The National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR) System-Wide Monitoring Program (SWMP) provides an opportunity to compare site-based monitoring data from a wide range of estuaries across the nation to discover patterns and trends in ecosystem dynamics. Despite decades of SWMP data being amassed – and the Reserve System’s interest in investigating long-term changes in estuarine systems – limited personnel capacity has often prevented these datasets from being fully utilized. To address this need, a catalyst project developed a graduate level class at University of Wisconsin-Madison for Spring 2024 with dual learning objectives: a technical objective to learn ecological big data skills and a collaborative objective to learn how to conduct user-driven collaborative science. In this webinar, the project team will share their journey of developing and implementing the class, highlight student findings, and demonstrate analyses that they used to address science and management questions. They will also discuss lessons learned along the way and future opportunities for this teaching model to be used by the NERRS and partners.