Maximising the potential of training materials through FAIRification

This presentation took place during a session at the eResearch Australasia 2021 Conference 11-15 October 2021. A recording of the presentation is available on the Australian BioCommons YouTube Channel. Presentation abstract: The Australian BioCommons training program includes events ranging from short webinars to multi-day workshops. These events generate a variety of training materials including slides, handouts, data, online tutorials, schedules and discussion documents which are developed and owned by volunteer trainers and facilitators from outside our own organisation. To maximise the potential of these materials, we wish to make them available to the wider community for reuse by both trainers and trainees. Sharing the materials more widely has the added benefit of improving the recognition of the valuable time and effort that volunteer trainers put into developing these materials. Australian BioCommons training materials are typically shared with participants however we lacked a consistent approach for sharing materials with the wider community. The recent publication of the ten simple rules for making training materials FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable), and our contribution to this effort, has spurred us to consider what we can do to make our materials more findable and available for (re)use by both trainees and trainers. Here we outline our approach to cataloging our materials, assessing their FAIRness and developing a consistent mechanism for sharing and describing materials associated with Australian BioCommons events. We used the ten simple rules in combination with the ARDC FAIR self assessment tool to provide a framework for assessing FAIRness of the materials from our events. This enabled us to identify key areas for improvement and to develop a plan for sharing Australian BioCommons training materials via Zenodo