Hands on with Data – the why and how of getting students using data

Jennifer Buckley and Kathryn Simpson, UK Data Service

28th September 2016

Overview

Topics today• using UK Data Service data • student and teaching resources• Q and As

The UK’s largest collection of social, economic and population datawww.ukdataservice.ac.uk

Using UK Data Service data in teaching

• main message: you can use most of our data collections• Data Access Policy and licencing • using Virtual Learning Environments• online tools

Data Access Policy

• depositor has made promises to data subjects that ethically we need to respect

requirements of the depositor

• carry promises to data subjects forward (including to derived datasets) 

Licence

Three-tiers of access

Open•not personal•few restrictions to use

Safeguarded (includes EUL)

•not personal but a risk of disclosure•safeguards/registration•additional conditions

Controlled•may be identifiable and thus potentially disclosive

use in teaching  (except SL data)

Registration required

use in teachingNo registration required 

X use in teaching

Open data collections

• most Census datasets • world Bank, IMF and OECD datasets • small teaching datasets based on major UK surveys

• Quarterly Labour Force Survey, January - March, 2015, • Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, Well-Being Module, April-May

2015 • Crime Survey for England and Wales, 2013-2014:

Citing Data • appropriate words at the top of all catalogue records

Using data under the End User Licence

• two main options:

Students register with the UK Data Service• institutional log‐in• access  individually• students learn about data and research ethics 

Access Agreement for Teaching• you register• access the data for use in teaching• register student use of data

Access Agreement for Teaching

• download from ukdataservice.ac.uk/use-data/teaching• you complete • students sign to agree to the conditions• you can then share data with students

Can we make this easier?

Use your Virtual Learning Environment

• you can share data through VLEs and course websites • if access is restricted to only students agreeing to the conditions

• can we also use VLEs to implement Access Agreement for teaching?

• Data Access ‘test’ for Blackboard

Data Access ‘test’ for Blackboard

Data Access ‘test’ for Blackboard

Use your Virtual Learning Environment

• Data Access test available from ukdataservice.ac.uk/use-data/teaching

• something similar for Moodle and other VLEs? • you can set up your own Data Access test for a VLE

• instructions (including the necessary wording) online

• collaboration?

Reminder

Students doing dissertations, PhDs etc. must register individually.

Nesstar

• online data exploration system (survey data)

Explore online: Nesstar

• Online data exploration system (survey data)

Nesstar

• online data exploration system (survey data) • basic functions (without registration):

• browse metadata • examine variable frequencies • search options

• additional functions (register for data under EUL)• create cross-tabulations (and export)• produce graphs (and export)• correlation and regression • download subsets of data

• open unrestricted datasets - all functions for all users

• students exploring data • finding suitable data  

• data analysis (without software)

• evidence for essays/reports 

• creating teaching datasets

UKDS.Stat

UKDS.Stat

• extract information from the large socio-economic international datasets

• online features include • animated time series charts• maps• personal queries• share queries

• written and video guides

Presentation contents• what resources are available for students & teachers?

Student Resources• using survey data guide• UKDS student forum (Facebook)• undergraduate dissertation prize 2017• data skills units: pilot – surveys

Teaching Resources• teaching datasets• teaching resources rubric

Where to find Student & Teaching Resources

Student Resources

Using Survey Data Guide • help students conducting project work/dissertations get

started with projects using quantitative collections

• key issues related to real-world data using example research project

• guide covers: research questions & designs, finding &accessing relevant data, getting started with data analysis & reporting of results

• worksheets thinking before doing finding survey data for your research project finding & using published tables & statistics registering & downloading data with UK Data Service getting started with SPSS

UK Data Service Student Forum

• launched September 2015

• approx. 220 members across UK & Irish universities; undergraduate, taught postgraduates, doctoral students

• discussion forum on how to source & use data

• provides peer-to-peer support for students using data in research

UK Data Service Student Forum: Facebook

Undergraduate Dissertation Prize 2016

• dissertations that demonstrate originality & flair using quantitative data available from UK Data Service

• inaugural year 33 submissions 16 universities in UK & Ireland

• panel of experts Jennifer Buckley (UK Data Service) Stephen Jivraj (UCL) Kathryn Simpson (UK Data Service) Vanessa Higgins (Functional

Director, UK Data Service)

Data Skills Modules – Surveys

• what is? • how do people use? • how do you use?

Teaching Resources

Teaching datasets

• datasets specifically designed for teaching• produced by us and by teachers/lecturers• based on real data

• Reduced in size • Grossing weight rescaled • unrestricted access

• available under teaching resources • Microsoft Excel file with catalogue of teaching datasets

Teaching Resources Rubric

• one stop shop providing direct links to Methods Guides available according to

theme covered dataset used methodology employed

• direct access to teaching & learning worksheets for use in classroom to help students learn statistical techniques using real-world data

• practical software guides SPSS Stata R

Teaching Resources Rubric

Questions

Contact:

Dr Kathryn Simpson

kathryn.simpson-2@manchester.ac.uk

ukdataservice.ac.uk/help/

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