Module 3: Efficient Communication (Written, Verbal and Visual)

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The training curriculum is currently undergoing final revisions and quality checks. All materials will be released shortly. Until the official release, please refrain from using, distributing, or implementing any part of these resources.

Learning Objectives

Learning Objective 1 (LO1): Demonstrate a clear and concise communication style.
Learning Objective 2 (LO2): Choose communication media that are appropriate to the research environment and network management.

Total Module Duration

2 hours 30 minutes

Learning Objective 1

LO1: Demonstrate a clear and concise communication style.

Learning Activities

Presentation (45 mins): Brief introduction to why it is important as a data steward to communicate well (teaching activities, relations with policy making bodies, relations with researchers). Present how to make content clear and adapted to the local context. (Resources 1–5 can be used for source material)
Discussion Activity (45 mins): Scenario or case study presented to the learners that highlights which communication skills are needed from a data steward. Ask the learners to consider: what problem needs to solved, lessons they need to teach, case they need to make, and how they would ideally do it (they write a text, prepare a draft of slides, or some talking points).

Example scenarios that can be used

The data steward is expected to communicate some good practices regarding the sharing of research data in a repository.
The data steward has doubts about the anonymisation of data and must communicate these concerns.
The data steward is required to inform scientists of a change in their institution's data policy.

Materials to Prepare

Slide presentation on the importance of communication.
Use cases that can be part of the discussion activity.

Instructor Notes

Presentation:

The instructor provides an overview of a situation where communication is important and how they could adapt to each situation and audience. The instructor can present what makes content clear, concise and adapted to the context (know your target audience, adapt to the time you have together, to their prior knowledge, to their specific challenges and motivations, know when to redirect them if you don't have the expertise yourself).
The trainer can highlight best practices that underpin effective communication. These could be: Create a link with the team adopting the posture of a communicator, elaborate the main message the team should remember, avoid long communications or training sessions.
For data stewards and researchers alike, it's important to adapt what you say and how you say it to the person you're talking to.

Discussion Activity:

Present a scenario and let the learners discuss how they would approach the scenario. It is a good opportunity to talk about real-life cases and ideas or processes that help good communication in the given contexts.
The instructor can also discuss a discipline specific case: Working on difficulties in understanding each other due to disciplinary specificity or complex scientific concepts or processes. In such cases discuss with a research team to help them manage their data (understand the specific nature of their research activity whether it is method, workflow, terminology). What type of difficulties can we encounter and how can we present convincing elements to propose appropriate solutions? What communication elements do we need to take into account?

Resources

Input for the presentation:

Collaborative Lesson Development Training: Identifying Your Target Audience. https://carpentries.github.io/lesson-development-training/03-audience.html.
The importance of clear, concise and consistent communication: https://thebrieflab.com/blog/the-3-cs-of-communication-clear-concise-consistent/.
O'Hagan, Michelle. The 3 C's of Communication: Clear, Concise, Consistent | The Brief Lab. 11 April 2024, https://thebrieflab.com/blog/the-3-cs-of-communication-clear-concise-consistent/.
Principles of Communicating with Wider Audiences - The Turing Way. https://book.the-turing-way.org/communication/comms-overview/comms-overview-principles.
FNS-Cloud : Open Science Communication https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mva8z2k1g6Q.

Generic resource about how to communicate on open science (the most important aspects, the best way to communicate, communication styles for speaking, writing, visuals):

Open Science Taster Part 4 Open Science Communication. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mva8z2k1g6Q.

Learning Objective 2

LO2: Choose communication media that are appropriate to the research environment and network management.

Learning Activities

Presentation (60 mins): Highlight the different ways to communicate (verbal, non verbal, visual, written, formal or informal). Discuss the different available media (emails lists, podcasts, social media, conferences, workshops, meetings, webinars, presentations) and how to choose the right one. The instructor should include accessibility into this topic: How to consider those with disabilities so they can fully access your communications. (Resources 1–3 can be used to put the presentation together).

Materials to Prepare

Slide presentation on different ways to communicate and accessible communication.

Instructor Notes

Presentation:

The instructor should explain which forms of communication would be useful in what situation/with which stakeholder.
The instructor can introduce with a brief definition of communication types (verbal, non-verbal, written, visual, formal/informal). Give concrete examples of each type and talk about the importance of selecting the right communication mode based on the context.
The instructor can give an overview of different media (emails, podcasts, social media, conferences) and discuss on selection criteria (target audience, interactivity, accessibility) and compare for example an in-person meeting with a webinar. Here are more examples:
- To produce ideas and interact on graphical documents such as mind maps: Miro, scrumblr, Padlet, Klaxoon, Mind42
- To create surveys: Limesurvey, Mentimenter
- To vote: Balotilo
- For multi-person writing: Cryptpad (secure online notepad, end-to-end encrypted data transfer or cryptdrive)
- Social networking communications tools: Mattermost, Slack, Rocket.Chat – but also Framapad, Framadate, Doodle, Microsoft Teams, ...
The instructor can give an overview of the different tools for project collaboration (a quick demonstration of Miro for example to create a mind map) and explain their role in project management and brainstorming.
The instructor can present the 8 elements of communications and give some explanation of of key models (more details on this in Resource 1).

Accessibility:

It is important to raise awareness of accessibility in communication.
The trainer can introduce the importance of accessible communication and examples of challenges faced by people with disabilities.
Present key principles for Accessible communication (clarity and simplicity in language), digital accessibility (subtitles, screen readers, colour contrast), alternative formats (audio-description, text transcription).
Conclude with a summary of best practices.
There is more information on accessibility in the section on Teaching and Education within this curriculum.

Resources

Communication Process: Steps, Elements & Improvement Tips. Pumble Learn, 6 October 2023, https://pumble.com/learn/communication/communication-process/.
Accessible Communication - Guidance for Communicating Clearly and Accessibly. University of Oxford, https://academic.admin.ox.ac.uk/accessible-communication.
Aston, Ben. 35 Best Online Collaboration Tools for Teams in 2025. The Digital Project Manager, https://thedigitalprojectmanager.com/tools/best-collaboration-tools/.