Building a FAIR Training Ecosystem for the Social Science and Humanities within the H2IOSC project

The study of the past, in all its shapes, underwent a transformative evolution in the last decade given by the introduction of new technologies and digital tools to support research endeavors. Digital technologies can provide effective support in different fields in the Social Science and Humanities sector; however, the availability of these technologies does not guarantee their effective utilization. Scholars, students and researchers need training materials to engage with digital tools and methodologies to use the full potential of technology in their studies. In this proposal, the Training Environment developed within the H2IOSC project will be presented to show how it can support interdisciplinary training and continuous professional development in the Social Science and Humanities (SSH) sector. 

The Humanities and Cultural Heritage Italian Open Science Cloud (H2IOSC) project aims to create a federated cluster of services and resources, developed by the Italian national nodes of four Research Infrastructures (RIs) that are part of the ESFRI  (European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructure) roadmap in the field of Social and Cultural Innovation: DARIAH.it; E-RIHS.it, CLARIN.it and OPERAS.it.  

Within the H2IOSC project, the Work Package dedicated to Training, Capacity Building, Engagement aims to support research through knowledge transfer and the implementation of good practices in education. The involved RIs can share information, training and guidance initiatives that aim to promote knowledge of the products, services and opportunities offered by RIs to potential users. In the field of training, initiatives are often scattered across different platforms, not always described with specific metadata and not always accessible to the public. To address this issue, the H2IOSC training infrastructure has been developed to provide an integrated environment for accessible and reusable courses for both trainers and students, supported by the implementation of a common methodology for structuring educational materials according to the FAIR principles (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable). The infrastructure consists of two platforms: the H2IOSC Training Environment, which is used for the delivery and use of courses by users, and the H2IOSC Training Library, a specific repository of training materials for trainers (https://www.h2iosc.cnr.it/training-infrastructure/).  

The H2IOSC Training Environment, based on a design shared by the 4 infrastructures to offer a complete experience to both students and teachers belonging to the different research areas, is a learning management system designed to offer a highly interactive virtual learning environment. 

The H2IOSC Training Library is a specific repository of training materials for trainers. It is dedicated to the FAIR deposit of modular teaching materials, allowing the assignment of Persistent Identifiers (PIDs), standard licenses and integrated version update management.  

The H2IOSC Training Environment and Training Library platforms aim to empower trainers and researchers in the Social Sciences and Humanities (SSH) and beyond to successfully integrate digital tools and methodologies into their work. H2IOSC is building a federated ecosystem that provides essential training resources and supports the implementation of FAIR principles in training materials as digital objects.