From the post:
Journalists who squirm at the thought of data calculation, analysis and statistics can arm themselves with new reporting tools during the new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) from the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas: “Math for Journalists Made Easy: Understanding and Using Numbers and Statistics” will be taught from June 1 to 28, 2015.
Click here to sign up and to learn more about this free online course.
“Math is crucial to things we do every day. From covering budgets to covering crime, we need to understand numbers and statistics,” said course instructor Jennifer LaFleur, senior editor for data journalism for the Center for Investigative Reporting, one of the instructors of the MOOC.
Two other instructors will be teaching this MOOC: Brant Houston, a veteran investigative journalist who is a professor and the Knight Chair in Journalism at the University of Illinois; and freelance journalists Greg Ferenstein, who specializes in the use of numbers and statistics in news stories.
The three instructors will teach journalists “how to be critical about numbers, statistics and research and to avoid being improperly swayed by biased researchers.” The course will also prepare journalists to relay numbers and statistics in ways that are easy for the average reader to understand.
“It is true that many of us became journalists because sometime in our lives we wanted to escape from mathematics, but it is also true that it has never been so important for journalists to overcome any fear or intimidation to learn about numbers and statistics,” said professor Rosental Alves, founder and director of the Knight Center. “There is no way to escape from math anymore, as we are nowadays surrounded by data and we need at least some basic knowledge and tools to understand the numbers.”
The MOOC will be taught over a period of four weeks, from June 1 to 28. Each week focuses on a particular topic taught by a different instructor. The lessons feature video lectures and are accompanied by readings, quizzes and discussion forums.
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This looks excellent.
I will be looking forward to very tough questions of government and corporate statistical reports from anyone who takes this course.