eConversation Series

RCCPII Launches eConversation Series

In 2017 the North-West University's eResearch Initiative ran a series of online conversations where students and staff could learn about and discuss trends in academia and research. The sessions were very popular and RCCPII decided to follow up by running one online eConversation per month to discuss topics relevant to support staff, researchers, lecturers and students at South African academic and research institutions.

The first general RCCPII eConversation session will take place on Friday, 23 March 2018 at 11:00 - 12:30 SAST online.

During this 90 minute online RCCPII eConversation session Anelda van der Walt and Erika Mias will share tips and tricks as well as best practices for using a variety of virtual platforms for online collaboration in academic institutions. The conversation will kick off with two short presentations: the first focused on tools for general use and the second focussing on those more applicable in a research setting. Plenty of opportunity will be given for questions from the audience and open discussion.

The general presentation will focus on tools and platforms for collaborative document writing, virtual meetings (video conferencing), lightweight and accessible tools for project management, and virtual communication in general. The second presentation will include information on the use of online survey tools, computing platforms for data analysis, collaborative article writing, and referencing tools.

These sessions are part of the Rural Campuses Connection Project II (RCCPII) Capacity Development Initiative. The RCCP II eConveration Series will offer monthly online sessions covering topics relevant to researchers, support staff, and students at higher education institutions in South Africa. For more information about future sessions and other events please visit the RCCPII calendar.

About the speakers:

Anelda van der Walt, manager of the RCCPII Capacity Development Initiative has a background in Bioinformatics but moved to general eResearch support in 2014. Erika Mias recently joined Talarify as Capacity Development Lead. Erika’s work experience includes geo-referencing, digital projects management, research data management and more.

To sign up, please visit the session’s webpage on Quicket.