97325 - DATA LITERACY - INTERPRETARE E COMUNICARE I DATI

Academic Year 2022/2023

Learning outcomes

The main goals of this course are: • to understand what data are and what their role in society is; • to discriminate data based on specific use; • to synthesize, create visualizations and representations of data; • to understand the issues involved in the use of data; • to promote critical thinking based on information from data analysis • to recognize when data are tampered with, misrepresented and used in a misleading manner • to communicate information about the data to people who are not expert on the subject (data storytelling). After completing this course, students will be able to: • Provide examples of how people use data every day • Apply critical thinking skills when working with data • Identify data analysis tools and techniques appropriate for the analysis

Course contents

NOTICE

THE COURSE WILL BE HELD IN THE PERIOD: MID MARCH-MID MAY

THE HOURS OF LESSON ARE 4 WEEKLY, TWO FOR EACH LESSON THE COURSE TIMETABLE WILL BE AVAILABLE BY DECEMBER

part 1: Transforming data into knowledge

1. How to obtain the data: institutional sources, open data and ad hoc surveys

2. How to process data: the basic tools of statistical analysis.

3. How to represent the data: the main types of graphs

Part 2 Reasoning on the information obtained with the analyses

1. Infographics and errors in graphical representations

2. Data story telling

Part 3 (Practical activity): Critical evaluation of case studies from society and research contexts

1. Analysis of a data set using excel

Readings/Bibliography

David Spiegelhalter, L’arte della statistica. Cosa ci insegnano i dati, Piccola Biblioteca, Einaudi, 2020

Alberto Cairo, Come i grafici mentono. Capire meglio le informazioni visive, Raffaello Cortina Editore, 2020

Teaching methods

Lessons, laboratory activities and case study.

The blended modality is planned  for 35% of the hours, therefore 8 hours will also be held online. Attendance of at least 12 hours is required in order to take the exam.

Assessment methods

The exam aims to evaluate the skills achieved in the ability to critically analyze the quantitative information of a real problem.

The student must written a report describing the results of the analysis on a real data set.

The report must be sent two days before the exam round and will be discussed on the day of the exam.

The exam grade is expressed out of thirty

Teaching tools

slides; paper; open data

Some lessons will be recorded

Office hours

See the website of Stefania Mignani