Section outline

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    Welcome to the "Toolbox"

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    🇫🇷 Version française disponible ici

    This course module features a number of useful tools for doctoral students e.g. drawing software for figures, transcription tools, mind mapping tools, etc. 

    This section also points to training courses available on Callisto for designing media such as GIFs and scientific posters.



    Traduction : Daniel Toudic
    Free access

    No account creation or registration is required. Happy reading!

    To navigate the course

    The button in the top left corner provides access to activities.
     
    The button in the top right corner provides access to other courses.



    Auteur(s) / Formateur(s): Groupe de travail FormaDoct
    Production cours: Xavier Divet - Ingénieur pédagogique • Philippe Jaricot - UNIT
    Public cible: Doctorants, toutes personnes intéressées par les problématiques IST
    Date de publication: 18 September 2024
    Mise à jour: 16 February 2026
    Durée estimée: 3 heures
    Prérequis: aucun
    Licence: CC BY-NC-SA
    Open badge: No
    Nombre d'inscrits: 0
    Catalogue: Yes
    Thématique: Méthodologie de la thèse
    Durée: Format long (> 1h30)
    Type d'accès: Libre accès, Auto-inscription
    Partenaire: FormaDoct
    Langue: Français
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    Creating a Mind Map

    • Objectives

      • Understanding how mind mapping can help at different stages when writing your thesis.

      • Illustrating different uses (preparing lectures, organizing seminars, structuring outlines, authoring assistance or dissertation topic popularization assistance, drafting discussion points for the Individual Monitoring Committee, etc.).

      • Learning about online mind map creation tools.

      • Discovering mind map AI features.

    • 1. Definition

    • 2. Mind Map Methodology

    • Activity 1 • Answer the following questions to learn about key mind mapping guidelines
    • Basic Mind Map Creation Guidelines

    • Mind Map Examples


      To open the map, click here

      Règles générales pour créer une carte mentale

    • Activity 2 • Summarizing a Text in Mind Map Form

    • Activity 3 • Prepare a Study Day Using a Mind Map

    • 3. Different Mind Map Uses

    • 4. Getting Started with Online Mind Mapping Tools

    • 5. Mind Maps and AI: New Mind Mapping Tools

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    Creating GIFs

    GIFs are very useful for disseminating educational content and can be created quickly. They are a lightweight and easy-to-deploy format.


    Follow this self-training course to learn about the technicalities and their educational uses.


    Course objectives

    • Identifying three characteristics of the GIF image format
    • Explaining two educational applications for GIFs in e-learning content
    • Testing an animated GIF creation tool
    Consult the course
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    Creating a Scientific Poster

    • A scientific poster is both a tool for publicizing and promoting scientific output and a very effective way of visually summarizing a research project.

      Follow this self-training course to learn how to create a scientific poster step by step.


      Course objectives

      • Contextualizing the design of your poster
      • Writing text content suitable for a poster
      • Applying basic graphic design principles to improve a scientific poster’s readability and appearance
      • What to look out for when having your poster printed
      Consult the course
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    Bibliographic Reference Management

    •  

      Zotero is an open-source bibliographic reference management system (BRMS) application. This free, open-source software is easy to use and helps you collect, organize, cite, and share your sources. It has a large user base, and anyone (with computer skills) can help develop the code. It operates with different operating systems (MacOS, Windows, Linux) and can therefore be used on any computer. It means you can recover your data if you move over to a different operating system. You can start using Zotero now and switch to different software later depending on your research organization (thanks to import/export exchange formats such as BibTeX or RIS).

       

      Find a general training module on Zotero on the CALLISTO URFIST workspace:

      Consult the course
      Zotero : initiation au logiciel de gestion de références bibliographiques

      Zotero is also a document annotation tool. Follow this link to discover the tutorial created by Rennes 2 University - Zotero in practice: Create notes and associate them with your references


      Finally, for more information on how to use Zotero, please refer to the official documentation available:

      Version française - https://docs.zotero-fr.org/

      English version - https://www.zotero.org/support/

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    Audio and Video Transcription

    • Assisted/automated transcription
       

      Transcribing an audio or video file may be useful, for example, when:

      • You need the script of a video to quote something or take notes to advance your research.
      • You record your voice as a memo to save time instead of taking written notes.

      Here is a list of tools you can use to automate audio or video content playback and transcription.

      Scribe

      Allow the same amount of time to process your file as its actual length once the file has been uploaded. You will need to proofread and correct a lot of errors but this entirely free tool can do most of the transcription work for you.


      Open Scribe

      Dictation

      You can’t use this tool to process your audio or video files, but you can instantly transcribe what you say or play back to it. Please note that it is only available on Chrome.


      Open Dictation

      Gladia

      This platform uses AI. You can copy video links, upload files from your computer, or do live transcription (it takes about 15 minutes to transcribe a 1 hour 10 minute-long YouTube video). This is the most efficient of the three tools presented here. It offers about 10 hours of free use.


      Open Gladia

      BetterDictation

      This is an AI model that you install locally on your device, so you don’t need an internet connection. It is a paid product but does not require a subscription.


      Open BetterDictation
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    Drawing Software

    • Durant votre thèse, vous serez amené à créer toutes sortes de dessins (icônes, figures, logos, graphiques, schémas, visualisation de données…). Il vous faudra utiliser un logiciel de dessin assisté, qui vous permettra de produire des images de qualité.



      Inkscape

      C'est un logiciel de dessin gratuit et open source. Il vous permet entre autres de générer des images vectorielles qui ne perdent pas en qualité lorsqu'elles sont agrandies. 

      Consulter le cours


      Photopea

      C'est un logiciel propriétaire de retouche et de traitement d'images matricielles et vectorielles. Disponible uniquement en ligne, il supporte la plupart des formats d'image. Il s'inspire très grandement du logiciel Photoshop. Disponible sur abonnement vous pouvez utiliser la version gratuite mais vous serez limité dans les formats d’exports.

      Ouvrir le logiciel


      GIMP

      C'est un outil de manipulation et de retouche d'image gratuit et libre. Il en existe des versions pour la plupart des systèmes d'exploitation dont GNU/Linux, macOS et Microsoft Windows. GIMP possède des outils pour la retouche et la manipulation d'image, le photomontage, le dessin à main levée, le réajustement, rognage, conversion entre différents formats d'image, et diverses tâches plus spécialisées.

      Télécharger le logiciel
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    Versioning and Collaboration Tool

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    Links to external sources

    Here you will find the complete list of links to the sources mentioned and to more detailed content.

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    Course Glossary

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    Autres modules

    Course: Module 3 : Toolbox
    Course: Module 1 : Préparer votre support
    Course: Module 2 : Structurer votre thèse
    Course: Module 3 : Boîte à outils