Instructor Guide
This guide is designed to aid instructors in the facilitation and learners in the participation of the Civic Data Education Series.
Audience
The Civic Data Education Series was designed for the primary target audiences in mind:
Instructors in LIS graduate program as facilitators of materials: We intend for instructors to be able to integrate civic data literacy into their LIS coursework and to deliver these learning materials in the classroom.
MLIS students as learners: We intend to engage the learner group of Masters of Library and Information Science students (MLIS) who may have limited prior knowledge about open civic data but are interested in exploring civic data roles. The modules can be done sychronously in the classroom or asychronously.
A secondary learner community are library workers, who may be interested in serving as civic data intermediaries and who want to know how to connect with their communities through civic data roles.
That being said, we think that anyone interested in learning more about civic data and the roles of information professionals in the civic data ecosystem will find value in these materials.
Segments
There are five segments in the Civic Data Education Series:
Segment 1 Introducing Civic Data: The first segment serves as an introduction to civic data, its lifecycle and principles, and how to analyze it critically.
Segment 2 Understanding Civic Data Ecosystems: This segment provides an overview of how libraries can understand, approach, and work with the people and organizations that are connected to civic data, with a focus on ecosystem mapping, partnership building, and community needs assessment.
Segment 3 Preparing Libraries for Sharing their Data: This segment centers on how libraries can share their data through a process that considers equity, privacy, open data standards, metadata, and documentation.
Segment 4 Community Engagement through Civic Data: This segment focuses on how libraries can approach engaging communities with civic data, using data visualization, narrative strategies, and outreach and programming.
Segment 5 Using Civic Data: This segment focuses on how to use civic data, using Python and data visualization to tell stories from Open Civic Data.
Module Structure
This collection is modular in nature. The content is scaffolded in three separate segments through which users are meant to progress as they learn key concepts and practices associated with civic data. Each segment is composed of a set of modules that can be experienced successively or independently and according to the learner’s own pace, depending on their interests, needs, and level of knowledge.
Each module contains four main sections:
Introduction - This section orients the learner to the topic and goals of the module. Guiding questions call attention to the direction of the content and an introductory vignette helps to situate the learner in the topic.
Instructional Materials - This section includes the “meat” of each module. Here you will find an embedded module-specific video recording along with a preview of the script and slides used to create the video. You can download the script and slide deck files, as Word/PowerPoint files and PDF files.
Activity - Each module includes an activity that supports the goals of the instructional materials through learner participation. In this section, we provide directions for the activity in Gitbook, as well as downloadable activity files. Some modules have more extensive activities. In these cases, the activity section will direct you to a subpage with the activity content for that module.
Additional Resources - We have linked to some external resources at the end of each module. If you have any resources you think we should add, let us know using our feedback form.
Intended Delivery
We suggest synchronous engagement with these modules in a group setting However, we have designed the modules to be approachable for an independent learner or facilitated asynchronously.
The modules were designed as part of a series but can also be delivered as standalone modules or remixed to suit your needs.
Customizing for your Audience
As a facilitator, customizing the materials for your audience will allow you to gain familiarity with the material, feel more ownership and confidence while presenting, and include examples relevant to your audience and presentation style.
Finding Local and Global Open Data
Given the team's location in Pittsburgh, PA, many of the modules use examples from the Pittsburgh area. You are, of course, welcome to use these! However, if you would like to find datasets more locally relevant to you or more global, here are some places to start looking:
Doing a search for for "local open data" or "government open data" + Your Area could also produce fruitful results.
Licensing & Attribution
Except for third-party content and where otherwise noted, all images, text, and other materials in the Civic Data Education Series were created by the Civic Switchboard Data Literacy Team at the University of Pittsburgh. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC-BY 4.0).
If you have used these materials, we’d like to learn more about your experience. Please drop us a line using our feedback form to share your story.
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