ALS 1210 - Data Literacy: Cultivating Skills to Engage with Data

Fall, Spring. 1 credit. Student option grading.

A. Kallaher.

The ability to find, analyze and utilize data helps one communicate, interpret and engage with the world around them. Yet there is a divide between those who can work with and understand data and those who cannot. Ownership and manipulation of data is largely handled by corporations, researchers and government. How does a more diverse population gain access to the know-how to make sense of data? This class aims to equip students from a variety of non-technical backgrounds with the necessary skills to engage with data in meaningful ways (both quantitative and qualitative data). The class approaches data literacy as part of a broader process of inquiry into the world – not from a math or statistics-centric point of view.

Outcome 1: Define data types and formats and classify based on the research questions that they address.

Outcome 2: Explain why a dataset was collected and who collected it and describe how it was collected and what its known limitations are.

Outcome 3: Identify the importance of data management principles for working with data.

Outcome 4: Utilize open-source and web-based tools for simple data analysis.

Outcome 5: Apply basic visualization concepts to avoid misleading or ambiguous representations when presenting and sharing data.

Outcome 6: Articulate a data-driven argument.