Open Educational Science research data as a driver for social change

The overall aim of the project is, on the one hand, to provide knowledge on the current state of beliefs, fears, practices of depositing, curating and reusing data on Educational Sciences, and on the other hand, taking into account the information obtained, to develop recommendations to exploit the potential of the data.

Acronym

EDUCA-DATA

Reference code

MRR/TED2021-131057B-I00

Description

Scientific research generates a large volume of digital data, but much of it remains hidden and never used, so its potential power to devise new hypotheses, generate new scientific knowledge, stimulate innovation and further discovery is untapped. Open access to scientific data increases knowledge sharing and enhances the advancement of science, so promoting its efficient storage, distribution, use and preservation is crucial. Against this background, research is needed into methods, technologies and models to identify, classify, preserve and distribute datasets, as well as their flows and lifecycles from the time they are generated until they are finally reused. This research is particularly important when the data to be preserved is of an educational nature, given the importance of education as a driver of social change. In order to face the challenges posed by the access and reuse of data in Educational Sciences, it is necessary to know the conditions in which this practice is found, as our project aims to do. We aim to learn about the experiences of researchers, identify existing fears and problems, contextualise the practices being developed and, based on the information gathered, draft good practice guidelines that will help all actors involved to meet this challenge and develop their own informed strategies. In order to respond to these challenges, socio-technical solutions are needed that not only build technological infrastructures, but it is also necessary to understand and modify the habits and behaviours of researchers and their organisations in matters such as the quality of educational data, the recognition of the work of publishing these data, their correct citation and compliance with the FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) principles. This is the line of action of the European Union, which in the framework of the Horizon2020 programme already laid the foundations for open data (article 29.3 of the Agreement) and continues in the current calls of the Horizon Europe 2021-2027 programmes, where Open Access is now a mandatory legal requirement for all funded projects and where the dissemination of these data is included by default in the grant agreement.

Keywords

Research data, Open data, University education, Data management, Education, Data sharing

Principal investigators: