Improve your skills in discovering health resources with the Research4Life MOOC on Hinari

Published: Monday 25th January 2021
Category: News

Health researchers, practitioners and librarians who use Research4Life are welcome to join the next Research4Life MOOC. This edition will focus specifically on the health resources that are available through the Research4Life Hinari program. Special attention will be given to discovering relevant information on COVID-19. The MOOC will run from 15 February to 15 March 2021. Interested candidates can apply until 5 February.

The course comprises recorded lessons, live webinars, weekly exercises and a forum for discussion with your course mates and the trainers. Participants are expected to spend on average six to eight hours per week on lessons and activities.

The course will be organized in partnership with ITOCA (Information Training & Outreach Centre for Africa), a capacity-building organisation aimed at strengthening research and education in (Sub-Saharan) Africa. The World Health Organization is funding the course.

Candidates who complete the course and final exam will receive a certificate.

Program

  • Lesson 1.1: Identifying information sources
  • Lesson 1.2: Using information sources
  • Lesson 1.3: Copyright, licensing and ethical issues
  • Lesson 1.4: Citing, reference management and collaboration tools
  • Lesson 2.1: Hinari: Research for health
  • Lesson 2.2: Searching across Research4Life programs (Summon and Hinari/Google Scholar)
  • Lesson 2.3: Citation databases – Dimensions
  • Lesson 3.1: Health sciences (PubMed and other Research4Life and online resources)
  • Lesson 3.2: Interdisciplinary resources
  • Lesson 3.3: Evidence-based medicine
  • Lesson 4.1: Research4Life Advocacy Toolkit
  • Lesson 4.2: Training your audience on how to use Research4Life

There will be four live webinars:

  • Introduction to Research4Life
  • Searching across Research4Life programs
  • Discovering COVID-19 resources
  • Advocating for and marketing your library

How others experienced the MOOC

The best thing about this course was it provided an opportunity for me to learn from the experts across the globe along with the interactive webinars and insightful discussion forums. I had an amazing experience.

User from Nepal

This course is the best of its kind I have done so far in my research career.

User from Sierra Leone

Being made aware of the millions of scholarly resources at my disposal as a teacher, clinical practitioner and also as a researcher. The literature ranges from journal articles, e-books, clinical guidelines and other grey literature. I found out that we struggle to make an impact yet we are standing in a sea of resources. That was awesome! The course was the medicine to cure our knowledge deficiency.

User from Lesotho

Meet the trainers

Dr. Gracian Chimwaza (ITOCA, Executive Director) has more than twenty years experience in developing and deploying online training courses on information discovery and management, including, but not limited to Research4Life courses. Gracian holds a PhD in Information Science from the University of Pretoria, South Africa and an MBA from Thames Valley University in the UK.

As an information specialist, Mercy Moyo (ITOCA, senior program officer), has over ten years of experience in capacity building, information and knowledge management and project management. Mercy has degrees in Development Communication and Information Science and a certificate in Knowledge Management. She is currently working on a PhD in Information Science.

Marcia Mabhula is currently involved in several capacity-building projects at ITOCA. Her expertise includes course development and delivery, training courses, participant recruitment, developing and implementing marketing plans and contributing to grant proposal development, project design and data collection. Marcia has a degree in Library and Information Science.

Lenny Rhine, Ph.D. is the coordinator of the Librarians Without Borders® training program of the Medical Library Association (USA), which has been funded by the Elsevier Foundation since 2007. He conducts workshops and develop training material for Research4Life. A University of Florida emeritus librarian, Lenny has worked with libraries in low-income countries since 1990.

Register for the MOOC

Before registering for the course, we kindly ask you to check the following:

  • Do you have a login to Research4Life? If you are not sure, talk to your librarian or contact the Research4Life helpdesk. If you don’t have access, your institution might qualify for access!
  • Please note that this edition of the MOOC is targeted at users of Hinari focusing on health resources. Therefore, it will be less relevant for people who use other Research4Life programs. We will organize the Research4Life MOOC again this year for users from other disciplines, more information will be announced later.

Registration will close on 5 February.

Please help Research4Life reach users in eligible countries across the world by spreading this news within your network.

Note: an earlier version stated the course would run from 8 February to 12 March, however the dates have been changed since. The course program has also been updated.

Hinari