Learning and Teaching with the UK Census Developing the Collection of Historical and Contemporary Census Data and Materials into a Major Learning and Teaching Resource

Presenters Dr Jackie Carter CHCC Project Manager, University of Manchester Cressida Chappell Head of The History Data Service, University of Essex

Outline of the presentation 1. Overview  Project partners  Funders  The CHCC  Objectives and outputs 2. Learning and Teaching Materials 3. Census Resource Discovery System

Partners l MIMAS and Census Dissemination Unit (CDU), University of Manchester l Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey Research (CCSR), University of Manchester l School of Geography, University of Leeds l LTSN Subject Centre for History, Archaeology and Classical Studies, University of Glasgow l History Data Service, UK Data Archive, University of Essex l UK Data Archive, University of Essex

Funders  Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)  Strategic advisory committee works on behalf of funding bodies for UK Higher and Further Education (HE & FE)  Learning and Teaching Programme  Aims to develop high quality resources that can be easily integrated into the JISC Information Environment

Collection of Historical and Contemporary Census Data (CHCC) l 19 th and early 20 th Century Historical Censuses Collection l 1991 & 1981 Census Area Statistics l 1991 Samples of Anonymised Records l All datasets are in digital format and are freely available to the UK HE and FE academic community

CHCC – Historical Censuses Collection l Historical Censuses Collection l individual-level data from the 1851 Census (2% sample) and 1881 Census (100% sample) l aggregate-level data from printed 19 th and early 20 th century census reports l Located at and serviced through the History Data Service (HDS) at Essex

CHCC – Census Area Statistics l 1991 and 1981 Census Area Statistics l Located at and serviced through the Census Dissemination Unit at MIMAS, Manchester

CHCC – Samples of Anonymised Records l 1991 Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs) Abstracts of individual census returns l 2% sample of individuals’ census records (1.1 million individuals) l 1% sample of households (216 thousand households) l Located at and serviced through the Centre for Census and Surveys Research (CCSR) at Manchester

Rationale for the CHCC project l Considerable scope for widening use of CHCC for learning and teaching l Census data has great value across many disciplines l Importance of resource discovery and student-centred learning l The aim of the project is to develop the CHCC into a major learning and teaching resource

Objectives l To promote effective student use of network services across learning and teaching. l To increase the CHCC user base in learning and teaching and to build new user communities. l To improve access to primary data sources by linking together data extraction, visualisation and exploration tools with learning and teaching. l To reduce the work needed by tutors to use CHCC data in learning and teaching (“pick and mix”). l To speed the use of 2001 Census outputs.

Outputs l Customisable learning and teaching resources for tutors and students: e.g. tutorials, exercises, exemplar based case studies. Web-based or downloadable. l A census resource discovery system with cross- searchable metadata to facilitate resource discovery across the CHCC and related learning and teaching materials. l Improved web-based data extraction and data exploration/visualisation interfaces to the CHCC suitable for student use. l Enhancement of the CHCC through linking to primary and secondary texts, images and area classifications.

Learning and Teaching Materials l Data type specific materials l Combined inter-disciplinary materials l Teaching materials for use in the classroom l Exploratory on-line materials for student use and self-directed learning

Learning and Teaching Materials – CAS example A “quick” introduction to the Census l Teaching materials for use in the classroom l Powerpoint slides l Guidance notes for teachers (PDF format) l Unit text l Exploratory on-line materials for student use and self-directed learning l Tutorial l Multiple choice questionnaire

Consultation Extensive and ongoing consultation on: l content, format and delivery of learning and teaching materials Method: l workshops (five to date) l partnerships and piloting l

Improved interfaces suitable for student use Developments include: l web-mapping of the CAS using interactive mapping software Descartes example l Use of Nesstar for SARs (next paper) l Development of improved integrated access to the HCC (final paper)

Census Resource Discovery System  Providing flexible, consistent, integrated interface to the learning and teaching materials and the CHCC  Mechanism for effective resource discovery across the learning and teaching materials and the CHCC

System Goals  Allow students, teachers and researchers to discover and locate census data and associated learning and teaching resources  Provide links to on-line census data and associated learning and teaching resources  Provide a means for census data providers to publicise and propagate the use of their census data holdings and associated learning and teaching resources

System Functionality - Querying  The system will provide a web interface to ‘search’ and ‘discover’ census data and associated learning and teaching resources  Query definition will be through the entry of any combination of  a subject keyword  a geographic area (England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland)  a time period (date or span of dates)  a resource type (aggregate-level data, individual-level data, or learning and teaching resource)

System Functionality - Browsing and Viewing  The system will also allow users to browse hierarchical lists of census data and associated learning and teaching resources ordered by subject, geography, time period and resource type  The system will return a list of items matching the browse or search criteria and allow users to select and view the full record for one or more items simultaneously

System Functionality - User Profiling and Adding Records  The system will allow CRS authenticated users to maintain a user profile to store query definitions for future use  The system will also include tools for project partners to add, modify and delete metadata records

Standards  DDI Codebook to describe census data sets  IMS Learning Resource Metadata Specification to describe learning and teaching materials  European Language Social Science Thesaurus for subject keywords

Technologies  SQLServer database to hold metadata  Java technologies for the web interfaces  Cheshire Z39.50 target to ensure integration with the JISC Information Environment  Athens Single Sign On

Possible Future Development  Providing a single access point for the UK academic community to all census data sets  Including other census data sets  Digitised Boundary Data  Census Interaction Data  Including contextual information about the census and census data sets