One year of DALIDA Data Literacy Workshops for Adults: A Report

Abstract

This paper reports on the data literacy discussion workshops we held between April 2021 and January 2022. We developed these workshops for adults in Ireland and, while open to everyone, we sought to reach adults from socially, economically, or educationally disadvantaged groups. This experience paper describes the workshop's structure, elaborates on our challenges (primarily due to the pandemic), and details some of the lessons we've learned. We also present the findings of our participant evaluations. While the drop-out rate was high, the participants who participated and filled in the evaluation form were delighted with the workshop's content and format. The most important lesson we've learned is that a collaboration between scholars and education and public engagement teams (EPE), where both stakeholders approach the projects as equals, is crucial for successful projects.