OceanTeacher Global Academy

The course will provide comprehensive training in research data management in order to lay the foundations for a common approach for research data management amongst researchers, repositories and facilities (including libraries) that manage marine data, thereby helping to ensure that the data is accessible, standardized and maintained over time.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to a wide variety of earth science datasets, formats and analysis software. Students will learn and practice methods using a common ocean area, and they are expected to create a personal project of data products for a marine region of their own choosing. Personal projects are presented by the students at the end of the course.Aims and Objectives:




Recognize the importance of good research data management practice


Provide an introduction to the use of free software for synthesis of marine data and analyses


Creation and use of multi-parameter marine data collections to prepare and publish standard data products


Develop marine data and products from multiple sources using selected software programs

This 2 week-long module on Ocean Data Management is part of the Nippon Foundation-POGO Centre of Excellence (NF-POGO CofE) and hosted by AWI (cohort 2018-19). This module is part of an intensive training course for young professionals at the post-graduate level, ten months in duration, with an intake of ten trainees per year. The course is sponsored by the Nippon Foundation and hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research.  It is conducted at AWI’s site on the offshore island of Helgoland with focus on open-ocean sciences.This module provides a comprehensive introduction to a wide variety of earth science datasets, formats and analysis software. Students will learn and practice methods using a common ocean area, and they are expected to create a personal proj…

Sustained ocean observations are essential for understanding links between physical and chemical drivers and ecosystem responses and for investigations into how long-term changes in the underlying drivers might impact on ecosystem dynamics and the services these provide. However, the management of time series is complex and many issues from scientific to financial and scoietal, need to be taken into account for time series to be sustainable in the long-term. Therefore, while many time series courses have a focus on statistical techniques needed to analyse time series,  in this course we take a holistic approach. We will introduce you to different types of time series and will show you different tools for the visualisation and exploration of your time series data (both very important for …

Summary Geospatial science provides vital information on the sustainable use of the coastal resource and planning. It an imperative use such techniques for managing densely populated coastal environs. This course provides an overview of GIS applications pertaining to coastal vulnerability and analysis. It will provide the basic GIS mapping techniques on storm surge vulnerability, and its socio-economic impact using open source GIS tools. Course also includes data acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation of coastal spatial data. In addition, extensive hands on sessions will be conducted to use tools for preparation of thematic base maps for coastal vulnerability due to Tsunamis, Storm surges and their impact. Aims and Objectives To Provide an introduction to GIS for marine appl…

Research Design, Data Management & Data Communication in Marine Sciences - MOOC 2018 edition


Module 3: Data Management

Research Design, Data Management & Data Communication in Marine Sciences


Module 4

Building on the success of the 2015 training course, the International Ocean Carbon Coordination Project (IOCCP) and  EU BONUS INTEGRAL Project (Integrated carboN and TracE Gas monitoRing for the bALtic sea) have organized a 10-day international training course on "Instrumenting our ocean for better observation:a training course on a suite of biogeochemical sensors." The course was held on June 10-19, 2019 at the Sven Lovén Center for Marine Sciences, in Kristineberg, Sweden. This course responded to the growing demand of the global ocean observing system and the marine biogeochemistry community for expanding the correct usage and generation of information from a suite of autonomous biogeochemical sensors.  The goal of the course was to train …

The course provides an introduction to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). This includes best practices in marine biogeographic data management, data publication, data access, data analysis and data visualisation. With the numerous datasets being generated through various projects and some old data yet to be captured in the database, this training provides an opportunity to manage this wealth of scientific knowledge.

The course provides an introduction to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). This includes best practices in marine biogeographic data management, data publication, data access, data analysis and data visualisation. With the numerous datasets being generated through various projects and some old data yet to be captured in the database, this training provides an opportunity to manage this wealth of scientific knowledge.

This training course highlights the technologies used to measure Sea Surface Temperature and phytoplankton proxy data, as well as the main applications of these data such as primary production, fronts and time series variations. Participants will gain
hands-on experience with image analysis software to visualize and interpret the data in different contexts. Participants will get a brief introduction to some of the ways in which data from these different sources may be visualized and brought together
to give more complete information needed to support decision makers in marine management and policy development. Training will primarily be based on BILKO 3.4 and QGIS.

This course provides an in depth overview of the application of Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to the marine environment using ArcGIS. Aims and Objectives:




Provide an introduction to GIS for marine applications


Focus on some publicly available marine datasets


Show the potential applications of GIS for the marine environment




Learning Outcomes:




Knowledge and understanding of GIS, spatial data, raster and vector models


Core tasks involved in the GIS analysis process including data acquisition, management, manipulation and analysis, and presentation and output


Creating and editing spatial data


Appreciation of coastal and marine GIS data applications

This course provides an overview and hands on GIS applications pertaining to coastal zone using ArcGIS software. This comprises the data acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation of spatial data. The applications of this course are aimed at producing inputs useful for the coastal zone management. Aims and Objectives•To provide an introduction to GIS for marine applications•Utilization of open source spatial data•To provide hands on GIS applications pertaining to the coastal zone Learning Outcomes•Knowledge and understanding of GIS, spatial data, raster and vector models•Core tasks involved in the GIS analysis process including data acquisition, manipulation and analysis, and presentation and output•Core functionality of ArcMap, Arc Catalogue and Arc Toolbox•Creati…

This course will focus on integrated coastal zone management, in the sense that it needs to take on board the ecological, environmental, social and economic aspects of managing a coastal area or zone. The course provides an overview and hands approach on GIS applications necessary towards integrated coastal zone management including the data acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation of spatial data. Participants will develop and build their own case study and make a short presentation at the end of the training course.

This course will focus on integrated coastal zone management, in the sense that it needs to take on board the ecological, environmental, social and economic aspects of managing a coastal area or zone. The course provides an overview and hands approach on GIS applications necessary towards integrated coastal zone management including the data acquisition, processing, analysis and interpretation of spatial data. Participants will develop and build their own case study and make a short presentation at the end of the training course.

The MBON Pole to Pole effort seeks to develop a framework for the collection, use and sharing of marine biodiversity data in a coordinated, standardized manner leveraging on existing infrastructure managed by the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS; IOC-UNESCO), the GEO Biodiversity Observation Network (GEO BON), and the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). The MBON Pole to Pole aims to become a key resource for decision-making and management of living resource across countries in the Americas for reporting requirements under the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES), Aichi Targets of the Convention of Biological Diversity (CBD), and the UN 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).  This course a follow up of the M…

The course provides an introduction to the Ocean Biogeographic Information System (OBIS). This includes best practices in marine biogeographic data management, data publication, data access, data analysis and data visualisation.


Aims and Objectives




Reinforce and expand the OBIS network in the South-East Asian Region


Increase awareness on international standards and best practices related to marine biogeographic data management


Increase the amount and quality of open access biodiversity data published through OBIS and its OBIS nodes


Increase the use of data from OBIS for research, species conservation and area-based management applications for sustainable development

El presente curso se presenta como una oportunidad para actualizar la información acerca de los formatos y estándares que se utilizan en OBIS.


OBIS se encuentra en un trayecto de renovación y mejora de ciertos procedimientos, especialmente los que se refieren a los controles de calidad de los datos suministrados. Durante el presente curso se expondrán conceptos y procedimientos sobre: usos de la plataforma OBIS, procedimientos para organizar los datos según ciertos estándres y formatos, ¿cómo publicar datos en OBIS? y cuáles son las mejores prácticas para el aprovechamiento de los datos que se encuentran en OBIS.

Training the OBIS nodes and the trainers (at the OBIS nodes and OceanTeacher regional training centres) was considered a top priority at the last SG-OBIS meeting. The training will include: 



The application of ratified Darwin Core terms 

OBIS-ENV-DATA standard (combining sampling events, occurrences, abiotic+ biotic measurements and sampling facts). 

QC tools (including the OBIS tools R package: https://github.com/iobis/obistools) 

Data publication (IPT), including metadata management 

Data access and visualization (including the OBIS R package: https://github.com/iobis/robis) 

There will be time for discussions and tackling specific use cases including output.

This training course is aimed at researchers at the post-graduate level and provides a comprehensive introduction to a variety of marine datasets and formats and the use of software for synthesis and analysis of marine data. The importance of good research data management practices and the role of researchers will also be highlighted. Personal projects are presented by the students at the end of the course.