Calling All Students, Educators and Data Literacy Advocates!
It’s that time of year! Educators and students everywhere are preparing to embark on a brand new school year. Here at Data Literacy it’s the time of year where the data literacy gap in our education system is top of mind. A balanced and up-to-date education system is a critical part of every healthy society. Yet, in today’s world, the vast majority of people do not receive a formal education that adequately prepares them for the level of data fluency required of them in their careers and by their communities.
With so much happening in our communities and around the world, it’s seemingly more important than ever to be informed. And that, at its most basic level, requires data literacy. One could argue current global events are not that different than in the past. There have always been wars, corruption, protests, elections, humanitarian disasters, and so on and so forth. What has changed, thanks to the technological revolution, is the pace at which we are now able to access information and the lens through which we need to examine the data and information we’re consuming to ensure we’re doing so ethically, both as citizens and in the workplace.
As tensions run high in the fight between “truth” and “fake news,” our best line of defense is closing the data literacy gap in our education system so more people can not only join, but lead the conversation. We need more informed, data literate citizens in the driver’s seat. We don’t all need to be speeding in the left lane, but we should all have access to the road.
Closing the gap requires access to robust teaching content, which is why we provide an educational discount for 50% off all of our courses and books. Now, students and teachers alike can build their own knowledge and skills using our world-class content that has been leveraged by organizations around the world.
We encourage educators and students to review our Data Literacy series of on-demand courses – the bread and butter of our offerings. Our Core Course Series consists of four foundational courses, designed for data workers and novices alike, each with an accompanying book. All of our courses were developed by Ben Jones, Data Literacy CEO and Professor of Data Visualization Theory at The University of Washington’s Foster School of Business. Read below for more about each course and how to apply for our education discount.
What is data and what is it used for? How do people and teams make the best use of data? What are various ways of analyzing & displaying data? If you’re not sure how to answer those questions, then this course is built for you. In this foundational course you will gain the fundamental skills you need to speak the language of data. You’ll learn:
- The 1 Overall goal of data
- The 2 Systems of human thinking involved
- The 3 Areas of life where data matters
- The 4 Different data scale types
- The 5 Forms of data analysis
- The 6 Ways of displaying data
- The 7 Groups of data activities teams can carry out
- The 8 Questions to ask your data upfront
Do you ever look at a graph or chart and feel stumped on where to begin? Sure, you see the information it’s conveying, but are you interpreting it correctly and growing in wisdom? Then this course is built for you. In this second course in our Core Course Series, you’ll gain the fundamental skills required to speak the visual language of data. You’ll gain a strong understanding of:
- The 25 most common chart types and their pitfalls
- Critical scenarios like change over time and part-to-whole
- How data is converted to graphical marks with visual encodings
- How the building blocks of graphical displays may be influencing your interpretation
- What pitfalls to avoid when interpreting visual displays of data
Have you ever felt lost in a sea of data? Did you invest in learning a single tool but now you feel that you’re missing important principles and an overall framework with which to dive in? Then this course is built for you. Many people today rush to apply very powerful data-working tools, or they just dive right into their data without giving much thought to what’s below the surface. In this course, you’ll learn a brand new, tool-agnostic framework for converting raw data into wisdom. This detailed process is called The Wisdom Data-Working Flow, and you can use it with any data set, any software tool or programming language, any question that you’d like answered, and any decision that you’d like to turn into a data-informed decision. Along with mastering The Wisdom Data-Working Flow, you’ll gain access to over 25 detailed tutorials that will walk you step-by-step through working with tools such as Tableau, MS Power Query Editor, MS Power BI, R Studio, SQL, Excel, and more!
Level 3 will take Level 2 to the next level by really diving into the communication aspects of data which includes creating highly interactive dashboards (think navigation, animation & more) and learning to tell a compelling data story that will land well with your audience. You’ll surprise and delight your leaders and colleagues in your next presentation after taking this course! Sign up for the Level 3 waitlist here.
How to Apply for the Data Literacy for Education Discount
- Fill out the form on this page. Please note that the form needs to be filled out using an email address from your school or educational organization. You will need to use this same email to register for our courses in order for the discount code to apply.
- If you are looking for training for a team of more than 10 people, please note that in the comments section and we will reach out to you to discuss our corporate rates for the education sector.
- You will receive an email within 3 business days with a code to use at checkout good for 50% off of all of our available courses and ebooks.
Thanks for reading and happy learning!
