Contributed by Shannon Sheridan

If you don’t work with data every day, you might be hesitant about using or incorporating open data as an Open Educational Resources (OER). You might not even be totally sure what open data really is. So in this post, I want to get up on my small soapbox and tell you, “You can do it! And it doesn’t have to mean becoming a data analytics expert!”

I’ll start off by giving a brief primer on what open data is. The Open Data Handbook has a really comprehensive overview of the different sides of open data, relying on the Open Definition: “Open data and content can be freely used, modified, and shared by anyone for any purpose.” Within that broad definition, there are two specific dimensions to consider. The data needs to be legally open—so either in the public domain or under very liberal terms of use with minimal restrictions. There are a variety of open data licenses that data producers can apply to their data, specifying the conditions under which their data can be used. The data also needs to be technically open (so, in non-proprietary formats and machine readable) so that anyone can access and actually use the data. After all, what’s the point of data being available under a CC-BY license if it’s actually behind a firewall or only readable with software you have to pay for?

One of the easiest mistakes to make when thinking about open data is assuming that the term is interchangeable with “publicly available data”. Public data is, in general, freely available on the web. But it’s accessibility is limited, as it’s frequently unstructured, difficult to wrangle, and can have vague or non-existent re-use permissions. So while all open data is publicly available, not all publicly available data is open. A great example of open data is demographical data you can download from the US Census Bureau. Most of their datasets are released with re-usability baked in. They can be downloaded easily, for free, in non-proprietary formats such as CSVs. But let’s say you’re interested in a dataset that can only be accessed by filing a FOIA request. Eventually, you’ll probably receive that data. After all, it’s public data. But it’s limited accessibility means that it is not “open data”, under the accepted definition.

So, why should open data be an important component for an OER? The biggest pro I can think of is increasing data literacy in students. There are two big flavors of data literacy. The first is the ability to wrestle with data, using tools to procure it, analyze it, and evaluate it. The second can be understood from a more consumer perspective: When people encounter numbers, visualizations, and statistics, can they make good decisions about them? Data literacy is a necessary skill set in the 21^st century, both for civic and employment reasons. It’s an incredibly transferable skill, and even “digital natives” will have gaps that formal education should fill. Bettering data literacy skills helps students get from data to knowledge—they practice critical thinking skills by gaining knowledge from abstraction, and applying the results. The best way to gain these skills is practice, and including data in any assignment gives students more opportunity to use skills.

That means we should be including exposure to data in assignments, and within an OER, open data fits quite nicely. There isn’t a right or wrong way to use open data as OER. Depending on the learning objectives of a course or assignment, an open data set can be an OER in it’s own right or function as a component of an OER.

Let’s start small, and think about some steps to bringing open data into your classroom. The first step will often be finding exactly what kind of data is applicable to your class. Will working with the data be a standalone assignment? Or will it be a component of something bigger? Using open data as the basis of an assignment can look like this—students go out and find an open data source (or two or three) and then perform some sort of analysis/comparison on it. This encourages them to apply skills such as finding and evaluating resources, statistics, critical thinking, and can even branch out to include programming or data visualization skills. For smaller opportunities to include open data, a dataset could serve as a companion to other resources—a dataset that underlies a visualization, or one that illustrates certain themes in a course, like childhood poverty or the journalistic freedom of different countries. An instructor might require empirical evidence to support claims in an essay, have students find open data sets that exemplify course content, ask students to create a visualization based on an instructor-provided dataset, or some similar task. And of course, the ways to use open data are really only limited by your imagination  

Finding open data follows a similar process to locating other pieces of information. First, consider the characteristics of data needed. What’s the unit of analysis? Are you bound by geography, time period, or frequency? Then, brainstorm likely sources of data. Think about who would be likely to collect data on this topic. Often, the answers are government agencies, organizations such as NGO or non-profits, international organizations, or researchers. Then, start searching. Data are often collected in repositories or reported in compendia and reports, which can be used as starting points. Often, a simple internet search can get you on the right track. And if you can’t find anything? It might not be you—the data might not exist or be openly available. You may have to modify your search parameters and expectations. A lack of open data related to a certain topic can even stand as a lesson in and of itself.

Hopefully this gives you a very brief and introductory look at the possibilities of using open data as an OER. There’s plenty of other resources available out there. One resource that I really like for instructors thinking about including open data for the first time is Open Data as Open Educational Resources: Case studies of emerging practice, which is a collection of case studies that demonstrate the great potential of open data being used as OERs. Open data can serve as a base for large assignments or as another tool to accompany OER (and traditional) course materials. Use open data in a way that works for you and your students. Any exposure will help them develop their skills, and maybe even yours too!

Resources:

• Open Data Handbook 
• Open Definition
• US Census Bureau
• Open Data as Open Educational Resources: Case studies of emerging practice,

References:

Atenas, J., & Havemann, L. (Eds.). (2015). Open Data as Open Educational Resources: Case studies of emerging practice. London: Open Knowledge, Open Education Working Group. http://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1590031.

Shannon Sheridan was the Data Management Librarian at the University of Wyoming from 2019-2021. Shannon provided leadership and management for the University of Wyoming data repository. She also consulted with UW faculty and students on research data management, cultivated relationships with other departments on campus working with data, and educated the UW community on a variety of data management skills.

This post is by Shannon Sheridan and is released under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license, except where otherwise indicated. Please reference OER and Beyond and use this URL when attributing this work; for more information on licensing, see our Open Access Policy.