A Look Into Data: Data Literacy Program

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A program by the Center for Continuing Education at Birzeit University

We’ve entered the golden era of data, which brings rise to the start of journeys into a data-informed future. Nowadays nearly every organization and business are dealing with a vast amount of data. However, collecting data isn’t the same as understanding it. Unfortunately, most of us are not well data literate. For that reason, the CCE has decided to deliver a data literacy program that is designed to empower everyone with the ability to understand, analyze, and use the data with confidence. Moreover, to make data-driven decisions. 

The CCE has developed a data literacy program that empowers trainees to understand and engage with the data existing everywhere around them. Also, the program sets to allow trainees to gain valuable insights, make smarter decisions, innovate/adapt certain services, products, and tools. The prime aim of the program is to establish a means by which all organizations are data-driven and their employees are literate in understanding and managing data.

Data Literacy Program Goals

The Data Literacy Program in the CCE is designed to empower everyone with the ability to understand, analyze, and use the data with confidence in order to make data-driven decisions. Moreover, the program formulates a means for the use of ethical data management and the proper utilization of data.

The General Road Map

The overall training will consist of :

  • Exploring and interpreting Data values and trends
  • Understanding the accessibility of potential data sources and learning to locate such sources
  • Analyzing and developing a means to comprehend data.
  • Learning to communicate data through the use of visualizations and storytelling
  • Applying the use of data into decision making within the different sectoral atmosphere 

Case Examples

 

Step By Step

 

 

 

Step By Step is a company dedicated to providing university students with a means to better their education. They help students who find difficulty understanding a certain topic by allowing the students to enroll in selected subject courses. However, during the pandemic, Step By Step’s demand decreased sharply and they weren’t sure how to manage their data. During the Data Literacy program, the company’s team was able to learn how to properly collect, store, and interpret data. They used the analysis of the data to identify key months in which demand was lowest, and based on that, implemented strategies to better market the courses during these months. 

Instru-Med: Medical and Scientific Supplies

Instru-med is a company focused on selling top-quality medical and scientific supplies to healthcare facilities in Palestine and elsewhere. The company first launched at the end of 2015 and continues to provide health care supplies to facilities. Throughout the Data Literacy program, data on sales were placed on visual graphs and presented to the company members. They identified their annual sales, the most demanded products, and customer distributions. Moreover, they were able to identify trends in sales throughout the year. The company owner plans to take what he has learned to further work on gathering and analyzing data regarding overall money collection, revenue, and equipment cost to potentially implement new strategies towards sales. 

DoctCore

In Palestine, there is an issue when it comes to the health informatics system and data accessibility for clinics, labs, and radiology centers. Doct-Core is an application that can be incorporated into health care facilities to provide a means in connecting the different sources of health information. During the Data Literacy program, the startup worked on interpreting and visualizing the data taken from surveys regarding the demand of such an application. Moreover, they looked into how they can better the application to match the needs of the healthcare facilities. They found that roughly 85% of the facilities interviewed, use electronic health records, while the rest do handwritten documentation. They also found that the majority of the facilities use different electronic health systems, which could lead to difficulty in sharing information through a platform.  Throughout the program, this startup was able to better understand the demand for its application. Additionally, they will incorporate the results found in the future strategic planning of the startup, allowing them to make data-driven decisions.