HEDW 2026 Pre-Conference Training

Syllabus:

Hour 1: What is data literacy?

· Welcome, introductions, & icebreaker

· Workshop overview & goals

· Data literacy vs. data fluency

· Tabletop discussion:

o What elements must be included in a data literacy program?
 

Hour 2: Data literacy frameworks

· The domain-based approach to data literacy

· Hands-on exercise – What’s missing from this picture?

· An alternative approach to domain-based data literacy

· Why higher education needs data literacy to be successful
 

Hour 3: Don’t forget the audience!

· Data literacy personas

· The importance of knowing your audience

· Hands-on exercise:

o Identify your audience(s), their core literacy needs, & available resources

· Handle with care: How to work with individuals who may not be as literate as they claim
 

Hour 4: Data Literacy Strategy

· Refining your pitch for data literacy

· Elements of a one-page data literacy strategy

· What does data strategy have to do with data literacy?

· Tabletop discussion:

o Does your institution have a data strategy? Does it include data literacy?

• If so, what does it look like?
• If not, how can you include it?

Hour 5: Data literacy programs IRL

· Large group poll & share-out: What’s the state of your institution’s data literacy program?

· Media to convey data literacy program/materials

o Website

o Small, in-person learning cohorts (certificate-based)

o Workshop-based learning

o Liaison program

o Assessment-based programs
 

Hour 6: Elements of a data literacy program

· Essential elements

o Data fundamentals

o Data access, handling & sharing

o Data systems

o Gleaning information from data viz

· Pair work – Work with a partner to outline the key elements your program needs/requires
 

Hour 7: Moving from concept to reality

· Hands-on exercise:

o Identify key roadblocks to implementing your data literacy program. How will you prepare to address these challenges?

· Resources needed & how to get everyone on board

o Cross-unit collaborators/volunteers

• A (workable) timeline and plan

o Graduate students

o Leadership support
 

Hour 8: Wrap-up Q&A and Next Steps

· Q&A and Discussion:

o Open forum for questions and discussion on any topic covered in the workshop.

· Workshop Feedback and Closing:

o Collect feedback from participants to improve future workshops.

o Final remarks
 

Melissa Barnett, Ph.D., CDMP, is a data professional in higher education specializing in data management, governance, analytics, strategy, and data literacy. She’s led data governance and literacy programs at Georgia State, Harvard, and MIT. Melissa has also taught numerous data literacy, governance, and storytelling Institutes and Learning Labs for EDUCAUSE, led the steering committee of the EDUCAUSE Data Governance Community Group, and led several workshops at EDUCAUSE and AIR annual conferences.

In summer 2025, she launched her consulting business, Limelight DataWorks LLC, to aid higher education leaders in the areas of data strategy, governance, and literacy. Recent articles include – Beyond Tools and Technology: Why Culture-Focused Leadership Matters to Successful Data Governance (2023), You Can’t Have Digital Transformation Without Data Governance (2024), and The Time Is Now: Your Institution Needs a Robust Data Strategy To Survive The Storm (forthcoming).
 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this workshop, participants will be able to:

• Map and refine BI development workflows to improve standardization, clarity, and stakeholder alignment.

• Use generative AI tools to automate documentation, project planning, and communication tasks.

• Create AI-assisted project artifacts (such as intake forms and timelines) using structured prompts that can be reused in their own environments.