The University of Ottawa Data Literacy Research Institute is an interdisciplinary and bilingual hub that brings together experts to conduct cutting-edge research and training on the current and future challenges of inadequate data literacy.

History

The Data Literacy Research Institute was just launched in October 2023. Although its history is pretty recent, it is based on the work done by Meredith Rocchi and Simon Beaudry with the Data Literacy Lab, founded in 2020. Rocchi and Beaudry's love for quantitative methods and their passion for teaching it in accessible and non-threatening ways to others prompted them to develop the Institute.

They teamed up with Christopher Gravel from the Faculty of Medicine and Felicity Tayler from the Library to form the founding team. With support from the research leadership at the Library and the Faculties of Arts, Social Sciences, and Medicine, the DLRI was born.

Vision

The goal of the Institute is to address problems related to insufficient data literacy in areas such as healthcare, sustainability, education, technology, decision-making, and ethics. The Institute will leverage existing expertise across disciplines to build novel cross-faculty and interdisciplinary research and training programs that promote data literacy skills.

Research Areas

Big Data and Artificial Intelligence

Investigate the relationship between data literacy and the ability to generate robust evidence from big data. This implicates research about the nature of inference, prediction, and interpretation, as well as how practices of data literacy will be affected by artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Data Security, Infrastructure, and Architecture

Examine the factors that drive best practices, culture change, awareness, and researcher compliance surrounding data management excellence. Demonstrate how data literacy serves as a means to improve understanding.

Democratization and Ethical Use of Data

Study how data literacy is integral to discussions examining the equitable and inclusive use of data, with particular attention to data ownership and privacy.

Education and Training

Identify best practices for teaching data skills, promote awareness of effective approaches in research management, and determine whether data literacy training improves the ability to appraise and interpret data-driven information.

Evidence-Based Decision-Making

The utility of empirical findings derived from research to inform decision-making requires a level of competency with data. Identify the effects of limited data literacy on the knowledge dissemination and translation of data-driven evidence, as well as knowledge consumption by decision-makers.