Industries generate more and more data (see Internet of Things, BigData, etc), and along with it the requirement of not only technical, but also strong analytical skills. Business Intelligence technology makes complex data analysis easier to perform without the need of low-level programming skills. Thus, understanding and communicating data become critical for companies, and data scientists are becoming a very scarce resource, and lack of data communication and visualization skills, including data storytelling and infographics, lack of knowledge of basic tools to analyses and present data become a serious problem for the modern labour market. The skills of the teachers and trainers to analyse and communicate data is not just a question of the quality and the presentation of their research: it is also important to note that this issue is not only concerns the data that they have to analyze for their research work but they also have to analyse data regarding their students and their students' needs. “Teachers are expected to analyze and interpret assessment data and make various inferences and/or decisions based on the data (e.g., student strengths and weaknesses, appropriate interventions to implement). The underlying theory is that by informing with data decisions related to instructional goals, methods, and time allocation, teachers can better target their instruction to students, ultimately resulting in higher levels of achievement. In the DUCK project we plan to develop a 30 hours multimedia blended course (3 modules: Problem analysis, Data analysis, Data communication) on Data Understanding and Communication, fulfilling needs of teachers and trainers, tested in CPD adult, VET HE environment. That course will be universal: addressing not only teachers and trainers with science or managerial background, but instructors, experts who want to transfer those skills to their students, e.g.: to be able to work with data and think critically. The partnership is set on combining the best practices of analytical skills development and assessment with new methods of data communication and visualisation, all backed by modern research (eg. from cognitive psychology). The project will carry out: A detailed needs analysis and best practices report on the state of the art in data understanding and communication (DUC) and especially DUC in continuous professional development (CPD) field. A thirty hours (three module) modular DUC course for teachers and trainers with guidelines of the methodological use and localization in English, Polish, Hungarian and Spanish. A Lessons Learned Kit (LLK) that will explain not only the benefits of the final products but also shed light on the process of developing them. A project portal and on-line resource center with DUC examples and activities as OERs. The resource center will be continuously enriched by new uploads, providing an affluent on-line learning environment for the on-line course. After the course teachers and trainers will gain: Ability to define Problem: Investigate the problem in order to better understand the goals of the project; Ability to state and refine the question; Ability to understand inputs: Data, Concepts, Attributes, Examples; Ability to understand potential knowledge representations of the solution; Tables, Linear Models, Trees, Rules, Clusters; Ability to get and clean data (find different file types; extract data; organize, merge and manage the data); Ability to explore/understand statistics and probability; Ability to understand data with visualization; Ability tounderstand data with descriptive statistics; Ability to use basic tools to analyze data; Ability to interpret the results; Ability to prepare presentation of results; Ability to create visualisations of the results (including data storytelling and info graphics); Ability to use basic tools to present data; Ability to efficiently communicate the results to target audience, with appropriate content, style and attitude.
Understanding and communicating data became critical for companies: lack of data communication and visualization skills, including data storytelling and infographics, lack of knowledge of basic tools to analyses and present data become a serious problem for the modern labour market. Today not only data scientists need data understanding and communication skills, but a wide variety of positions in any industry require this new type of soft skill, that became similar to language skills and digital literacy. The partnership has developed a modular course on Data Understanding and Communication to be implemented in CPD, VET and HE environments. The three modules of 30 learning hours (theory and practice) consists of a problem analysis module, a data analysis module, and a communication modul. Each modul covers 3-5 skills that are thought through units. One unit is between 25 and 60 minutes of self-paced studying. The acquisition of a skill is tested through self-assessment: unit level self-evaluation and skill level self-tests. The full course is available in English, Spanish, Polish and Hungarian. Validation workshops and piloting ensured the relevance and the quality of the course. It is based on a detailed needs analysis and best practices report on the state of the art in DUC (Data understanding and communication) and especially DUC in continuous professional development field. The partners organised 4 focus group meetings with 27 selected participants, conducted 14 expert interviews and used the data collected through 95 completed online questionnaires. For desk research they collected the data and referenced at least 5 sources as requested and provided 2 case studies per country. The full report is available to download from the project website in English. Executive summaries are also made available similarly in English, Spanish, Polish and Hungarian. Our initial survey showed a great need of easily applicable examples that facilitates understanding and provides a good example of data understanding and communication close to one’s own field of work. For this reason, every module of the DUCK course has three mini-project activities. These follow the content structure of the course and provide examples of the different skills on different educational sectors (this way learners and teachers can identify the mini project closest to their professional interests): activities and examples for VET teachers and trainers; for Secondary school teachers in-service training activities and; for continuous professional development (CPD) in the corporate sector and for adult VET trainers. These examples are build in the course structure but can be accessed separately as well, through the Resource Center. All activities and examples are available there as OERs to be freely used, adapted and translated. Participating organizations have all benefited from the teamwork itself which has proved to be productive and very positive for all. Partners have shared knowledge on all the project topics, and shared different ways of critical thinking skills development. All partners have also successfully tested the proposed educational tools, strategies and methodologies being able to reproduce and apply them in their daily activities. Finally, some partners (the Institute of Continuing Education of Engineers of BME and the Faculty of Economics of WUT) are already made steps in applying the project’s results in their organizations in order to promote a new program for VET teachers, university teachers, Engineering further education and intra-university CPD offer via short term training for trainers. An Implementation Guideline was written to help teachers and trainers to plan and implement their own course offer with the use of the On-line content, Resource center, evaluation and methodological tools, written based on the O1 report, development plans and piloting results. A complex methodology is introduced multimedia on-line course content production on DUCK topic, descriptions on how to use the different on-line course elements in the classroom and by using other methods, with special emphasis on blended learning methods like flipped classroom, project work, mini project and collaborative learning.