Visualisation and teaching quantitative research methods to Sociology and Criminology students

Hersh MannUK Data Archive / UK Data Service

Loughborough University, 29 May 2013

Agenda

Visualisation and Teaching Research Methods 29 May 2013

• UK Data Service - overview

• Brief tour of data holdings

• Data visualisation tools

• Teaching with data

• Case studies

• Other resources

• Questions?

What is the UK Data Service?

• a comprehensive resource funded

by the ESRC

• a single point of access to a wide range of secondary social science data

• support, training and guidance

• listen to the recorded webinars at http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/news-and-

events/newsitem/?id=3494

Who is it for?

• academic researchers and students

• government analysts

• charities and foundations

• business consultants

• independent research centres

• think tanks

ukdataservice.ac.uk

What does the UK Data Service do?

• Put together a collection of the most valuable data and enhance that over time

• Preserve data in the long term for future research purposes

• Make the data and documentation available for reuse• Provide data management advice for data creators• Provide support for users of the service• Information about the use to which data are put• Easy access through a website - ukdataservice.ac.uk

UK Data Service

http://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk

Integrates ESDS, Survey Question Bank and Census.ac.uk

Overview: some statisticsHoldings: data for research and teaching purposes, used in various sectors and for numerous disciplines

• 6000 datasets in the collection

• 400 new datasets and new editions added within last 12 months

• 25,000 currently registered users

• 60,000 downloads worldwide p.a.

• 4000+ user support queries p.a.

Overview: key data

UK Surveys InternationalLongitudinal

Large-scale government funded surveys

Census Business

Major UK surveys following individuals over time

Multi-nation aggregate databanks and survey microdata

Range of multi-media qualitative data sources

Census data 1971 – 2011

Sensitive data requiring secure access systems

Qualitative

Large-scale UK surveys

• General Lifestyle Survey (General Household Survey)

• Labour Force Survey

• Health Survey for England/Wales/Scotland

• Living Costs and Food Survey (Expenditure and Food Survey)

• Crime Survey for England and Wales (British Crime Survey)

• Family Resources Survey

• ONS Opinions Survey (ONS Omnibus Survey)

• Survey of English Housing

• British Social Attitudes

• National Travel Survey

Survey microdata outputs

Percentage of party supporters who believe large numbers of people falsely claim benefits

British Social Attitudes Survey 2010(weighted data)

Longitudinal studies

Similar to ‘UK Surveys’• individual level data• large samples, nationally-

representative• surveys are repeated, often

annuallyBUT• they follow the same individuals over time• new respondents are added regularly to keep numbers

up

Longitudinal studies

The UK Data Service supports a range of longitudinal surveys but there are eight studies that form part of our key data collection:

• National Child Development Study (NCDS)• 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)• Millennium Cohort Study (MCS)• British Household Panel Survey (BHPS)• Understanding Society (UKHLS)• English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (ELSA)• Growing Up in Scotland (GUS)• Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE)

International macrodata• time series data aggregated to

country/region • regularly updated• international governmental

organisations (IMF, OECD, IEA, World Bank)

• wide range of socio-economic topics

• only available to staff and students from UK institutions of higher and further education (World Bank data is open access)

Example from UN COMTRADE, 2008

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Discover – key data

Census homepage

UK census data

• 1971-2011 census data• gold standard• used as baseline for other statistics• detailed combinations of

characteristics• small geographies• census outputs

• Aggregate data• Boundary data• Flow data• Microdata

• restricted to UK higher/further education staff and students, except for the microdata

Retrieval and access

• Web access to data and metadata via the UK Data Service web pages

• Documentation (codebooks, questionnaires) freely available to anyone browsing the web pages

• In most cases full datasets are freely available for download for the majority of our registered users

• Data supplied in a variety of formats• SPSS • Stata• Tab-delimited text

The importance of data in teaching

We value your feedback and want to hear your ideas

Teaching datasets

• Our teaching datasets have been prepared for ease of use for new learners

• Many datasets have hundreds or thousands of variables and this can be daunting or confusing to a novice learner

• Teaching datasets are manageable in size and have far fewer variables than the main survey on which they are based, but they are still real datasets that can be used to explore substantive topics

• You may want to repurpose an existing dataset to create particular classroom exercises. If so, please let us know what we can do to help. We can add your dataset to the collection so it can be shared with other teachers.

Teaching with data

Teaching datasets

Teaching datasets in Discover

Online analysis - Nesstar• Online data browsing and analysis system

• Allows users to search for, locate, browse and analyse and download a wide variety of statistical data within a web browser

• UK Data Archive, as service provider for ESDS, hosts a Nesstar server populated by its most popular data series

• Registration is required for analysis such as crosstabulations and regressions unless you are using an unrestricted dataset

• http://nesstar.esds.ac.uk/webview/index.jsp

Nesstar in use

•

International macrodata

• Download the series you wish to use from the appropriate online tool: Beyond 20:20, UKDS.Stat or IMF eLibrary (coming soon)

• As with Nesstar this is all done within your web browser• Tables can be manipulated and the data can be

displayed graphically• The underlying data can then be downloaded in CSV

format

International macrodata - .Stat

International macrodata – Beyond 20/20

Exploring census data

Case Study 1: International macrodata• Paul Turner, University of Loughborough

• ‘Using real-world data to understand econometrics’

• IMF International Financial Statistics were used in a course with 150 undergraduates. The aim is for students to understand both basic and more advanced techniques that will allow economic theories to be tested using econometric applications and tools.

• “I always start the econometrics course off by telling them that if there's one course they may actually make use of when they leave- it's probably going to be this one.”

Case Study 2: Survey microdata• Rob Johns, University of Essex

• ‘Introducing students to politics through real data’

• British Election Study and British Social Attitudes Survey data were used to teach a variety of statistical concepts and research methods to politics undergraduates.

• “When I was a student, I didn’t like the teaching method where you were just shown some output and how to interpret it, or where every week it was a different data set and you did not get a chance to really work with and understand the data.”

Case Study 3: Longitudinal data• Ruth Salway, University of Bath

• ‘Using data in practice and in theory’

• The Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) was used to teach an undergraduate course on applied statistics. The students were grounded in the necessary theory and in statistics practice but were yet to use data beyond their textbook examples.

• “I remember the UK Data Archive as a source of a lot of survey data all together and once I’d narrowed it down I didn’t look anywhere else as I knew I would find what I wanted there.”

Are you using data in the classroom?• If you have used data obtained from the UK Data Service

in your teaching (or if you have been inspired to do so on the basis of this presentation!), please contact us and let us know.

• Do you have an idea for repurposing an existing data collection to create a teaching resource? We can help.

• We would be delighted to feature you in a case study

Other resources• Support / how to guides found via Discover• Workshops and user meetings (check our news and

events pages)• Provide advice on research data management planning

and preservation• Are you using our resources? Please tell us. We can help

promote and demonstrate the impact of your research• Contact us / follow us via

http://ukdataservice.ac.uk/about-us/contact.aspxhttps://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A0=UKdataservice

https://twitter.com/UKDataServicehttps://www.facebook.com/UKDataService

Questions?