Use of Technology event - Abstracts
Tapping a Gold Mine of Real Survey Data: resources for students and teachers in the Social Sciences - Dr. Mark Brown, Cathie March Centre, University of Manchester
A perceived dearth of quantitative skills among Social Science graduates presents a clear challenge for the teaching of quantitative methods. Arguably one of the keys to making the subject more relevant and more engaging to students is the use of 'real data'. The good news is that the UK is uniquely rich in social data sets that are free to the HE user. This talk will highlight the growing opportunities to make better use of these datasets in teaching and learning by showcasing the resources developed by the Economic and Social Data Services (ESDS). As well as informing about the range of resources available the presentation will draw directly on experience of their use in undergraduate methods courses and as a resource for student dissertations.
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The Use of Administrative Datasets in the Teaching of Statistics - Dr. Chris Dibben Administrative Data Liaison Service (ADLS) and Department of Geography, University of St. Andrews
Using Online Resources for Teaching Quantitative Methods - Professor John MacInnes, Head of Sociology, University of Edinburgh
Teaching Quantitative Methods, especially to beginners who may have neither confidence in their abilities, or faith in the worth of what they are learning, is often seen as an uphill struggle. However, as well as making data easier to access and analyse, the web is an important source of teaching resources of various kinds that is well worth exploring, and can engage students by providing a much wider range of material than individual teachers could realistically produce themselves. This talk will highlight examples of good practice in using online resources to teach quantitative methods.
Workshop 1 - A Guide to Using ESDS Resources (Dr. Mark Brown)
This practical session will give participants the opportunity to view and interact with some of the different resources available through ESDS. A key aim is to highlight the wide range of data and related teaching materials available and the flexibility to customise these to the particular needs and experience of the user. Participants will be provided with a choice of hands on exercises designed as tasters of different types of resource and learning activities, from data exploration to tutorials in data analysis. The latter will include exercises that can be carried out over a normal browser, as well as some designed for those teaching using a data analysis package like SPSS.
Workshop 2 - A Guide to Developing Teaching Resources (Professor John MacInnes)
This workshop session will focus on some of the practical issues involved in developing and using online teaching resources for quantitative methods. As an example, John will draw on the Core Quantitative Data Analysis course developed within the School of Social and Political Studies at the University of Edinburgh. Students will be taken through some of the principal issues that arise in the design, delivery and use of online teaching resources.
