Third Thing: Digital Skills Training at the University of Melbourne
Do you want to learn to code in Python, R, or MATLAB? Are the prohibitive costs of learning research software like NVivo a barrier to entry? Are you interested in 3D printing and data, but don’t know where to start? Have you thought about using a tool like LaTeX to make it easier to type your thesis or publish an article? Maybe you just want to talk to someone who understands how difficult this whole thing is?
Attending Digital Skills Training can help you work smarter, not harder, for free!
How can digital skills training benefit my research?
The Digital Skills Training team provides online and in-person workshops for a range of tools across the lifespan of your research journey. Our free, accessible, and high-quality research software training is available to all researchers across the University, and helps build communities of practice among scholars. We are part of the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, a team of research data and academic specialists enabling data-intensive and collaborative research across the University of Melbourne.
Hanh Nguyen, a first-year PhD candidate examining the experience of international students and educators in teaching social work, attended our NVivo training at the beginning of 2023:
I didn’t have any expectations coming in… I think it was really helpful, just getting me to understand all the functions and how to use [them], and it was a really good foundation to expand on that.
I don’t think that I learnt everything that I needed to learn from there, but it meant that afterwards when I was using it, I knew where to go and to look for answers, and knew what my questions were…
I felt quite confident about NVivo after having finished the training, because I actually ended up doing a quick training course for my colleague!
NVivo is a qualitative data analysis tool licensed by the University, which helps you to import, organise, and explore qualitative data like interviews and surveys. Hanh:
I used the case classifications [in NVivo] to lay out the characteristics of the data in terms of the sample, methods used, and empirical vs. non-empirical. I also use the coding function to do a qualitative descriptive analysis on all the extracted data.
Since attending the training, Hanh has used NVivo to help conduct her literature review and to communicate her research:
One of the best moments that I had with NVivo was when I had a huge research meeting with policy stakeholder groups. We have policymakers from all over Australia and we’ve recorded a zoom meeting that went for two hours, and then my supervisor said to me ‘can you reduce this into a two-page minutes document?’
I sat there with all my notes in the transcript and had no idea what to do, and I pulled it into NVivo and coded and I came up with four dot points that summarised the meeting.
My manager had no comments, she was very happy with it!
We love hearing from our training attendees. It reminds us what we teach in our classes is often just the foundations, and researchers find novel ways to push the envelope once they have confidence in the basics.
Tools and training
If you’re interested in joining us, and getting involved, we offer a range of free training throughout the year. Tools we support include
- programming languages like Python, R and MATLAB
- qualitative analysis software like NVivo
- the beautiful type-setting language LaTeX
- the design, production, and printing of 3D Data with TinkerCAD and Rhino3D
You can also click here to submit an expression of interest for training on other tools.
Get involved
Not sure whether we can help you? Don’t know where to start? Take a look at the recording of the Digital Skills Showcase, where we give you a free sample of our tools. You can also:
- Access events, past recordings, training and activities relating to digital research and data skills on the Researcher Connect homepage.
- Attend upcoming free Digital Skills Training and access resources.
- Join our community on Slack to access Digital Skills Support.
- Contact us: researcher-connect@unimelb.edu.au
Other University of Melbourne software and digital tool resources
- For students: Student IT software catalogue
- For staff: Digital Workplace Hub
About the authors
Meirian Lovelace-Tozer is a Teaching Specialist in the School of Mathematics and Statistics, and a Digital Skills Trainer with the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform. She enjoys running free workshops on LaTeX, MATLAB, and Python. Meirian loves teaching and is enthusiastic about enabling others to benefit from the skills she teaches.
Alex Shermon is a PhD Candidate and Tutor in the School of Culture and Communication. As a Digital Skills Trainer at the Melbourne Data Analytics Platform, he runs workshops on NVivo and Omeka. When he’s not wading through conspiracy theories for his PhD, he’s talking someone’s ear off about Dungeons and Dragons.
Cite this Thing
You are free to use and reuse the content on this post with attribution to the authors. The citation for this Thing is:
LOVELACE-TOZER, MEIRIAN; Shermon, Alexander (2024). Third Thing: Digital Skills Training at the University of Melbourne. The University of Melbourne. Online resource. https://doi.org/10.26188/25287412
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