To require 'Data Literacy' for every university student, what does the syllabus include?

[LDuane]

With Data Literacy as the foundation of every great analytics and data science skill set, imagine when universities require data literacy as a core program for every university student, regardless of major!  Everyone becomes aware of data.  No one is afraid of data.  The value of data is realized across every company in every industry across the global!  It is our responsibility to make this happen.

What do you want the syllabus for 'Data Literacy' at every university to include?  I know @alexandramannerings along with Julie Burroughs and Radhika Nath have some ideas. 

Thanks for sharing!

Libby 

[mlayten]

On twitter I was reading about a teacher who has students find bad graphs/visualizations in the news and talk about how they are misleading.  This is a great element of any data literacy class to be a skeptical viewer of information in daily life.

Several lessons on Freakonomics, whether the podcast or one of the books.  Great examples of how to manipulate behavior with economics.

Some information on marketing and targeting in stores.  Having students think about how their information is used to make them better customers.

I'd also include some information on sketchy forensics or how data can be distorted in trials. 

And finally "in mice".  Understanding the difference in scientific "breakthroughs" in mice or in silica and the length that needs to go from there to human usage.

Some of our students will never need data literacy in their jobs.  But understanding statistical manipulation in news, politics and the courts is part of being a modern informed citizen.  And stuying economics and marketing helps them be better at understanding themselves and their spending.

[terry10]

@mlayten to your point about data visualizations,The New York Times has a terrific series called 'What's Going On in This Graph?" which presents data visualizations on current topics and invites discussion. The last few discussed COVID-19 graphs. It's aimed at students, but I recommend it for anyone!

https://www.nytimes.com/column/whats-going-on-in-this-graph

[JoyG]

Thank you all so much for starting this thread, and sharing your experience and ideas.  I am a university professor who has been using Alteryx in the classroom for two semesters now and I am working to expand it in our curriculum.  In addition, I'm designing some three different courses with a heavy emphasis on data literacy.  IT Audit is my specialty area, so I like to concentrate on the old adage "garbage in - garbage out" as well as topics that many of you have listed.  

I finally surfaced from the crazy in-person to online semester, and am catching up on this thread.  Again, thank you all so much for sharing this!  

Joy

[Downes]

This is a great image.

If you don't mind, I'd like to use it as the logo for my (in-development) data literacy MOOC.

https://data.mooc.ca

Thanks. :)

-- Stephen

[nagols5445]

That's a great exercise that can start as early as middle school.