Learning & Teaching Stories: Benefits of Using Real World Data

Dr Jackie Carter

Senior Manager: Learning &Teaching and Social Science Data Services

Acknowledgments

Learning & Teaching team

Laura Shaw

Kenny Baird

Service teams

Celia Russell

Justin Hayes

Gail Millin-Chalabi

Consultant

Sarah Currier

Mimas

The L&T Stories Project

How Mimas services impact the student experience

ContextImpact?

In Search of Narratives

» Leitch Review of Skills report, 2006 (Prosperity for all in the global economy)http://www.hm-treasury.gov.uk/leitch_review_index.htmreport

» Economic & Social Research Council. 2009. Building a world class social science research base in quantitative methods: a national strategy. ESRC Society Today.

http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/AQM%20flyer_tcm6-34272.pdf

» MacInnes, John. 2009. Proposals to support and improve the teaching of quantitative research methods at undergraduate level in the UK. ESRC Society Today.

http://www.esrcsocietytoday.ac.uk/ESRCInfoCentre/Images/Final%20Report_%20Strategic%20Adviser%20for%20Quantitative%20Methods_tcm6-35465.pdf

» UK Commission for Employment and Skills. 2009. Ambition 2020: world class skills and jobs for the UK: the 2009 report: key findings and implications for action.

http://www.ukces.org.uk/tags/key-findings/ambition-2020-key-findings

» Higher Ambitionshttp://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/higher-education/shape-and-structure/higher-ambitions

» Skills for growthhttp://www.bis.gov.uk/policies/further-education-skills/skills-for-growth

Context of skills agenda: references

ContextStrategic Adviser

Report Dec 2009

Services and teachers involved

Mimas service Participants Story detailsESDS International Paul Turner, Loughborough University Second year undergraduate course in econometrics

Nick Weaver, Manchester University Applied economics course for first year economics students; Applied Development Economics Project (ADEP): MSc in Development Economics

and Policy; Masters level applied economics project with an evidence-based approach (planned

for 09/10 academic year).

CDU (Casweb) Prof. Philip Rees, Prof. John Stillwell, Dr. Myles Gould, Helen Durham, and Holly Shulman, Leeds University

Using census data to teach human geography to second year undergraduates over two semesters: research methods, MAUP and ethnic populations.

Intute Virtual Training Suite

Liz Wright & Joe Newsome, Librarians, Doncaster College (Liz supports FE students, Joe HE students).

Information skills training for new FE students in subject group cohorts, and for library assistants to ensure they can support students;

Information skills and academic writing training for HE students (undergrad and taught Masters) in English, social sciences, law, criminology and education.

Internet Detective Cynthia Patterson, University of South Florida Polytechnic

Academic writing and information literacy skills for applied degree students coming from community colleges and the workplace: annotated bibliographies assignment and using the Internet for companies analysis report assignment.

Bex Ferriday, Cornwall College, St Austell Campus

Using Internet Detective to support information literacy and academic writing and research for people gaining teaching qualifications.

Landmap Joanne Cheesborough, Sheffield Hallam University

Groundtruthing with Landmap – Undergraduate Education and GIS at Sheffield Hallam University.

The Aims and Outputs

Collective showcase of benefits of Mimas services to L&T community

How do Mimas services support skills base of undergraduates and taught postgraduates? Focus on employability

The stories in development

Census Dissemination Unit - Casweb

Casweb

web interface to census aggregate outputs and

digital boundary data

The Modifiable Areal Unit Problem:Ethnicity in Leeds

University of LeedsHolly Shulman, Myles Gould, John Stillwell, Helen Durham

Teaching with Census data

Modifiable Areal Unit Problem

Lost Data

ESDS International

Using Real Data

University of LoughboroughPaul Turner

Teaching with International Time Series data

A student’s journey through econometrics data

Screencams of teaching resources at www.youtube.com/watch?v=288KaPjoOy8 and www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX_rdCVzVVk

2nd Year Project work

Student feedback

University of ManchesterNick Weaver

Teaching with International Time Series data

Applied Development Economics Project ADEP

Scientific approach to data

Landmap

» Real Data Real World

» Helping economics students keep it real

» Census data: from the real world for the real world

Two news items – quick wins

Presentations and PublicationsLearning

& Teaching

Research DataNetworked Services

EDULEARN10

ELI2010

CNI Spring Meeting

IASSIST 2010

ESRC Research Methods Festival

JISC/CNI Conference

ALT-C

» Direct contact with teachers› Through routes that

teachers feel are authoritative

› Find innovative ways for service staff to build direct relationships with key academics teaching in all subject areas

Recommendations: 1

Picasso in his studio:

Source http://slowmuse.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/picasso-and-the-ocular-rape/

» Utilise existing networks, conferences and journals› Promote Mimas services

specifically for L&T in forums where teaching staff may look

› Be targeted

› Produce short pithy articles with visual examples

Recommendations: 2

» Theme 3- Support open sharing of L&T materials developed around Mimas services› Open Educational

Resources (OER)› Embed services into L&T› Put materials where the

users are› Maximise academic

exposure to ideas to support their teaching

Recommendations: 3

» Keep services usable and current› Up to date› Available› Integrated with other

services

Recommendations: 4

Digital story telling

User focused, benefits-led

stories

Promotion vs. Service

Support

Evidence base

Mimas services add value

Data/statistical skills

deficit

Work in partnership

Open resources/open data/

data citation

“The sexy job in the next ten years will be statisticians…

I do think those skills—of being able to access, understand, and communicate the insights you get from data analysis—are going to be extremely important. Managers need to be able to access and understand the data themselves.”

Hal Varian on how the Web challenges managers Google’s chief economist says executives in wired organizations need a sharper understanding of how technology empowers innovation.

McKinsey Quarterly at http://www.mckinseyquarterly.com/Hal_Varian_on_how_the_Web_challenges_managers_2286

Thank you and questions

j.carter@manchester.ac.uk

Twitter: JackieCarter

» Point One› Point One One

› Point One One One› Point One One One

› Point One One

» Second Point

» Third of the points

» Another point, the fourth one

Title and content slide

Title only slide