2019 ESIP Winter Meeting

Session Abstract:
Since 2016, selection criteria have guided decisions made about the range, type and depth of educational resources published in the ESIP-hosted Data Management Training Clearinghouse (DMTC). The selection criteria were chosen with input from the first three organizational collaborators: ESIP, DataONE, and the U.S. Geological Survey. Once accepted for publication, the educational resources have been described using a subset of the Schema.org endorsed metadata schema for educational resources called the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative (LRMI) that is maintained by the Dublin Core Metadata Initiative (http://dublincore.org/dcx/lrmi-terms/1.1/ ). Specific elements of the LRMI metadata scheme were then chosen as featured search facets and descriptive elements in the search results display of the DMTC.
In July of this year, the DMTC received an Institute of Museum & Library Services (IMLS) National Leadership Grant focused on the expansion of the disciplines in the Clearinghouse, and enhancing the discovery and evaluation of the resources in the DMTC. As a result, it is good time to solicit feedback from the science and social science researcher and trainer communities on the DMTC editorial policies described above. In this working session, participants serving as DMTC resource submitters, reviewers and editors will be invited to test current submission and editorial practice by choosing educational resources not yet included in the publishing queue, deciding whether to submit them for publication using the DMTC selection criteria, and describing them using the LRMI metadata elements present in the full DMTC submission form. A discussion will follow these individual or small group activities in which participants will be asked to provide feedback on what was challenging and/or positive about their experience. The purpose of the discussion will be to reflect upon how the editorial policies and practices affect the scope, range and potential for sustainable growth of the DMTC inventory. Information to provide context and background data for the activities will be distributed to participants ahead of time based on the Sched participant list.

Use the Selection Criteria to guide your evaluation of educational resources to add to the DMTC at: https://github.com/imls-dmt/resources-workflow/blob/master/Nov17_2018_SelectionCriteria.pdf .

Take the brief tutorial to aid you in creating and submitting the metadata for educational resources at: https://github.com/imls-dmt/resources-workflow/blob/master/Tutorial%20for%20Submitting%20Educational%20Resource%20Metadata.pdf .

Use Working Session spreadsheet to evalute, submit and review educational resources in the DMTC: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1BtZOsftJWGGZsYnbImz7TnnkX5dlbDoVjCc3010hMgA/edit?usp=sharing https://drive.google.com/file/d/1VfUCRaGMuCevHgwFwjIgjT1j1TcS5qR9/view?usp=sharing

Session Takeaways (post-meeting):
1) Need to make sure that we’re considering different learning styles in our selection criteria, so that we accommodate both visual & aural learners as well as more formal readers, for example. Finding experts to advise us in this area would be very helpful.
2) Would be helpful to take advantage of what others in ES education / web portals are doing with respect to evaluating & noting when educational resources are made accessible to those who are visually or otherwise challenged.
3) “Uniqueness” of coverage of a topic can be an interesting or memorable way to present a concept that is often discussed elsewhere in addition to discussing a new or unique topics per se.