Data Science for All

Initial situation

Being able to extract information from complex and/or massive data is now a core skill for any research initiative. Although certain disciplines, such as statistics and computer science, have structured courses and curricula to bring a new generation of students to integrate and master these skills, data science is not always as strongly integrated into other academic curricula at the UNIGE.

As a result, some students find themselves unable to discover and improve their methods in line with the latest scientific advances. And yet, the skills exist. Data science experts are active in many disciplines, where they sometimes teach courses that are much appreciated by students, but rarely accessible beyond faculty boundaries. With this in mind, as part of the “Digital skills” program, financed by swissuniversities and the UNIGE rectorate, the University of Geneva’s Data Science Competence Centre proposed to bring together these experts and their pedagogical initiatives in an interdisciplinary, coherent and innovative set of online courses accessible to the entire UNIGE community.

Project implementation

Produced in-house with experts from almost all faculties, the capsules enable students to familiarize themselves with fundamental concepts while exploring their specific applications. Each capsule is systematically complemented by associated in-depth content in a variety of formats: workshops, articles/open source code, extracts from UNIGE courses. The platform links up with courses given by UNIGE teachers, recorded on MediaServer. These courses have been cut, cleaned and restructured to offer a fluid and captivating learning experience.

The first stage of the project involved the design of a data science skills repository by a committee of interdisciplinary experts from the UNIGE. This repository covers as exhaustively as possible the skills required to study and work in this field.

Secondly, the members of the committee, and more broadly of the UNIGE’s Data Science Competence Centre, were called upon to produce video vignettes covering the competencies in the repository, from data collection to scientific communication. Finally, the entire teaching staff and doctoral students were asked to contribute to the creation of these videos.

Finally, a website has been developed in partnership with the Communications Department to make the content accessible to the UNIGE community. This original content is complemented by in-depth resources proposed by the people who produced the capsules. A communication campaign is then launched with teachers to encourage them to use this content and share it with their students. At the same time, communication is also deployed towards students to make them aware of the existence of this content and invite them to improve their data science skills thanks to it.

Thoughts and advice

Given the wide variety of contributors, it’s essential to have a clear line on the content to be covered and its structure, so as to maintain coherence between each video production and not deviate from the initial objective. In fact, the aim is to introduce people to a field, not to discuss how this field can serve a specific discipline and research.

The production of images must be carried out as efficiently as possible, so that time can be devoted to research, editing and communication. To this end, the studio at Uni-Mail, which can be booked in coordination with the building’s audiovisual department, guarantees optimum production.

Student feedback

Feedback from students whose teachers have used these video clips in their courses has been very positive. Particularly in connection with the “GEOTOOLS-RS 2: Towards EO Data Science” course, students appreciate being able to progress at their own pace thanks to this additional resource already available before the course, as well as being able to devote the face-to-face course time to practice and questions rather than theory.