Teaching a one-credit course on data literacy and data visualisation

Abstract

Data literacy skills are becoming critical in today’s world as the quantity of data grows exponentially and becomes the ‘currency’ of power. In spring 2020, a team of two librarians piloted a new one-credit course in data literacy and data visualisation. This report explains the rationale behind the project and discusses the place of data literacy within information literacy (IL) instruction. The authors describe the pilot’s learning objectives, topics covered, course design, the structure of assignments and the delivery of the course. They analyse the feedback received on the course and suggest ways to refine their practice. The article calls for a re-envisaging of the library’s role in data literacy instruction. It aims to address how librarians can extend their current practice of teaching IL to data literacy and why it is important. The authors’ experience may inspire other academic librarians to incorporate data literacy and data visualisation into their teaching practice.