Digital Research Skills Certificate Program

The non-credit Certificate in Digital Research Skills for graduate students formally recognizes graduate students who have taken DRS workshops designed to develop their digital research skills. The Certificate is offered to all graduate and postdoctoral students who are interested in developing their digital research skills and engaging in the graduate professional development community at the University of Regina.

The certificate consists of a series of required and optional workshops on topics including research data management, various research-related software programs, literature reviews, digital copyright concerns, among others. Participants must complete a minimum of 7 workshops during the academic year in order to receive their certificate. Four (4) of the workshops are required, and students can choose three (3) or more of the optional workshops to receive their certificate. Each workshop will be offered twice during the academic year—once virtually (Zoom) and once in-person, to meet the needs of as many students as possible.

a. Program learning outcomes

Upon the successful completion of the Digital Research Skills Certificate, participants will have the ability to:

• Apply advance search strategies in their information searches, and use the results in various types of literature reviews.
• Assess the applicability of, and use, select software programs to carry out their research, both within academia and beyond
• Conduct research and manage research data (as well as the research outputs of others) in an ethical and legal manner

b. Admission requirements

This program is open to all graduate students and postdoctoral scholars.

c. Program structure

The program has been designed to provide an opportunity to develop and update graduate students’ professional communication skills. Each workshops will be offered twice during the academic year—one online (Zoom) and once on-campus, to meet the needs of the maximum number of students. Students are expected to be active participants in the workshops, regardless of format.

4 Required Workshops

• Advanced Searching and Library Research  OR Advanced Searching for Science and Engineering Graduate Students
• Conducting a Literature Review
• Copyright and Your Academic Work
• Research Data Management: Creating a Data Management Plan

3 Elective Workshops

• Using Qualtrics for Online Survey Research
• Using SPSS for Quantitative Research
• Publishing and Promoting Your Academic Work
• Research Data Management: Data Deposit
• Introduction to R for Data Analysis
• Systematic and Scoping Reviews
• Ethical Conduct of Research
• Citation Management Software

Required Texts/Readings:

Readings and additional resources will be provided to participants as appropriate during the workshops.

Evaluation Method:

Successful completion of the Certificate Program requires:

● Regular participation in the sessions.

While there is no formal evaluation as part of this program (no “grade” or professional designation), completion of the Certificate can be listed on CVs, scholarship applications, etc., and may be required by some supervisors/graduate programs. Participants will receive a certificate upon completion of the program. The Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research will also be advised and maintain a list of those who complete the certificate.

Assessments and Tests:

During the program, participants will participate in a variety of different learning activities, including:

• Discussions
• In-class quizzes (formative, not graded)
• Hands-on use of tools/resources

Confidentiality - Part of the certificate program is to share our experiences and ideas with the group. As such, there may be confidential information disclosed. We would ask that all group members keep confidentiality in mind when participating in group discussions.

Diversity - We are excited to welcome a very diverse group of participants to the workshops, people with different experiences and backgrounds. We hope that participants can learn from each other. It will be important to keep this in mind when communicating. There will be differences in opinion, and it is important that everyone feels welcome to share their ideas.

Community - We feel that the success of the workshops will depend on the active participation of those attending. To get the most out of the program, we encourage everyone to participate fully, ask questions, share their own relevant experience,  and share their learning experience with others.