"The findings also send a stark message to government - that young people are dangerously lacking information skills. Well-funded information literacy programmes are needed if the UK is to remain as a leading knowledge economy with a strongly-skilled next generation of researchers." JISC report, 2008.
Good research begins in the (virtual) library...
Modern researchers and their students have access to unprecedented amounts of information. Much of this is available online using tools and interfaces of varying degrees of sophistication. So why should there be concerns about standards of scientific literacy ?
A recent report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that young scientists of the ‘Google Generation’ are the most adept at using the web. The report claims that although young people demonstrate an ease and familiarity with computers, they rely on the most basic search tools and do not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they find on the web.
Tim Birkhead, commenting on poor standards of citation accuracy wonders how today's researchers are supposed to know the basic rules governing scientific research? The obvious answer to this is through their undergraduate training, and if not, then through their postgraduate years. The fact that mis-citation is so widespread, he comments, suggests that university teachers are failing to do this properly. Or perhaps not doing it at all.
About the Courses
These courses were developed over a series of years in a variety of biomedical research departments in Brazil. Research output is a key driver in the triennial assessment exercise, so understanding why some research fails to get published is a key issue. Our analysis showed that although students receive a good disciplinary training, they are taught little about the skills required to do good research suitable for publication in an international journal. These courses are designed to address these needs.
To find out more about the course content developed to date, visit the links on the right...
e-Pedagogics
The first courses were exclusively 'chalk and talk' affairs, but it rapidly became clear that the most important components were the practical exercises. The students often work from home and naturally form groups connected by email and cell phones. We have tryed to support this approach to learning in the evolution of the course design. Ultimately, the vision is to have the courses loaded onto a platform such as Moodle, where they can be taken by groups of students at times during their Masters/PhD/Post-doc project cycle when specific new skills are needed.
A start has been made in 2010 to develop the Moodle section of the site. Follow this link to see progress to date.