Research Administrators Wiki (RAdWiki)

Fortunately, the research administration community has a history of collaboration and sharing of knowledge to meet the demands of managing the research and research training environment. Organisations like ARMS and PRATS provide great forums and development opportunities for research managers, but is there further opportunity to use web 2.0 technologies such as Wiki to facilitate knowledge creation in the research administration community?

The idea for a Wiki

The idea for a Research Administrators Wiki (RAdWiki) was borne out of a collaboration between several universities and Higher Ed Services centred on a common research management system. The group found there was just as much benefit in sharing ideas and information on business processes and approaches to managing research as there was in solving issues with their IT systems. As the group's interest shifted more to focussing on knowledge sharing it became apparent that a mechanism to support and manage this collective experience was essential. The group has decided to pilot a Wiki solution to build a research administration knowledgebase. In the spirit of many Wiki developments, involvement from across the research administration community is being sought. The idea is that the Wiki technology will facilitate the goal of "joining good ideas together" for research administrators.

Wiki Use

Wiki's and blogs are becoming popular tools to support collaboration in many sectors and organisations. Within university administration, the RUBRIC project (regional Universities Building Research Infrastructure Collaboratively) has recently demonstrated successful use of a Wiki platform for knowledge creation and collaboration between several universities in Australian and New Zealand [Watson and Harper 2007]. Likewise, some research projects report the benefits of using Wikis to facilitate communication amongst group participants [for example, Higgs - CCI Wiki 2006]. However, Wiki's are not the only collaborative tool and are not suited to supporting every user community [Tomkin 2005, Davies 2004]. Given the strong sense of collaboration that exists in the Australian research administration community, might a Wiki work in our context?
What the RAdWiki Would Support

Ideally the RAdWiki would be a repository of information on research administration matters that is housed within a framework in which the structure and content is determined by the participants themselves. Some example uses of the RAdWiki include:

• Questions and answer forum
• Answers would be stored and made searchable (ie building up a knowledge base over time) supporting organic knowledge growth
• FAQs on common topics/issues could be produced and made available
• Results from surveys, questionnaires and data analyses etc conducted within the sector could be stored and made searchable/retrievable for later reference
• Stakeholders in the research sector could post advice about major initiatives (for eg, RQF redevelopment) and all users would benefit from having direct access to such information
• Special interest groups for particular functional areas within research administration offices (eg Research Data Managers, Research Contracts Officers, Research Centre managers etc) could be formed
• Common data sets and analyses were made available
• International rankings /league tables were published
• Common policies on research administration could be published
• Procedural/process documentation could be published

It is anticipated the RAdWiki will cover the gamut of services provided to support the research and research training environment. This will include: grants administration; research contracts; research ethics (animal and human) and safety; HDR administration; commercialisation and Intellectual Property management; research systems and data management; research compliance reporting; research output management etc.

Where We're Up to Now

A pilot RAdWiki site has been created with the assistance of Deakin University's Research Services using the MediaWiki suite. A structural outline for the Wiki has been put in place but minimal content has been added. Given the current participants history of focussing on systems and data management, these sections of the Wiki have seen the most development. The group is now seeking to gauge the level of interest from the broader research community. The next steps would be to develop an action plan for taking the RAdWiki evolution forward.

Establishing a Research Administrators Wiki will help research administrators and managers communicate about common issues and develop solutions in collaboration. It's about getting people to share what they know and creating a knowledge resource for our community. And you never know what you might learn.

Who to Contact

Rod Lewis, Higher Ed Serivces, rod@hes.edu.au
Dr Christopher McAvancey, Deakin Unviersity, Christopher.McAvanvey@deakin.edu.au
Grahame Pearson, University of New England, gpearson@une.edu.au

References:

Davis, Johnathan, Wiki Brainstorming and Problems with Wiki Based Collaboration, University of York Computer Science Dept, 2004. Viewd online at http://www-users.cs.york.ac.uk/~kimble/teaching/students/Jonathan_Davies/Jonathan_Davies.html (19-5-2007).
Higgs, Peter, Hanging it all out: Using a wiki in University Research. CCI Wiki 2006. Viewd online at https://wiki.cci.edu.au/display/eResearch/Wikis+and+University+Research (9-2-2008).
Tonkin, Emma, "Making the case for a wiki", Ariadne, issue 42, January
2005, at http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue42/tonkin/
Watson, Kate, Harper, Chelsea, . CAUDIT; 2007. Supporting Knowledge Creation - Using Wikis for Group Collaboration. (http://www.caudit.edu.au/educauseaustralasia07/authors_papers/Watson-112.pdf)