Lessons learned from a Research Data Management (RDM) workshop at the consortium meeting in Halle, Sept 2024
According to our 2nd survey of the chemical community, 86 % of the participants think that future students and working groups of their institute would benefit if handling research data and research data management would be part of the official curriculum.
So why are there so few institutions that teach RDM?
The participants of a workshop held at our Consortium Meeting wanted to explore this question. Four professors reported on how they are currently dealing with RDM at their institutions.
Sonja Herres-Pawlis from RWTH Aachen University kicked things off.
First actions reported were on a mandatory lab course for 5th semester bachelor students at RWTH. In this course, the students have to synthesize Ferrocene in the lab, and from Winter 20/21, the complete processing (planning, documentation, analysis) is carried out in the Chemotion ELN. Furthermore, there is a learning unit on the basics of RDM, FAIR principles, data management plans, metadata, and InChI & SMILES. The students must pass a final test in order to pass the lab course.
Integrating RDM and ELN into teaching within a lab stage has the great advantage that no curricular changes are needed, which is rarely done and is often not easy to implement. Our surveys show that the students have embraced the digital change. As Fig. 1 shows, the proportion of students who enjoy working with ELNs is increasing, and the proportion of those who want to continue working with handwritten documentation is falling significantly.
Integrating RDM and ELN into teaching within a lab stage has the great advantage that no curricular changes are needed, which is rarely done and is often not easy to implement.
Next were Nicolas Tielker and Stefan Kast from TU Dortmund. A mandatory module “Statistical Methods” has been introduced in both the Bachelor of Chemistry and the Bachelor of Chemical Biology. This will include aspects of “Research Data Management”, which covers ELN, repositories, data/metadata and ethical and legal aspects of RDM as soon as the responsibility is transferred to a newly appointed professorship on “AI in Chemistry and Chemical Biology”. Digital competences including RDM will therefore be included in the curriculum in Dortmund. At the same time, the RESOLV excellence cluster also fosters the integration of RDM into research and teaching.
The use of different ELNs and LIMS in parallel is challenging. This is due to the different access of different working groups, but leads to discussions in everyday life.
Kast also pointed out that interoperability and a central, functional infrastructure help the widespread acceptance and utilisation of RDM techniques.
Georg Manolikakes from the RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau described the introduction of the Chemotion ELN in a mandatory lab course in the 5th semester. Similar to efforts at the RWTH Aachen, students had to carry out the planning, documentation and analysis of a selected synthesis in the ELN. Due to the initial success, the ELN will be used for more experiments in the next turn.
At the RPTU a central ELN is hosted by the local computing center and students can use their ELN accounts throughout their further lab courses, bachelor and master thesis and even their PhD. So far, basics of RDM are taught in an accompanying seminar. Starting in fall 2024 different digital competencies, including all aspects of RDM, will be included in a new mandatory module “Basic Skills of Scientific Working” in the Bachelor of Chemistry.
Ricardo Mata from the University of Göttingen was the next to report. They have introduced programming and consolidated data analysis practices in the early semesters, in the mathematics, physics practical course, atomic structure and quantum chemistry courses.
Jupyter notebooks are used here, which students can use to study on their own and throughout their whole student life cycle. Their adoption is facilitated by a Jupyter cloud service, accessible to all students. The students are provided with standardized installations accessible through any end device. Also the RTG2455 and CRC1633 committed to employ ELNs, with a focus on eLabFTW.
From Ulm University, Benedikt Wiedemann reported that they integrate RDM in engineering and natural sciences as well. They have set targets for this: Determine and compare applicability of different ELNs for different requirements, provide suggestions for other courses, get case studies for the development of Chemotion/LabIMotion and eLabFTW for teaching purposes, and to teach students, teachers, supervisors alike to improve usage of RDM tools in the institutes. To reach these goals they implemented RDM and different ELNs in six practical courses. An exercise on metadata schema when cooking pasta is particularly successful – this course uses humor to create a lot of awareness for the topic.
As a result, we collected some good reasons to integrate RDM in teaching:
- As RDM is becoming more and more important, it is an indispensable skill for students in the future.
- ELNs save time as soon as you know how to use them. Early learning helps with final theses.
- Teach practical skills early on to reduce introductory time during bachelor/master/PhD thesis
- Meet the skills of the new students (practical computation courses are mandatory from 7th grade in school in BW)
You want to integrate RDM in teaching? Here is a checklist.
- To foster students’ digital skills a broader approach is necessary. Start with a strategic department planning.
- Look for fellow campaigners, the more lecturers/teaching assistants support the decision, the greater the acceptance.
- Are you about to revise your curriculum? Then this is a good opportunity.
- Integrating RDM into practical courses is easy to implement and offers quick applications.
- The more practical RDM is taught, the higher the level of acceptance.
You want to integrate ELN in teaching? Here is a checklist
- Central installations are easier to administer than local ones.
- Get in touch with your local computing center early.
- Clarify login procedures at an early stage for optimal and permanently usable roles and rights.
- Not every ELN is good for all applications. The fewer ELNs, the simpler, but check in advance which institutions need which ELN.
- Plan a training concept. The more teachers and course leaders are familiar with ELN, the greater the acceptance in the student body.
