The video shows how users of the nodegoat GO research infrastructure at the University of Bern can activate a database template (correspondence networks) in 5 minutes and start collecting and visualising data immediately:
Project goals
1. to make it easier for beginners to work with databases and research data and thus enable a quick introduction to the world of data. This applies not only to data entering, but also to data analysis, which is supported by visualisation functions integrated into the research environment (maps, network, time series).
2. advanced users have the possibility to customise database templates to their individual requirements, which saves them from having to create a database from scratch.
3. the database templates can also be used in university teaching. As students do not have to create every database from scratch, more teaching content can be covered. For example, project-based and practical learning in which students simulate, visualise and analyse real data scenarios. By using database templates, lecturers can also efficiently teach the basics of database development, as students do not have to start from scratch. This enables a quicker introduction to more advanced concepts.
Project
Develop database templates for the nodegoat research environment that can be used for study, research and teaching.
Nodegoat is a research environment for management, exploration and visualisation of data.
Funding
Strategic funds of the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, University of Berne (funding instrument ‘Digitisation’)
Duration
10.2022 – 10.2024
Project management
Dr. Kaspar Gubler and Joel Zschoge
Initial situation and goals
At the faculty of Humanities at University of Bern, the virtual research environment nodegoat has been in increasing demand since it was initiated with strategic funding from the Faculty 2020. As of September 2022, 60 projects involving 150 users are using nodegoat for database projects from various disciplines (history, archaeology, English studies, German studies, musicology, theatre studies and linguistics). This interdisciplinary usability makes nodegoat an important research infrastructure for the humanities. Worldwide, nodegoat is now used by around 30 educational institutions for study, research and teaching. Thus, nodegoat facilitates not only interdisciplinary but especially international subject exchange.
Database templates for nodegoat do not yet exist. Up to now, nodegoat users have compiled their models individually. The present project will first create the technical prerequisites for working with database templates in nodegoat (programming by LAB1100). Subsequently, database templates will be created for various disciplines of the Faculty of Humanities will be created. The main benefit of database templates is that users need less time and no special programming knowledge to create their own research database in nodegoat. At the same time, this should create a low-threshold offer for those interested in databases and (open) research data. Nodegoat database templates are thus also suitable for teaching. This is especially true since templates can be created containing already a set of research data that students can explore and edit collaboratively.
With the new database template functions in nodegoat, it will also be possible for research projects, for example, to share their data models (and optionally the research data contained in them) with other disciplines and interested parties in the same nodegoat installation.
The video shows how a user can activate a template data model (correspondence networks) within the nodegoat GO installation at the University of Bern and start entering data:
nodegoat templates project @ Institutskonferenz (Historisches Institut @ Uni Bern)
Datenbankvorlagen in nodegoat für Studium, Forschung und Lehre