Introducing Open Data Concepts to STEM Students Using Real-World Open Datasets

While open data concepts become more important in our society, education about its benefits and technical issues is still behind the practice. Students of STEM disciplines should be introduced to open data during their education. The Open Computing course, completely redesigned in the new Computing curriculum, introduces open data concepts, providing both the basics and advanced topics, from technical to social and legal viewpoints. Among the several educational activities, one was particularly useful for understanding the needs and implications of using open data: a synchronous group activity where students had to choose a societal issue, find and analyze two open datasets that would help gaining insight into this issue, assess interdisciplinarity approaches and stakeholders, and finally propose the added value emerging from the solution. In a short amount of time needed, this activity - which tackled multiple aspects of the problem - brought a clearer insight into the topic, building upon the conventional lectures. Students highly graded such an approach to their education, where they had to construct their knowledge by the group experience. A similar group activity appeared to be useful in the context of open data PhD training and might also be used in other disciplines and domains.