Teach Data, Teach Better: 30 October 2025 CONTACT Dr. Susanne de Vogel Data Scientist @ DSC UB
[email protected] Franziska Richter Advisor @ Teaching and Learning UB
[email protected] Enhancing University Teaching with Research Data
2 DATA… … are omnipresent (→Datafication) … form the basis for gaining knowledge … enable better decisions Mai 2017 July 2021 2 Why are data skills so important? Data… Data hold enormous potential for science, economy, and society, but challenges with data management exist!
2025 175 ZB 2021 64 ZB Modified from: The digitization of the world from edge to core –IDC whitepaper; Rydning et al., 2017 1 ZB = 1,000,000,000,000 GB 3 Science as all other sectors needs good ways to save and manage its data! Why are data skills so important?
From Reuters Why are data skills so important? From Phenomena for NGSS From BBC BITESIZE From Encyclopedia of the Environment To gain wisdom, we have to be able to connect data in a meaningful way.
5 Data literacy is the ability to collect, manage, evaluate and apply data in a critical and responsible manner (Schüller, 2023). This includes skills in •Research Data Management •Data Science (incl. the use of artificial intelligence techniques) •Critical Thinking •Ethical, Legal, and Social Aspects (ELSA) Data Life Cycle Planning Acquisition Analysis Archiving Access Reuse What is data literacy? Why are data skills so important?
6 Why are data skills so important? Using real research data in teaching can help students develop data literacy skills and better understand academic research processes.
Images created with ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025) Sources of Research Data for Teaching 7 Where can your teaching data come from? Data from students Data from lecturers/researchers Data from external sources Data collected by students themselves as part of coursework, methods training or theses. →Small-scale surveys or polls →Interviews or focus groups →Field observations →Experiments →(Sensoror app-based) data collection →Code, software or prototypes Data that has been collected in the lecturer’s own academic research. →Ongoing or completed research →Research projects →Publications Data obtained from research repositories, public archives, or open data portals. →Research data repositories: PANGAEA, Qualiservice, Zenodo →Statistical offices and regional data: Destatis, Metaver →Other: Journals, Github, OSM, Kaggle, Huggingface
Applications of Teaching with Research Data 8 What can you teach with your research data? Data from students Data from lecturers/researchers Data from external sources Learning by doing •Study design •Data collection •Data cleaning •Data analysis •Writing reports and present findings •Organizing and managing research data •Reflecting on ethics •Data publication and open science Teaching through own research Learning with open data •find and access existing datasets •assess data quality and licensing •secondary analysis •integrate multiple data sources •visualize and communicate results •connect data to societal questions •Linking theory and empirical research •Structure and documentation of real research data •Replication of published analyses (reproducibility) •Analysis techniques •Data visualization and storytelling •Critical discussion of study design and limitations Images created with ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025)
Benefits of learning with data 9 What’s the gain? •Learn to think critically •Understand research processes and gain hands-on experience with real-world data •Develop necessary skills for their bachelor-/master theses •Experience a more engaging and interactive form of learning than traditional lectures •Build transferable skills for academia and the job market •Link teaching and research in a meaningful way •Motivated students •Showcase own research and increase visibility •Benefit from synergies when integrating students into ongoing research (delegate selected tasks, gain new perspectives) •Promotes public understanding of evidence-based reasoning •Strengthens trust in science and institutions •Supports open science and transparency •Contributes to sustainable use of research resources Images created with ChatGPT (OpenAI, 2025)
