Abstract:
The amount, availability, diversity and complexity of modern data means that students now require a wider range of data-related knowledge and skills. We present our initial attempts at increasing student awareness of what can be learned from modern data, within the context of working with large classes (n ≈ 450) made up of students from diverse majors. Through the telling of data exploration stories we cover: sourcing data through APIs, web scraping and open databases; working with different types of data/variables such as text, timestamps, location co-ordinates and images; and potential issues related to data quality, ownership, and privacy.
