Data Literacy Practices of Students Conducting Undergraduate Research

Abstract

Undergraduate research is considered to be a high-impact practice; however, research into the data literacy of students conducting undergraduate research is lacking. In addition, institutionwide assessments of data practices are challenging because of varied disciplinary approaches to data. This study investigates the data practices of undergraduate students who submitted research posters to a student research symposium in 2019 and found that students engage in a variety of data practices during undergraduate research regardless of their research method and approach for obtaining and working with data. This study identifies potential areas for datarelated library instruction in support of undergraduate research.