Unpacking Digital Competences and Recommendations for Online Training

Key findings from the ATRIUM Skills Assessment Report

By Carol Delmazo

After 20 months of dedicated work and crucial community involvement, the ATRIUM project recently published the ATRIUM Skillset Assessment and Gap Analysis report (Deliverable D7.1) . This document identifies the skills that Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences (AHSS) researchers currently have and those they are missing (especially regarding the use of the ATRIUM services ), outlines the challenges they face with online training, and, most importantly, recommends how we can build a suitable training curriculum to bridge the identified gaps. 

The report is an essential reading for AHSS researchers aiming to level up their digital competencies, lecturers seeking to design cutting-edge curricula, and training providers committed to helping researchers acquire new knowledge and skills through online learning resources. We’ve pulled out some of the key takeaways to share with you. First, let’s explain the methodology.

How we know: A robust, evidence-based approach

When designing the ATRIUM Curriculum, we didn’t want to simply guess what was needed. We used a twofold methodology to get evidence. First, we implemented a Questionnaire for Service Providers, using an exploratory approach with mostly open-ended questions, between May and June 2024, to analyse the ATRIUM services available at that time (fortunately, the catalogue keeps growing): we are talking about dozens of services and software offered by the project’s Research Infrastructures (RIs) - DARIAH , ARIADNE , CLARIN , and OPERAS - and their partners.The goal was to pinpoint the skills required, available training resources, and potential barriers to their use.

The subsequent Researchers’ Survey relied on closed-ended questions to quantitatively assess familiarity with core concepts like Open Science and FAIR principles and specific digital skills, while strategically using open-ended questions to gather rich, qualitative insights on tools used by researchers, training challenges and preferred topics. Crucially, the questionnaire directly informed the design of the survey’s section dedicated to the ATRIUM Services, The survey asked them, for example, about their familiarity with programming languages, Automatic Text Recognition (ATR), and computer skills like Docker and command-line interfaces. Using snowball sampling, the survey ran from October to December 2024 and gathered insights from 334 AHSS researchers (mostly in Europe).

Key takeaways: Where the gaps lie

Our assessment revealed several critical points concerning current skills and research practices in AHSS:

#1 More specialised skills are needed (for the ATRIUM Services)

The ATRIUM services are primarily targeting researchers (41 out of the 45 services analysed) and students (30). Do researchers have the skills to properly use them?

Basic vs. Specialised: while many services just require basic technical skills and domain knowledge to navigate a user interface, about 15 services require much more specialised skills. A huge part of researchers replying to the survey don’t have these skills. We’re talking about container management tools (79,3% unfamiliar), Web APIs (50,6% unfamiliar), coding/programming (49,1% unfamiliar), and command-line interfaces (44,3% unfamiliar). This gap is pretty consistent across all career levels.

The language barrier: despite most respondents being multilingual (60,5%), training resources for 39 of the services are only available in English. This can be a significant language barrier for broader audiences.

Accessibility needs help: most services are only partially compliant with accessibility guidelines like the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) . This is a major area for improvement if we want our tools to be truly inclusive.

#2 What’s in the Toolbox? Diversity, fragmentation and shift to computational research

We didn’t focus only on skills. We also asked researchers which digital tools and services they are actually using in their research. Although this was an optional, open-ended question, a huge 82,6% of respondents (N=276) shared their lists, providing very useful insights into the current landscape.

(Explore the data at https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/21919068 )

Here we saw the diversity: researchers listed 366 unique tools and services. There is a massive level of fragmentation: 62,6% of these tools were mentioned only once. It strongly suggests that AHSS researchers rely on a highly diverse array of niche or specialised solutions. When we grouped these tools into broader categories, here are the results:

Office and Productivity tools (like spreadsheets/Excel and word processors) were the dominant category (81,5% of mentions), underscoring their essential, enduring role in basic data organisation and analysis.

However, the next four most popular categories are related to computation: Text Analysis and NLP (43,7%), Programming and Development (32,2%), AI & Machine Learning (31,1%), and Quantitative & Statistical Analysis (19,5%). The strong presence of these categories suggests a growing trend toward computational and data-intensive research within AHSS. 

#3 High demand for core data competencies 

We asked researchers what skills they want to gain through online learning resources, and the answers were clear. They are eager to level up their core data competencies. Here are the Top 10 skills researchers want to acquire:

A note on Open Science (OS) and FAIR: while nearly half of the respondents (51,2%) are familiar with these principles, the vast majority (79,3% for OS, 72,2% for FAIR) are still only exploring ways to put them into practice or are doing so “to some extent.”  This confirms there is still a need for practical, hands-on training. The gap is directly reflected in the training wish list, where FAIR Data Principles (19,46%) and Open Science (17,37%) landed squarely in the Top 10 perceived training needs across all community groups.

#4 Roadblocks in online learning

Providers of training platforms should be aware that researchers face specific roadblocks when trying to use online learning resources. The biggest pain points are:

Finding the right content: difficulties in locating relevant and appropriate resources (35%).

Trust issues: concerns about the quality and credibility of resources (33,8%).

Time crunch: issues with time management and scheduling (25,4%).

Lack of recognition: concerns about certification/recognition (14,7%), meaning their learning efforts aren’t always acknowledged.

Understanding these challenges is crucial for effective design and publication of training materials.

#5 Key recommendations for the ATRIUM Curriculum and call for action

Based on all these insights, the report provides a set of recommendations to shape the ATRIUM Curriculum, an integrated and comprehensive set of courses to be hosted, maintained and sustained on DARIAH-Campus . It’s important to stress that these findings are also highly useful for other digital learning providers, as they offer guidance from three key angles: delivery systems, formats, and topics.

Making training platforms better

To face the identified challenges, training platforms should:

• Implement personalised learning paths: Learners will benefit from guidance to help them figure out which knowledge, methods, and tools are most beneficial for them.
• Show progress: Breaking complex topics into manageable modules with visual progression will help address the identified challenge of “Lack of structure / No clear progression or roadmap”.
• Offer Badges and recognition: Implementing digital badges (like Open Badges or Edubadge ) or using European Digital Credentials for Learning (EDC) can provide some level of recognition, helping address the certification challenge.
• Provide mechanisms for Quality Control: A system is needed for regular quality assessments and updates, plus a feedback mechanism, to maintain credibility and trustworthiness.

Making training formats more effective

Researchers clearly expressed preferences for how they learn best:

• Video power: Use high-quality, concise video tutorials that focus on a single concept and include concrete, real-world examples and exercises (like quizzes). Ensure  accurate subtitles and downloadable transcripts for accessibility!
• Blended Learning: Combine the flexibility of self-paced modules with the direct interaction of live sessions (webinars or workshops). 
• Tiered training: Materials must explicitly cater to different proficiency levels.

Crucial topics for the curriculum designers 

The ATRIUM curriculum should focus on the identified gaps and needs. Here are some of the topics proposed:

• Practical FAIR Training: Beyond the fundamentals, content should focus on the practical application of FAIR data principles, such as hands-on exercises on assessing data FAIRness, creating detailed metadata, choosing trustworthy repositories, and archiving software source code responsibly.
• Closing Technical Skills Gaps for the ATRIUM Services: Learning content on coding/programming (Python, R, Java, JavaScript) and Git/GitHub, among others, is needed!
• Core Data Competencies:  training topics on Data Analysis (from basic principles up to Machine Learning and AI application) and Data Visualisation (covering principles, tools, and specific techniques like 3D visualization and GIS).
• Workflow Mastery: Training should cover designing reproducible research workflows and demonstrating how to use services like the SSH Open Marketplace for specific research scenarios.

Reducing access barriers ( a note for service providers)

The report also stresses the need of  delivering specific training for the Service Providers to reduce access barriers:

• Accessibility First: Offer training on accessibility fundamentals (WCAG Basics) to improve interfaces, structure, and navigation for users with disabilities.
• Breaking the language barrier: Provide guidance on multilingual documentation, including using multilingual vocabularies and translation services like LINDAT Machine Translation .
• Smoother Access:  Minimise technical barriers by training on institutional access and authentication systems (like eduGAIN and Shibboleth ).

This report gives us a clear roadmap for the ATRIUM Curriculum, ensuring that future training genuinely responds to the needs and challenges identified by the AHSS community. It’s time to get building! 

Read the full report here: https://zenodo.org/records/16918112 ! 

Keep an eye out for updates regarding the design of the ATRIUM Curriculum and upcoming ATRIUM activities! 

If you have questions, suggestions or you would like to share insights from similar initiatives, you can contact us here: info@atrium-research.eu