The OceanTeacher Global Academy (OTGA) is a long-term action that supports the IOC International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange Programme and other IOC global and regional initiatives in delivering training and collaborative developing human capacity and skills. OTGA is now delivering a series of self-paced training courses on different topics related to ocean science and data management, which are open and freely available to participants around the world. These self-taught courses include reading material, presentations, references, and exercises designed by Ocean Experts to help learners assess their own learning at their own pace.
The following self-paced training courses are currently available in OTGA e-learning platform:
- IOC/OTGA/PacMAN_eDNA: Marine Invasive Species Early Detection: Utilising Molecular Tools
This course is accessible in English and focuses on training managers and technical staff working in the field of marine conservation, monitoring and surveillance, curators of marine collections, fisheries resource personnel, researchers in marine sciences including students in academia and mariculture practitioners. The course provides an introduction to environmental DNA (eDNA) methodology to detect marine invasive species, including sample collection and sorting, taxonomy and processing DNA extraction, eDNA and qPCR analyses. Since May 2023, 122 learners have taken this course. This course is open until 15 December 2023, and it is a contribution of the Ocean Biodiversity Information System
To enrol go to: https://oceanexpert.org/event/3911 or https://pacman.obis.org/work-plan/training/
- IOC/OTGA/OIH: Implementing the Ocean Data and Information System (ODIS) architecture
This course is available in 4 different languages: Spanish, French, Portuguese and English. The central aim of this course is to guide participants in what ODIS is, how to use it and why it has been created. Undertaking this course requires a working understanding of JSON, knowledge on how to configure extensions to a web framework.
This course is available until 15 December 2023, and it is a contribution of the Ocean InfoHub project To enrol go to: https://oceanexpert.org/event/3921 or https://oceaninfohub.org/training/
- IOC/OTGA/OBIS: Contributing and publishing datasets to OBIS
The Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) is the most comprehensive gateway to the world’s ocean biodiversity and biogeographic data and information. OBIS provides open access to this quality-controlled data that adhere to biodiversity standards (Darwin Core, EML). This course teaches step by step the basics for how to format and publish datasets according to these standards, guiding participants on how to contribute to OBIS network and adopt best practices in the management of marine life data. This course is open until 16 February 2024 (in English) and so far already 105 participants have enrolled. More information on how to access the content: https://oceanexpert.org/event/3983 or https://obis.org/training/
- IOC/OTGA/OL: Ocean Literacy self paced training courses
This is a series of self-paced courses developed by the IOC-UNESCO Ocean Literacy group, specifically targeting educators, media professionals, architects and urban planners, government officials, and civil society. The course covers a range of topics about the ocean and sustainability:
- Why the ocean should matter to us all
- Mainstreaming Ocean Literacy in Governance
- Educating about the Ocean
- Understanding the Ocean for media and press
- Ocean Literacy for architects and urban planners
These self paced courses are available until December 2024. More information on https://oceanexpert.org/event/3994 or https://oceanliteracy.unesco.org/training/
- IOC/OTGA/RTC Colombia: The Ocean we want
This self-paced course is developed by the RTC Colombia (INVEMAR) to understand what the Decade is about, the challenges it brings and how it is managed in Colombia.
This course is in Spanish and is open to all. Due to the big success this course is extended till 1 December 2023. More information on https://oceanexpert.org/event/3945
- IOC/OTGA: Biological Data Management
This course provides a comprehensive introduction for the management and archive of marine biological data, including the general guiding principles of biological data management and typical responsibilities for data managers. Several types of biological data are covered, including observational, image-derived and omics data, and include materials and exercises how these data can be formatted, standardized, and quality controlled before being submitted to wider regional, national, and international repositories.
This course will be available in English from December 2023 until March 2024. More information on how to enrol will be announced on the OceanExpert event calendar.
- IOC/OTGA: Ocean Data Management
This course provides an introduction to the management of marine data and was developed by, and for, marine data managers, data stewards and researchers, working in institutions responsible for the collection and good management of marine data and introduces some general aspects related to the management of marine data, including, metadata, quality control, data policy, data sharing and publishing, data management plans and the research data life cycle.
This course was delivered in English in 2023 with more than 150 people enrolled and will be repeated from March 2024. More information on how to enrol will be announced on the OceanExpert event calendar.
If you wish to partner with OceanTeacher, feel free to contact the team at any time ioc.training@unesco.org