Building data and analytics literacy

CIC has created engaging online modules and runs regular workshops to help diverse learners get hands-on with data and analytics.

Engaging online modules

Building data literacy is now one of the most important qualities in today’s degree programs, and the workplace. CIC has published several engaging, short modules that help learners get hands-on with analysing data, and thinking about the ethical dimensions. These modules, on UTS Open, are being used by the public for free, by UTS students as part of their studies, by staff as lifelong learners, and now by professional learners in large organisations. These resources were led by CIC’s Assoc. Prof. Kirsty Kitto, and former CIC member Dr. Simon Knight (now Senior Lecturer in the UTS Transdisciplinary School), supported by CIC PhD students Leonie Payne and Gloria Fernandez-Nieto.

A pilot microcredential, Telling Data Stories, was piloted with Telstra in December 2020, receiving praise for its flexible and self-paced learning design. Three more microcredentials were drafted by CIC, and have now been passed over to the Science Faculty to continue development.

Click on the above icons to learn more, but here’s Kirsty introducing one of the programs to give you a flavour…

Monthly educator training workshops

AI-powered analysis of student writing can now close the feedback loop to students in unprecedented ways: 24/7 instant feedback on academic writing, draft after draft. CIC’s AcaWriter web application was deployed to all students in May, and we now run monthly briefings in the LX Lab for UTS teaching teams to get up to speed on using it effectively. These one hour sessions distill some of the key insights developed in our long term R&D program. Even if you miss a live session, you can replay it to help decide if you want to include it in your teaching — here’s December’s…

If you’re interested in a more in-depth tutorial on the pedagogical and technical foundations, then the team recently ran a workshop for the international Learning Analytics Learning Network which you can replay: Introduction to Writing Analytics and the design of automated feedback.