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

Presenters

Dr Jackie Carter CHCC Project Manager, University of Manchester

Cressida Chappell Head of The History Data

Service,University of Essex

j.carter@man.ac.uk

cress@essex.ac.uk

Outline of the presentation

1. Overview Project partners

Funders

The CHCC

Objectives and outputs

2. Learning and Teaching Materials

3. Census Resource Discovery System

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

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

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

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

CHCC – Census Area Statistics

1991 and 1981 Census Area Statistics

Located at and serviced through the Census Dissemination Unit at MIMAS, Manchester

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

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

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.

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.

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

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

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@jiscmail.ac.uk

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)

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

www.chcc.ac.uk