In the spotlight - Real data, real world, real stories

Article dated: 12 March 2010

The ESDS International annual conference 2009 was entitled 'Real Data, Real World'. Building on that theme, ESDS International and the Census Dissemination Unit have been seeking stories from academics and students about the use in learning and teaching of the socio-economic data provided through these services.

Concern about levels of data and statistical skills among UK social science students has led to a desire to improve research-led teaching in this area, using real world datasets essential for cutting edge research. The ESRC strategic advisor for teaching of quantitative methods to undergraduate students, John MacInnes, was commissioned in 2009 to look into the current state of affairs in this area and make recommendations to the Council for future initiatives.

Recognising the role of social science data services in contributing to this agenda, and mindful of the increasing need to demonstrate impact (through qualitative as well as quantitative measures), the learning and teaching team at Mimas undertook a project in the summer of 2009 with a remit to produce evidence through case studies of how teachers use real world data resources, and of the impact on student learning. The project – called 'Learning and Teaching with and about Data: Telling Stories' - collates the experience of attempts by some UK university teaching programmes to enhance students' skills in data and its discipline-related usage, providing an illustration of educational practice at both discipline and national level.

The project used a case study approach to bring to life the challenge faced by educators in attempting to improve the data skills of social science undergraduate and postgraduate students in the UK. Groups of teachers at several UK universities were interviewed, and their stories were written up to provide case studies and news items for the Mimas web site, with headlines such as 'Census data from the real world, for the real world', and 'Helping economics students "keep it real"'. The aim was to capture through technology (recordings and video) some key themes that could be shared with the teaching community about the benefits of teaching with real world data, and assessing the effects of this on the student experience. Although the project was about data use, the approach could be applied to other teaching scenarios.

Preliminary results have been presented at the Educause Learning Initiative conference at Austin, Texas (ELI2010), where a poster session resulted in considerable interest in the approach taken, with invitations to submit abstracts to several subsequent sessions. Multimedia digital stories are now in preparation for dissemination at forthcoming events and conferences.

The main findings from this activity were:

• real world data from ESDS and Census Programme is being used in undergraduate and taught postgraduate social sciences teaching programmes across the UK, but there is desire for more sharing of practice
• skills developed in students who use real world data in their undergraduate or masters studies are perceived as extremely valuable from an employer’s perspective (and students are increasingly aware of this)
• there are benefits to both teachers and learners through using real world data, which remain to be further explored
• the next challenge is to discover ways in which this academic data community can share lessons learned/resources developed
• providing evidence of impact on the student experience in the way adopted through this project is highly valued by funders, in addition to the quantitative evidence through data usage

Case studies are becoming an increasingly frequent way of capturing more than just usage of services. The digital stories developed through this project will be a continuing activity that the ESDS International and Census Dissemination Service will take forward.