OSCAR Training and Mentoring Framework

The OSCAR Training and Mentoring Framework document describes the theoretical and conceptual framework of OSCAR's researcher well-being and career development training and mentoring programme. Moreover, it also shows a possible role of an on-line, intelligent and personalized learning service in researcher education. 

The framework is available as an Open Access document: Gábor Kismihók, Inês Gaspar, Joe Delaney, Mathias Schroijen, Mohammadreza Tavakoli, Abdolali Faraji, Hasan Abu-Rasheed, Stéphanie Gauttier, Stefan T. Mol, Christian Weber, Ana Raquel Santa Maria, & Renaud B. Jolivet. (2022). OSCAR Conceptual and Technical Framework for Researcher Well-being and Career Development Training and Mentoring. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5911816 

Legal and privacy guidelines for the personalised learning environment

The legal and privacy guidelines document summarises the legal framework of the open learning recommendation prototype (eDoer), what OSCAR is using and contributing to by its developments. The document includes the 'Terms of Use' and the information on data protection of the prototype hosting organisation TIB. TIB's actual full privacy statement is available here.

Ethical Principles for the OSCAR Well-being Mentoring Program

This document describes the ethical principles (code of conduct) of well-being mentoring within the frames of the OSCAR project. The main purpose and goal of the OSCAR well-being mentoring program is to support mental health, and the developing of well-being competencies and skills. These principles are available in an Open Access document: Carolina Oliveira Borges, Francisco Valente Gonçalves, Inês Gaspar, & Joana Jesus. (2022). Ethical Principles for OSCAR Well-being Mentoring Program. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5878828 

Customization and mentoring function implementation in the personalised learning environment 

This document describes the first version of the mentoring service for the OSCAR project. It is designed and implemented in the eDoer open, personalised learning platform, powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI). The report is available as an Open Access document: Mohammadreza Tavakoli, Abdolali Faraji, & Gábor Kismihók. (2022). Mentoring function implementation in the personalised learning environment of the OSCAR project. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5878784 

The personal learing dashboard and its mentoring component are available without any restrections for all learners and users in OSCAR's open digital learning environment: https://labs.tib.eu/edoer

Knowledge Graph Implementation Roadmap for our Personalised Learning Environment

In the scope of OSCAR project's personalized learning environment (eDoer), student decisions about their learning paths are supported with a recommender system. The recommendation provides the user with suggestions about topics and learning materials to study, in order to gain skills that enable them to perform a corresponding job. The knowledge graph based recommender system is designed to utilize the collected data about users, jobs, skills, topics, and OERs, in which the eDoer platform is organized into, in order to predict the relations between a certain user and the skills, topics or OERs that enables them to reach their pre-defined learning goals best. The focus on the graph not only enables contextualized decisions, but also provides the structural richness to provide multi-element recommendations as learning paths.

The conceptualization of the data model used for the educational content is available as an Open Access document: Christian Weber, & Hasan Abu-Rasheed. (2022). Knowledge Graph Implementation and Contextual, Graph-based Learning Path Recommendation Roadmap for the Personalized Learning Environment in the OSCAR Project. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5878852

The report (August 2023) is also available as an Open Acess document: Christian Weber, & Hasan Abu-Rasheed. (2023). OSCAR Knowledge Graph and Contextual, Graph-based Learning Path Recommendation Algorithm for the Personalized Learning Environment eDoer. Zenodo. doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8428831

Mental Wellbeing Skills Curriculum

The curriculum of mental wellbeing related skills, including learning topics and related learning content, is implemented in the open digital learning environment (eDoer) for testing and experimentation. The curriculum currently contains the following skills:

• Stress management
• Emotion Regulation
• Recognizing and Understanding Emotions
• Psychological Resilience
• Goal Setting
• Awareness of well-being
• Finding a Work-Life Balance
• Finding Meaning in Life
• Finding Meaning in Work
• Dealing with Perfectionism

This curriculum is available for all learners and users of the learning environment without any restrictions. To start learning the topics in the curriculum and accessing the content, a registration on the platform is required. Registration is also open for everyone, accepting the terms of use of the prototype. 

The content is also available through the eDoer Learning App (Alpha test version). This app is available for Android devices in Google Playstore.

Mentoring Concept for Mental Wellbeing

This document describes the well-being mentoring principles and guidelines of the OSCAR project. The main purpose and goal of the OSCAR well-being mentoring program is to support mental health, and the developing of well-being competencies and skills. These objectives are well in-line with the recently published Researcher Mental Health and Well-being Manifesto.  The mentoring concept is available as an Open Access document: Carolina Oliveira Borges, Francisco Valente Gonçalves, Inês Gaspar, & Joana Jesus. (2022). OSCAR Well-being Mentoring Program. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5878715 

Career Development Skills Curriculum

This online training includes a number of learning topics and related learning content, which are implemented in the open digital learning environment (eDoer) for testing and experimentation. The curriculum is available for all learners and users of the learning environment without any restrictions. It currently contains the following courses:

• Goal Setting
• Procastination
• Delegation
• Time Management
• Personal Productivity
• Planning
• Project Management
• Communication
• Resilience
• Career Planning

Each online training includes a number of learning topics and related learning content, including for instance goal setting techniques and delegation skills, developing resilience, and improving personal productivity.

The content is also available through the eDoer Learning App (Alpha test version). This app is available for Android devices in Google Playstore.

Mentoring Concept for Career Development

This document describes the career development mentoring principles and guidelines of the OSCAR project. The main purpose and goal of the OSCAR career development mentoring program is to support sustainable employment of reserarchers, as it is also stated in the Declaration of Sustainable Researcher Careers. The mentoring concept is available as an Open Access document: Joe Delaney, & Mathias Schroijen. (2022). OSCAR Career Coaching & Mentoring Program. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.5911966 

Evaluating the OSCAR project is an important process that helps provide feedback and
reflection on the workshops successes, while also scoping areas for improvement.

The evaluation implemented in OSCAR has four central objectives:

1. To understand participant needs prior to workshop deployment
2. To evaluate the design and user experience using the eDoer application within theboundaries of the mentoring workshops
3. To understand and evaluate workshop participants learning experience with respect to the mentoring workshops content and how the workshops were conducted
4. To evaluate the overall organisation of the workshops

To meet these objectives, the evaluation design is explained, the results of the evaluation design are presented and summarised.

The evaluation report and survey instruments are available as Open Access documents: 

Scott Harrison. (2023). OSCAR Learning and Mentoring Evaluation. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8428807

Scott Harrison. (2023). OSCAR Survey Instruments. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8430426

In order to achieve an efficient strategic planning regarding the exploitation of the OSCAR project after its end, we used several tools to assess the external macro-environmental factors that could impact the eDoer and the OSCAR methodology. We made a brief analysis on political, economic, social and technological factors in order to understand the broader context in which OSCAR operates. We also made a SWOT analysis of the OSCAR project in order to assess its internal strengths and weaknesses, as well as external opportunities and threats. In order to understand the market landscape the competitor analysis helps to gain a clear understanding of the overall market dynamics including the top content curator applications and platforms. 

The OSCAR Learning and Mentoring exploitation plan is available as an Open Access document: Szidonia Rusu, Emese Vita, Gábor Kismihók, Francisco Valente Gonçalves, Inês Gaspar, Mathias Scroijen, & Ádám Keszler. (2023). OSCAR Learning and Mentoring Exploitation Plan. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.8428721