Learning and Teaching with the UK Census

1. 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

2. 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 Presenters

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

4. 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

5. 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

6. 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

7. 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

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

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. 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

14. 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

15. Consultation Extensive and ongoing consultation on: • content, format and delivery of learning and teaching materials Method: • workshops (five to date) • partnershipsand piloting • census-learning-and-teaching@jiscmail.ac.uk

16. 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)

17. 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

18. 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 teachingresources

19. 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 • asubject keyword • ageographic area (England, Wales, Scotland, or Northern Ireland) • atime period (date or span of dates) • aresource type (aggregate-level data, individual-level data, or learning and teaching resource)

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

24. 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

25. www.chcc.ac.uk