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.
