By David Phipps, York U
RIC members and friends of RIC have collaborated to develop free resources for knowledge mobilization. More than just an electronic book, these resources include self directed, interactive learning, videos and tools.
Picture this. April 2021. eCampus Ontario announces a grant to Trent University on behalf of five other Ontario universities to develop open access learning modules for communications and knowledge mobilization and York wasn’t invited to the party. Knowing my mobilization buddies Elizabeth Shantz (Guelph), Shawna Reibling (WLU) and Jayne Morrish (Brock) were at the party I wrangled myself an invitation and almost one year later we produced the final product.
The final product is an open access e book with the following chapters:
- Introduction to Knowledge Management and Communication (yes, the KMb language is fluid)
- Communication Tools and Strategies
- Community Engagement and Collaboration
- Social Media
- Data Sharing and Usage
- IP and Commercialization
- Resources on Influencing Policy
- Culminating Assessment: Creating a Knowledge Management and Communication Plan
You navigate using the “contents” link on the left-hand side which easily links you to each section of each chapter. I was happy to co-author the chapter on Influencing Policy with Katrina Keefer from Trent (with whom I swapped many pictures of our cats and I got see little meep grow from a kitten to a young cat over the duration of the project). This chapter includes three modules:
- A brief course with work sheets on the co-produced pathway to impact
- A video, guide and work sheets on writing a policy brief from IDRC (with permission)
- A self-directed interactive module on holding accessible stakeholder (i.e. policy maker) events
Part of the same initiative, Brock collaborated on another e book titled Driving Change in the Health Sector: An Integrated Approach. Jayne Morrish co-authored Chapter 4: Knowledge Translation and Exchange to Support Decision-Making. But also relevant to knowledge mobilization is chapter 5, Using Health Economic Evidence to Inform Decisions About Resource Allocation. There are also chapters on data literacy and data for equity useful for anyone seeking to use data in decision making.
Side bar: why is this title “Driving Change in the Health Sector: An Integrated Approach” and not “An Integrated Approach to Driving Change in the Health Sector”. I feel the need to point out unnecessary uses of the colon. Call it de-colon-izing.
I hope mobilizers in Ontario and elsewhere will be able to take advantage of these free, open access learning resources to support your knowledge mobilization practices.
See baby meep at the beginning of the project and a much bigger meep with her sibling boo in January 2022!