Data Analytic Literacy

The explosive growth in volume and varieties of data generated by the seemingly endless arrays of digital systems and applications is rapidly elevating the importance of being able to utilize data; in fact, data analytic literacy is becoming as important now, at the onset of the Digital Era, as rudimentary literacy and numeracy were throughout the Industrial Era. And yet, what constitutes data analytic literacy is poorly understood. To some, data analytic literacy is the ability to use basic statistics, to others it is data science ‘light’, and to still others it is just general familiarity with common data analytic outcomes.

Exploring the scope and the structure of rudimentary data analytic competencies is at the core of this book which takes the perspective that data analytics is a new and distinct domain of knowledge and practice. It offers application-minded framing of rudimentary data analytic competencies built around conceptually sound and practically meaningful processes and mechanics of systematically transforming messy and heterogeneous data into informative insights.

Data Analytic Literacy is meant to offer an easy-to-follow overview of the critical elements of the reasoning behind basic data manipulation and analysis approaches and steps, coupled with the commonly used data analytic and data communication techniques and tools. It offers an all-inclusive guide to developing basic data analytic competencies.

Andrew Banasiewicz is currently a Professor of Business Analytics at Cambridge College and the founder of Erudite Analytics, a consulting practice specializing in risk research. He is a former senior-level business analytics and data science industry professional with over two decades of applied industry experience; his primary area of expertise is the development of custom, data-intensive analytic decision support systems. Since becoming a full-time academician, researcher and consultant, Andrew has been a frequent speaker at conferences around the world, speaking on data analytic innovation, evidence-based decision-making, and data-driven learning. He is the author of six other books, including Evidence-Based Decision-Making published in 2019, and Organizational Learning in the Age of Data published in 2021, over 40 journal and conference papers, and numerous industry white papers. He holds Ph.D. in business from Louisiana State University; he is also a fellow of several academic and professional organizations.