Using Dear Data Project to Introduce Data Literacy and Information Literacy to Undergraduates

This paper describes an approach for introducing data and information literacy to undergraduates. This work aims to address the following research question: “What impact does the Dear Data approach have on data literacy and information literacy skills of undergraduates in an introductory data visualization course?” The initial aim of the project was to create an assignment to reinforce concepts covered in class and motivate students to think differently about data and how data is communicated. Elements of the Dear Data Project were adapted as part of a 4-week assignment that paired students from two sections of the course as “Data Buddies.” Dear Data Postcards were created by students with themes that aligned with data literacy and information literacy concepts. Postcards served as a hands-on exercise for reinforcing course topics. Student self-assessment results show students found the assignment helped to broaden students’ ideas of what data is or could be, helped students see data in a variety of ways that were not previously considered, and helped students think critically about how to visually communicate ideas and think of their audience when creating visualizations. This work contributes to the pedagogy of data visualization and to the knowledge base of data visualization capacity building.