ↩