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Method follows the question
Avanti Academy / Complexity, decisions and innovation / Understanding Data and Data Analysis / Bitesize
Bitesize

Method follows the question

Data collection methods, types and quality.

Level
Bitesize
Learning time
2 hours
Where
Understanding Data and Data Analysis
Price
£39

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

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Certificate of Completion

About this course

Overview and Outcomes.

Overview

Data is never raw: every figure you are handed has been shaped by human choices about what to ask, collect, classify and read. Drawing on Lisa Gitelman's argument that raw data is an oxymoron and Cheryl Strauss Einhorn's three data types and their biases, this module follows the six-step data journey, three lenses for reading data and five questions to ask of any number before you act on it. Too often an organisation reaches for a survey before anyone has agreed what decision the data should inform. This module sets out six steps from decision to method, Joseph McGrath's three-horned dilemma of reach, objectivity and detail, and two Welsh cases: keeping a census in 2031 and two official sources that disagree on Welsh speakers. It closes with five tests for good collection, including John Creswell's mixed methods. A number is only as good as the way it was made, and most quality is decided long before a figure reaches a board paper. This module applies William Edwards Deming's standard for usable data, sets out the major types of data and the sums each allows, and uses the Labour Force Survey case to show how falling response erodes trust. It also explains the Code of Practice for Statistics and its two labels.

What you'll develop

In this Bitesize, you will develop the ability to:

  1. Explain how human choices at each of the six steps of the data journey, from first question to final decision, shape the figures you are given.
  2. Apply the technical, interpretive, and ethical and political lenses to a figure, and recognise salience, framing and clustering biases in how you read it.
  3. Use the five questions for any number to judge how much weight a figure can bear before you act on it.
  4. Plan data collection by working through the six steps from decision to method, starting with the decision the data must inform.
  5. Explain McGrath's three-horned dilemma and compare common collection methods on reach, objectivity and detail.
  6. Assess a proposed collection against the five tests of validity, reliability, proportion, ethics and mixed methods.
  7. Apply Deming's four tests of accurate, valid, precise and reliable to a figure you use, and identify where it is weakest.
  8. Distinguish the major types of data, including nominal, ordinal, interval and ratio, and judge which calculations each can honestly support.
What it covers

The Modules.

2 hours of learning.

  1. 01Foundations: Why Data Is Never Just the NumbersData is never raw: every figure you are handed has been shaped by human choices about what to ask, collect, classify and read. Drawing on Lisa Gitelman's argument that raw data is an oxymoron and Cheryl Strauss Einhorn's three data types and their biases, this module follows the six-step data journey, three lenses for reading data and five questions to ask of any number before you act on it.38 min
  2. 02Collecting Data: Method Follows the QuestionToo often an organisation reaches for a survey before anyone has agreed what decision the data should inform. This module sets out six steps from decision to method, Joseph McGrath's three-horned dilemma of reach, objectivity and detail, and two Welsh cases: keeping a census in 2031 and two official sources that disagree on Welsh speakers. It closes with five tests for good collection, including John Creswell's mixed methods.38 min
  3. 03Types, Sources and Quality of DataA number is only as good as the way it was made, and most quality is decided long before a figure reaches a board paper. This module applies William Edwards Deming's standard for usable data, sets out the major types of data and the sums each allows, and uses the Labour Force Survey case to show how falling response erodes trust. It also explains the Code of Practice for Statistics and its two labels.38 min
Where it fits

Keep going.

Part of the Understanding Data and Data Analysis topic, also sold whole as Beyond the dashboard.

How credit works

Go deeper, and pay only the difference

  1. You are hereBitesize, 2 hours, £39
  2. Next stepFocus, Collecting and reading data, 3 hours, £69. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £30.
  3. Explore, Data and judgement, 6 hours, £129. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £90.
  4. The whole topicImmerse, Beyond the dashboard, 11 hours, £249. Already own the Bitesize? You pay £210.

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, From data to decisions

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