Data in a complex world
Qualitative evidence, targets, public data and ethics.
Around four hours on data in a complex world: qualitative evidence, evaluation in complexity, dashboards and targets, public data in Wales and the UK, data ethics and lessons from Challenger to Horizon.
- Level
- Focus
- Learning time
- 4 hours
- Where
- Understanding Data and Data Analysis
- Price
- £69
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Read the full terms
Certificate of Completion, or Certificate of Completion and Assessment with a short assessment
Overview and Outcomes.
Who It's For
Leaders, analysts, evaluators and board members in councils, the NHS, housing, police, fire and charities in Wales and England.
Overview
This Focus brings together the evidence leaders need when numbers alone cannot settle a question. It opens with qualitative and narrative evidence, using Lincoln and Guba, Most Significant Change and triangulation, and with evaluation in complexity through realist evaluation, contribution analysis and Human Learning Systems. It then covers dashboards built for decisions, Results-Based Accountability and honest charts, and public data from the ONS to StatsWales and the Wellbeing of Wales report. It closes with data culture and the Data and AI Ethics Framework, and with the Challenger, Horizon, Mid Staffordshire and Covid-19 R number cases.
Aims
This Focus aims to develop leaders who weigh stories and numbers together, make honest claims about impact and test dashboards for purpose and gaming. It builds the confidence to trust public figures as far as their method earns, treat fairness as a continuing choice and strengthen the habits of a data-wise leader.
In summary, you will be able to:
- Judge narrative and qualitative evidence with the same rigour as numbers.
- Challenge impact claims and dashboards that promise more than the evidence supports.
- Strengthen a data culture where fairness and accountability stay with people.
What you'll develop
Through this Focus course, you will build the ability to:
- Distinguish a story gathered with rigour, which counts as evidence, from an anecdote stumbled on, which is a prompt to look further.
- Distinguish attribution from contribution claims, and build a credible contribution story using Mayne's six steps.
- Use five board questions to test any dashboard for purpose, signal and noise, gaps, gaming and action.
- Apply the checks of source, method and border, together with careful benchmarking, before comparing figures across Wales and England.
- Apply the principles of the Data and AI Ethics Framework, treating fairness as a continuing choice rather than a box ticked once.
- Treat ratios and estimates as questions rather than answers, presenting their method, range and age honestly.
Built from 3 parts.
4 hours of learning.
- 01Stories as evidenceQualitative evidence and evaluation in complexityBitesize2 modules
- 02Targets and public dataMeasures, dashboards and public data in Wales and the UKBitesize2 modules
- 03Fair dataData ethics and algorithmic fairness, with case studiesBitesize2 modules
Keep going.
Part of the Understanding Data and Data Analysis topic, also sold whole as Beyond the dashboard.
Go deeper, and pay only the difference
- You are hereFocus, 4 hours, £69
- Next stepExplore, Data for complex decisions, 5 hours 30 minutes, £129. Already own the Focus? You pay £60.
- The whole topicImmerse, Beyond the dashboard, 11 hours, £249. Already own the Focus? You pay £180.
When you step up to a higher level, what you paid in the last 12 months for lower-level courses inside the bigger course comes off its price, in proportion to how much of each is inside it, whichever topic it's from. Courses at the same or a lower level don't give credit against each other. A Focus course or above always costs at least £15. Prices per person. Read the full terms
Also part of: Leading with data and digital