DART Course Offers Custom, “Grounded in Real Life” Experience with Online Self-Paced Program

In Spring 2020, Peace Ossom Williamson, Laura Haygood, and Hammad Khan, along with Drs. Tiffany Kindratt, Kyrah Brown, and Erin Carlson were gearing up for an in-person gathering of data literacy professionals called the Data Analytics Research Training (DART) Fellowship at the University of Texas at Arlington Libraries.

When their plans were disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the team didn’t panic—they planned, they adjusted, and earlier this month, launched the DART Fellowship as an online, self-paced program on the UTA Libraries website, now called the DART Course

“[We switched] to a teaching modality that would allow for participants to work toward developing data literacy, while still keeping in mind the fact that learning these skills is really personal and can vary in difficulty from one person to another,” said Ossom Williamson, Director of Research Data Services at UTA Libraries. “Since we could not do the in-person guided progression, we decided that making it self-paced would allow people to take the time they need to consume the curriculum, apply it in their lives, and even return to it as needed.”

The team decided to migrate the existing DART content into a Canvas template, then created new content to meet the overall learning objectives of the DART Course. This included videos, quizzes, and practice exercises. Once the course was ready, the team completed a trial run with volunteer participants who worked through the entire online course and provided feedback before it was made available to the public.

“Working with Peace and Hammad was great,” said Dr. Tiffany Kindratt, assistant professor in UTA’s Kinesiology department. “They were very flexible to the needs and wants of the program participants, mentors, and instructors and led the program in a very professional manner. I hope to continue working with them on this and other projects in the future.”

Khan, UTA Libraries’ Data Management Librarian, argues the program is accessible to anyone interested in data literacy.

“I think that this is a unique and content specific course that public health information professionals can relate to, but at the same time it can be used by other disciplines and professionals looking to learn how to manage data throughout the research data lifecycle,” he said. “While the context of the lessons is aimed at health information professionals, it is a course that anyone can take to learn about research data and improve their own data literacy.”

The team plans to publish an article about the process and initial findings, as well as long-term results assessing applicability upon completion. They also expect to update the course annually. To date, 101 participants have enrolled in the course.

Ossom Williamson hopes that the course provides real-world application of the essential data literacy skills.

“Rather than learning random skills in a vacuum, these skills are hopefully taught in a way that provides concrete examples of why or when you would use them and a clear path for integrating them into one’s work,” she said. “We want our learners to take away tangible skills from the DART Course.”

Learn more and register for the online, self-paced DART Course on the UTA Libraries website.