Unit 5

Learning Outcome 1

By the end of Unit 5 students will be able to identify common archetypal purposes for which governments make use of data. For example:

• As a tool to inform policy design and to set strategies

• To monitor compliance with laws and programmes

• To understand citizen needs and behaviours

• To monitor performance

• To identify and prevent new problems

• To directly power a public service (for example biometric passport gates)

• To streamline internal administrative processes (for example usingAI)

• To enable policy and programme evaluation

• To meet the needs of parties outside of government (for more see Unit 7)

Learning Outcome 2

By the end of Unit 5 students will be able to explain the key challenges that affect government's ability to use data successfully. This includes:

• Key decision-makers sometimes lack familiarity with how data is stored, processed and used in the digital era, including how AI systems access data

• Key decision-makers often lack knowledge of how to integrate data technologies into their administrative processes

• Governments hire or contract individuals with no data skills, or with the wrong skills to process and use data, including both inappropriate technical skills, and individuals with a lack of understanding of government operations and public policy challenges.

• Government data is often stored in silos, and in non-standardised ways, making its use for many purposes difficult or impossible.

• Attempts to join up or share data are stymied by legal or cultural factors - including both legitimate safeguards and unjustified hoarding.

• Policies and services (for example AI chatbots) are sometimes commissioned on the erroneous belief that data quality and availability is better than it actually is.

• The volumes of actively and passively generated data are rapidly expanding and overwhelming governments' ability to process this data.

• A failure to understand how data driven decision-making, including the use of new AI systems, will interact with the messy world of people and politics.

Learning Outcome 3

By the end of Unit 5 students will be able to identify various types of data that modern governments collect and use. This includes:

• Administrative data (i.e., government data collected during during routine government operations, e.g. service/program delivery" )

• Actively collected data (i.e., survey data, tax forms, censuses)

• Passively created data (i.e., traffic monitoring, CCTV, weather sensors)

• Structured data

• Unstructured data