MaDaLi² Project
In a digitalized world, the handling of data plays a central role.
Data literacy can be understood as "key competence of the 21th century“ that enables people not only to collect and analyze data, but also to critically evaluate and interpret it in a meaningful way. This competence is essential for making well-founded decisions, whether in academia, business or everyday life. Against this background, the University of Mannheim is expanding its extracurricular curriculum with the eLearning course MaDaLi2, with which we want to give our students the opportunity to acquire basic, practice-oriented data skills.
What is data literacy?
“Data literacy is the ability to collect, manage, evaluate and apply data in a critical manner.” (cf. Ridsdale et al., 2015, p. 8)
Data literacy refers to the ability to handle data in a critical manner. This term is often used to describe various individual skills, such as the ability to collect, evaluate, analzye or visualize data. Data literacy can therefore be understood as a fundamental competence for participating confidently and responsibly in an everyday life shaped by digitalization.
Data literacy for students of all disciplines
The course was developed by the Teaching and Learning Center (ZLL), the University Library (UB) and representatives of the Business School (chair held by Stahl) and the School of Humanities (chair held by Altvater-Mackensen and chair held by Naab) . It offers students at the University of Mannheim interdisciplinary knowledge of theoretical principles and practical skills for dealing with data.
The course is currently under construction and will consist of eight modules, which are also based on the data literacy framework of Schüller et al. The learning modules can be completed flexibly in self-study phases. Students can also take selected individual modules. No previous knowledge is required to take part in the course.
Module overview
Module 1: Building a data culture
- Basic knowledge of the concept of data literacy
- Data in everyday life and research
- Teaching methodological skills (qualitative and quantitative research)
- Teaching methodological skills (qualitative and quantitative research)
- Ethical problems in dealing with data
Module 2: Anchoring data ethics
- Data protection
- Copyright law and license law
- Introducing the concept of personal data
Module 3: Collecting and (re)using data
- Explaining qualitative and quantitative data collection using various data collection methods
- Empirical studies
- Open Data
- Dealing with protected data
Module 4: Managing data
- Metadata and documentation
- Importance of key figures
- Data conversion
Module 5: Analyzing data
- (Explorative) data analysis and cleansing
- Introduction to statistical key figures
- Basics of inferential statistics and evaluation of sample data
- Recognizing patterns and trends in data
- Data visualization
Module 6: Interpreting data
- Introduction to the concept of visual literacy
- Critically analyzing data visualizations
- Bias and distortion
Module 7: Classifying data
- Critically classifying and evaluating data
- Interpreting data analyses
Module 8: Publishing and archiving data
- Publishing data sustainably in repositories
- Subsequent use and long-term preservation
- Introducing the FAIR principles
- Open Science and Open Access
- Excursus on the National Research Data Infrastructure (NFDI)
Team
Institutions
- Teaching and Learning Center (ZLL)
- University Library (UB)
- Chair of Psycholinguistics (School of Humanities)
- Chair of Digital Communication (School of Humanities)
- Chair of Quantitative Marketing (Business School)
Contact
Contact persons
Dr. Leonie Bröcher (she/her)
Teaching and Learning Center
Schloss – Room ZEO 094
68161 Mannheim
Isabella Hartig, M.A.
Mannheim Business School
L 5, 2
68161 Mannheim
Thomas Schmidt, M.A.
University Library
Schloss Schneckenhof West – Room SN279
68161 Mannheim
Jonathan Schwenzer, M.A. (he/him)
Institute for Media and Communication Studies
B6, 30–32 – Room 443
68159 Mannheim
appointment via E-mail
Christos Sidiropoulos, M.Ed.
University Library
Schloss Schneckenhof West – Room SN 281
68161 Mannheim