Welcome to the CONVERGE Training Modules page. These modules are part of a larger initiative to advance social science and interdisciplinary disaster research efforts through identifying, mapping, and training a diverse group of researchers.
The information in these modules is designed to accelerate the training of hazards and disaster researchers, with a special emphasis on students, emerging researchers, situational researchers, and those interested in joining or leading interdisciplinary teams.
The training modules cover a wide range of rapid response research topics. These modules are meant to help prepare individual researchers and interdisciplinary teams to carry out extreme events research that is coordinated, comprehensive, coherent, ethically grounded, methodologically sound, and scientifically rigorous.
Our first training module, Social Vulnerability and Disasters, is now available.
Register here.
Training modules currently in development focus on the following topics:
- Cultural Competence in Hazards and Disaster Research
- Disaster Mental Health
- Conducting Emotionally Challenging Research
- Institutional Review Board (IRB) Procedures for Hazards and Disaster Researchers
- Broader Ethical Considerations for Hazards and Disaster Researchers
- Social Science Methods and Approaches for Hazards and Disaster Research
- Interdisciplinary Methods and Approaches for Hazards and Disaster Research
- The Science of Team Science: Forming Interdisciplinary Teams for Hazards and Disaster Research
- Publishing Disaster Data, Data Collection Protocols, and Research Instruments
- Public Disaster Science: Best Practices for Sharing Hazards and Disaster Research
Each module features learning objectives, lesson plans, written content, and case study vignettes. The module also includes a list of publications for further reading as well as access to related standardized scales and measures, online resources, data sets, and other information. Each module is followed by a short multiple choice quiz. Those who receive a score of 80% or higher will receive a CONVERGE Training Module Certificate of Completion.
Over the next five years, additional training modules will be developed and released as part of an online credentialing system.