Inhalte:
Data are everywhere — Even in our daily life, we make dozens of decisions based on data. We pay attention to the information on the weather forecast, public poll, sales discount, climate change, biodiversity crisis, etc. Data are a fundamental source of decision-making.
What we typically see as data are final products that tell us a story. Before reaching to us, data take several steps: data are collected, processed, analyzed, visualized, interpreted, and then opinionated. If these steps are successful, data become valuable sources of information for decision making. However, imagine, what if the data are inappropriately collected, processed, analyzed, visualized, interpreted, and communicated? The final products can be misleading. Data can tell a lie so easily, show a wrong picture different from the truth, and lead to a wrong decision. We want to avoid that.
Your goal is to acquire essential soft skills for good communication with data. You will understand how carefully data should be treated and what you should avoid when dealing with data. In other words, you will develop the ability of critical thinking for data-informed decision making. Developing the ability to think about data critically is an essential skill you will need, whatever you do in the future (e.g., scientist, ecologist, consultant, practitioner, salesman, policymaker, decision-maker). In this course, you are not expected to be fluent in programming language, which is ‘hard’ skill.

Qualifikationsziele:
Your goal is to acquire essential ‘soft’ skills for good communication with data. Soft skills refer to how to visualize data, interpret data summary, and make a good story based on data to convince audiences. These skills are necessary for scientific research but also your daily life. close