Context of practice
Face-to-face teaching in the Degree in Statistics for 3rd year students in an optional subject (Medical Statistics).
Problem and objectives
Solve a practical task in groups to carry out a meta-analysis. Students have to collect a series of academic papers (research articles, book chapters, etc.) and share them with each other in order to work as a group.
Tools and resources
Bibliographic manager (Mendeley) for document storage. Mendeley can be used on the web platform and also download the desktop application to work locally.
Description of practice
Students have to start by registering with the application in order to use it. They will then create a group among the students who have to solve the task together. Mendeley can be used on the web, but also locally. They will be taught beforehand to download the desktop application, which is the one from which they will solve the task. And from which they will work in their shared folder. At this point, they are also informed about the importance of data protection and possible ways to avoid sharing data on unknown platforms. Recommendation to use an e-mail address other than their usual or personal one (which they may not want to use). They can use the educational account or use an account that they create and use only for such things.
Expected results
General awareness of students on the protection of their personal data on different platforms, use of different e-mails, … in their daily life. They should also understand the possibility of working locally with third-party tools, thus avoiding the lack of protection due to not knowing where or who can access their information.
Strengths or advantages
Local data control avoiding the cloud. By working locally rather than remotely, we hope to avoid future problems of data unprotection, while not losing the option of being able to work in a group and share their documents with each other. Another advantage is to give students the option of not creating a public profile in Mendeley, which anyone can access, because some of them may not want to have it public
Risks or weaknesses
Possible risk: when working in a group and creating a shared folder, it is possible that the data may reach third parties unknown to us.
Need for support
None. They are free software that students can access, without any kind of payment.