The SUNY Center for Professional Development (CPD) is looking for individuals interested in designing and delivering one or two six-week asynchronous online courses that address data literacy essentials in higher education. Today, higher education professionals need to understand how to use data to answer operational and strategic questions. This program provides an overview of understanding data creation, use, analysis, interpretation, and storytelling for higher education professionals looking to increase their data literacy skills. Participants will build confidence and competency using data by learning and practicing techniques for incorporating data into their daily work and career goals. The target audience for this program is anyone working in higher education (faculty, staff, administrators) who analyzes data or makes data-based recommendations or decisions.

While we will consider applications from those outside SUNY, faculty and staff in the System will be given priority. We will also consider applications from co-designers or co-instructors (with compensation divided between them). The CPD will pay designers $1,750 one-time to design a course and $1,750 each time the course is taught with the minimum number of participants (6) enrolled. Courses are designed to be delivered asynchronously online in Brightspace and the CPD will own the course once it is developed (course design is “work for hire”). While these are not credit-bearing courses, the expectation is that they will be sufficiently rigorous (at least the equivalent of a graduate course) and consider that the participants will have limited time (3-5 hours per week) to spend on course activities. It is also expected that the courses will be interactive and that instructors will give individual feedback to the students. Each course is capped at 20 participants to help meet this requirement. Each course will be offered at least 1- 2 times per calendar year. Course designers will have the time to develop the course in January and February 2025 with the expectation that it will run in Spring or Summer 2025.

We expect to offer the following two courses:

Course One: Fundamentals of Working with Data

Those who complete this course should be able to:

• Understand the data lifecycle, basic data governance concepts, and common data terminology in the higher education ecosystem.
• Understand data analysis basics including:
  • How to develop a research question that can be answered with objective and unbiased source data;
  • Basic statistical concepts and the most common analytical techniques to make sense of data;
  • How to mine, refine, and prepare data for analysis.
• Know how to conduct research involving human subjects including how to utilize surveys and engage with an Institutional Review Board (IRB).
• Know how to identify the key takeaways from the data analysis (how they answer the research question) in an executive summary.
• Critically evaluate data and data visualizations to recognize when it is being used incorrectly, unethically, or inappropriately.

Course Two: Storytelling with Data

Course One is required for those who want to take Course Two unless registrants can show that they have a sufficient understanding of the Course One learning objectives.

Those who complete this course should be able to:

• Transform data insights into compelling and informative stories crafted for specific audiences.
• Engage diverse higher education stakeholders to gain their confidence and determine their objectives/goals in relation to the data analysis.
• Select appropriate data and visualization tools depending on the needs of the target audience(s).
• Create engaging, creative, and accessible presentations utilizing evidence-informed best practices.

If you are interested in designing and delivering one or both courses, email the following to Chris Price, SUNY CPD Academic Programs Manager, (chris.price@suny.edu) by December 9, 2024:

• Summary of your experience/expertise in data literacy and analysis (required).
• Summary of your experience delivering professional development programs to faculty and staff in higher education either in person or online (preferred).
• The course(s) you are interested in designing and teaching with a short paragraph describing the course activities you think would be appropriate for that course or both courses.
• Resume/CV