Quartier de la Sorbonne, Paris, France
Photo
by Jonathan Acuña (2018)
Deriving
Insights of Value
A simple
problem, but what’s the answer?
By Prof. Jonathan Acuña-Solano, M. Ed.
School of English
Faculty of Social Sciences
Universidad Latina de Costa Rica
Saturday, July 27, 2019
Post 333 / DS Log 5
As mentioned before, the data
scientist teacher is someone who works with data in three different fronts simultaneously.
That teacher is a miner, a cleanser,
and an analyst. Let’s see his/her role in the following case scenario, a
language school whose graduating population is not interested in participating
in the institution’s graduation.
1
|
Problem
Identification
|
In this case scenario the
problem is not that only 53% of the possibly graduating learners want to
participate in the end-of-the-course ceremony; the real problem to discover
is why this is happening. The teacher
has to find out the real question to ask to mine and explore data.
|
2
|
Data
Collection
|
At this point, the teacher has to start collecting data from
as many sources as it is possible including the school’s database, any economic
report issued by the Ministry of Economy, printed press and news programs on TV/radio
or social media.
|
3
|
Data
Exploration
|
With all possible data
coming from public or institutional databases, the teacher can start finding the pieces of the puzzle. Information
can then be organized for the teacher to start finding commonalities,
categories, or names for the reasons that are found.
|
4
|
Analysis
of Data Collected from Various Sources
|
The teacher cannot only base the analysis of data from institutional
databases. Some sort of triangulation is needed to match data to reveal
connections never thought before but that may have a say on why some 43% of
possibly graduating students don’t feel encouraged to attend a graduation
ceremony.
|
5
|
The
Storytelling behind the Data
|
Once the teacher lets the data speak by
themselves, s/he listens to what all these is stating as to why learners are uninterested
(or interested) in going to a graduation ceremony. Reasons can be triggered
by different societal phenomena.
|
6
|
Taking
Action
|
As soon as the data tell
their story, the teacher has to
talk to the institution’s stakeholders, directors, or departmental heads to
discuss what needs to be done to either motivate learners to join the
graduation celebration or to reconsider if the way the graduation ceremony is
actually held should continue to be celebrated in the same way.
|
Though it is not yet clear why only
53% of learners who finish the institution’s program are willing to go to the graduation
ceremony, the case is a good example as to how the “investigation” has to be
carried out. And for a better understanding of these notes of mine, please take
a look at the infographic that matches what each step of the data science procedure
contains along with the case scenario.
Saturday, July 27, 2019
