Richard Wiseman & Celia Russell ESDS International, Mimas IASSIST 2009 Mind the Gap: Global Data Sharing

Mind the gap(s) Gap one: many people still unaware of the wealth of international data now available How can we make people more aware of existing international data sources? Gap two: international data is well used by research students, but less so in teaching How can we encourage entry level learners to use more international data?

Closing the gaps Gap one: by identifying and removing the barriers to access international data (ESDS International) Gap two: by the development of easy to access, online teaching materials based around an international data theme.

Structure of Presentation Minding the gap Barriers to international data use Jumping the barriers and the role of ESDS International Learning and teaching –Countries and Citizens –The new UN Millennium Development Goal e-learning materials Conclusions

International data Macro, country-level time series data typically produced by intergovermental agencies such as the UN World Bank and IMF such as the World Development Indicators Micro international surveys, typically produced by academic sector such as Eurobarometer

ESDS International part of the UK Economic and Social data service provides free web-based access to key international macro level databanks helps users locate and acquire international micro level datasets promotes the use of international datasets in research and teaching across a range of disciplines is run by Mimas at the University of Manchester and the UK Data Archive at the University of Essex

Macro International Data Providers International Monetary Fund (IMF) Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) United Nations (UN) World Bank Eurostat International Labour Organisation (ILO) UK Office for National Statistics International Energy Agency Balance of Payment Statistics Direction of Trade Statistics Government Finance Statistics International Financial Statistics World Economic Outlook Global Development Finance World Development Indicators Africa Development Indicators ESDS International provides free online access to the full versions of the latest releases of a total of 35 major international databases to the UK academic community.

Gap one: barriers to use of international data Prohibitive data license costs Lack of awareness of available data Different service providers Multiple registration systems Size and complexity of datasets Lack of integrated user support service Lack of appropriate data handling skills

Jumping the barriers National licensing agreements allow data to be free at the point of use Dataset guides provide consistent and comprehensive documentation

Plus a dedicated help desk

Dataset Guide

Jumping the barriers National licensing agreements allow data to be free at the point of use Dataset guides provide consistent and comprehensive documentation Awareness raising Programme of training and courses Single web interface to all the databanks Freely available data guide creates single portal to many more resources E-learning materials

usage

Gap two– learning and teaching Programme of face-to-face training courses and workshops over the period 2003 to present e-Learning materials based on international data

Countries and Citizens An e-learning web based learning resource ESDS International launched last year Intermediate level resource on combining different types of data Well used teaching and learning resource Used by over 34,000 unique IPs (our best measure of number of individual users) 54,854 individual page views (once all the web crawlers etc had been removed) Introductory modules most popular Unit 1 - Linking International Macro and Micro Data the basics Unit 2 - Making cross-national comparisons using macro data Unit 3 - Making cross-national comparisons using micro data Unit 4 - Combining macro and micro data Unit 5 - Multilevel modelling using macro and micro data

Our new resource Our new learning resource is based on the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) Focused on cross-national data location, access and simple data analysis Aimed at entry level learners Based as far as possible on freely available data

About the Millennium Development Goals The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight specific goals to be met by 2015 that aim to combat extreme poverty across the world. These goals were created at the UN Millennium Summit in New York in Not new ideas – agreement on quantifiable indicators The current official list of MDGs includes 8 Goals, 21 Targets and 60 Indicators

The MDGs as a data resource The goals themselves have formed the global policy framework for international development Progress towards each goal is measured by a series of quantifiable indicators These cross national, time series indicators are freely and widely available, frequently cited and well documented

The Eight MDG Goals End Poverty and Hunger Universal primary Education Gender Equality Reduce child mortality Maternal Health Combat HIV/AIDS Environmental Sustainability Global Partnership for development

Example of a Millennium Development Goal Goal 5: Improve maternal health Target: Between 1990 and 2015, reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three quarters Indicators: –Maternal mortality ratio –Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel –Contraceptive prevalence rate –Adolescent birth rate –Antenatal care coverage (at least one visit and at least four visits) –Unmet need for family planning

Why use the MDGS in learning and teaching? To promote data handling in a real world context To allow the creation of e-learning materials based on freely available data To encourage learners to explore the web for other international data resources

The audience Are undergraduate social science students in economics, international development …. May or may not be familiar with time series data have basic computer literacy Are accustomed to some form of online learning may have been given the learning materials for use in their course are geographically dispersed and accessing the materials within a classroom or library within a VLE, or at home via the internet

Resource Contents Guide to ESDS International Types of international data Guide to the MDGs Step by step activities –searching –accessing –citing. –visualising –locating metadata All activities are available as animated e- Tutorials Links and resources - contains links to relevant UN MDG related interfaces.

Instructional tutorials GIS interfaces user-guides worked exercises Annotated e-tutorials based on Camtasia Studio 5 Variety of teaching strategies

UN MGDs e-learning materials demo