Learning and Teaching with the UK Census

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Learning and Teaching with the UK Census
Developing the Collection of Historical and
Contemporary Census Data and Materials into a
Major Learning and Teaching Resource
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Presenters

• Dr Jackie Carter
• CHCC Project Manager,
• University of Manchester
• Cressida Chappell
• Head of The History Data Service,
• University of Essex

• j.carter_at_man.ac.uk
• cress_at_essex.ac.uk

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Outline of the presentation

• 1. Overview
• Project partners
• Funders
• The CHCC
• Objectives and outputs
• 2. Learning and Teaching Materials
• 3. Census Resource Discovery System

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Partners

• MIMAS and Census Dissemination Unit (CDU),
  University of Manchester
• Cathie Marsh Centre for Census and Survey
  Research (CCSR), University of Manchester
• School of Geography, University of Leeds
• LTSN Subject Centre for History, Archaeology and
  Classical Studies, University of Glasgow
• History Data Service, UK Data Archive, University
  of Essex
• UK Data Archive, University of Essex

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Funders

• Joint Information Systems Committee (JISC)
• Strategic advisory committee works on behalf of
  funding bodies for UK Higher and Further
  Education (HE FE)
• Learning and Teaching Programme
• Aims to develop high quality resources that can
  be easily integrated into the JISC Information
  Environment

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Collection of Historical and Contemporary Census
Data (CHCC)

• 19th and early 20th Century Historical Censuses
  Collection
• 1991 1981 Census Area Statistics
• 1991 Samples of Anonymised Records
• All datasets are in digital format and are freely
  available to the UK HE and FE academic community

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CHCC Historical Censuses Collection

• Historical Censuses Collection
• individual-level data from the 1851 Census (2
  sample) and 1881 Census (100 sample)
• aggregate-level data from printed 19th and early
  20th century census reports
• Located at and serviced through the History Data
  Service (HDS) at Essex

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CHCC Census Area Statistics

• 1991 and 1981 Census Area Statistics
• Located at and serviced through the Census
  Dissemination Unit at MIMAS, Manchester

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CHCC Samples of Anonymised Records

• 1991 Samples of Anonymised Records (SARs)
  Abstracts of individual census returns
• 2 sample of individuals census records (1.1
  million individuals)
• 1 sample of households (216 thousand households)
• Located at and serviced through the Centre for
  Census and Surveys Research (CCSR) at Manchester

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Rationale for the CHCC project

• Considerable scope for widening use of CHCC for
  learning and teaching
• Census data has great value across many
  disciplines
• Importance of resource discovery and
  student-centred learning
• The aim of the project is to develop the CHCC
  into a major learning and teaching resource

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Objectives

• To promote effective student use of network
  services across learning and teaching.
• To increase the CHCC user base in learning and
  teaching and to build new user communities.
• To improve access to primary data sources by
  linking together data extraction, visualisation
  and exploration tools with learning and teaching.
• To reduce the work needed by tutors to use CHCC
  data in learning and teaching (pick and mix).
• To speed the use of 2001 Census outputs.

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Outputs

• Customisable learning and teaching resources for
  tutors and students e.g. tutorials, exercises,
  exemplar based case studies. Web-based or
  downloadable.
• A census resource discovery system with
  cross-searchable metadata to facilitate resource
  discovery across the CHCC and related learning
  and teaching materials.
• Improved web-based data extraction and data
  exploration/visualisation interfaces to the CHCC
  suitable for student use.
• Enhancement of the CHCC through linking to
  primary and secondary texts, images and area
  classifications.

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Learning and Teaching Materials

• Data type specific materials
• Combined inter-disciplinary materials
• Teaching materials for use in the classroom
• Exploratory on-line materials for student use and
  self-directed learning

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Learning and Teaching Materials CAS example

• A quick introduction to the Census
• Teaching materials for use in the classroom
• Powerpoint slides
• Guidance notes for teachers (PDF format)
• Unit text
• Exploratory on-line materials for student use and
  self-directed learning
• Tutorial
• Multiple choice questionnaire

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Consultation

• Extensive and ongoing consultation on
• content, format and delivery
• of learning and teaching materials
• Method
• workshops (five to date)
• partnerships and piloting
• census-learning-and-teaching_at_jiscmail.ac.uk

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Improved interfaces suitable for student use

• Developments include
• web-mapping of the CAS using interactive mapping
  software
• Descartes example
• Use of Nesstar for SARs (next paper)
• Development of improved integrated access to the
  HCC (final paper)

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Census Resource Discovery System

• Providing flexible, consistent, integrated
  interface to the learning and teaching materials
  and the CHCC
• Mechanism for effective resource discovery across
  the learning and teaching materials and the CHCC

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System Goals

• Allow students, teachers and researchers to
  discover and locate census data and associated
  learning and teaching resources
• Provide links to on-line census data and
  associated learning and teaching resources
• Provide a means for census data providers to
  publicise and propagate the use of their census
  data holdings and associated learning and
  teaching resources

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System Functionality - Querying

• The system will provide a web interface to
  search and discover census data and
  associated learning and teaching resources
• Query definition will be through the entry of any
  combination of
• a subject keyword
• a geographic area (England, Wales, Scotland, or
  Northern Ireland)
• a time period (date or span of dates)
• a resource type (aggregate-level data,
  individual-level data, or learning and teaching
  resource)

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System Functionality - Browsing and Viewing

• The system will also allow users to browse
  hierarchical lists of census data and associated
  learning and teaching resources ordered by
  subject, geography, time period and resource type
• The system will return a list of items matching
  the browse or search criteria and allow users to
  select and view the full record for one or more
  items simultaneously

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System Functionality - User Profiling and Adding
Records

• The system will allow CRS authenticated users to
  maintain a user profile to store query
  definitions for future use
• The system will also include tools for project
  partners to add, modify and delete metadata
  records

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Standards

• DDI Codebook to describe census data sets
• IMS Learning Resource Metadata Specification to
  describe learning and teaching materials
• European Language Social Science Thesaurus for
  subject keywords

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Technologies

• SQLServer database to hold metadata
• Java technologies for the web interfaces
• Cheshire Z39.50 target to ensure integration with
  the JISC Information Environment
• Athens Single Sign On

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Possible Future Development

• Providing a single access point for the UK
  academic community to all census data sets
• Including other census data sets
• Digitised Boundary Data
• Census Interaction Data
• Including contextual information about the census
  and census data sets

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www.chcc.ac.uk
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