Elon University, a private university based in the liberal arts in North Carolina, recently announced that it’s promising that 90% of its students will reach a foundational level of “data competency” by the time they graduate. Based on a core component of its 2020 strategic plan, the Data Nexus initiative plans to open up students to the careers of tomorrow through curriculum and co-curriculum opportunities.
As the nature of work changes, more industries demand that new employees be data literate. Aside from the obvious jobs like computer and information science, professionals in other sectors are being told to adapt as well: marketing, sales, product management, human resources, healthcare and consulting.
Crista Arangala, professor of mathematics and director of Elon’s Data Nexus initiative, segments students’ proficiency in data science into two stages: their foundational and statistical understanding and their advanced data competencies. Once students pass the curriculum associated with these two levels, they can show off their proficiency through a set of digital badges.
As important as it may be to learn Python or the SAS software, there is a greater overall competency that Arangla wants Elon students to take away: bringing context to what they’re examining.
“At the foundational level, we are really emphasizing the broader skill set of analyzing, interpreting and communicating data,” she says. “They might be interested in sports, media or a variety of disciplines where they can bring the context to the data, and that brings a level of passion.”
As the nature of software packages continues to transform and evolve, Elon is trying to stay abreast of these changes by nailing down the core components of what learning with data ultimately serves. Chief among those core components is cultivating the ethical use of data among its graduates by teaching them to ask who created the data, for what purpose, how it’s managed and how it can be transformed.
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