Designed for data analysts and those who manage data analysts, this workshop provides a primer to the Data Analytics process, including data collection, data exploration, data mining, and business intelligence. The workshop covers topics such as web data collection, open data, web analytics, data modeling, data warehousing design, and the data mining development process. The workshop uses either the programming language Python or R and students will have hands on lab work covering data mining techniques such as the k-nearest neighbor algorithm, decision trees, neural networks, and running real data.

In the age of over-surveying, it is critical to deploy surveys that are useful and targeted. Join us to learn how to design a survey that will get you the information you need. We will discuss how to establish a survey objective and sampling strategy, develop a survey collection plan, improve your response rate, and write and format effective survey questions. (Course offered by the Data Innovation Project, housed within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine)

If you are serious about being a data-informed organization, you need to have a clearly articulated theory of change.  We will go over the “why’s” and “what-for’s” and help you get started creating or refining your own. (Course offered by the Data Innovation Project, housed within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine)

Everyone has data, but it can be challenging to figure out how to use it in creative ways to show and tell stories of your success. This workshop will explore the basics of data storytelling and give you practice tips for data visualization. (Course offered by the Data Innovation Project, housed within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine)

Data dashboards can be a powerful tool to keep your organization data-informed and you don’t need fancy software to make one! In this workshop we will walk through the process of designing simple dashboards that can help organizations visualize program data, indicators, and other metrics. (Course offered by the Data Innovation Project, housed within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine)

Conducting your own program research can return robust information that directly informs and improves your program’s impact. Given the limited resources available to many nonprofits, it is critical to make your research efforts count. In this workshop you will learn how to design simple and effective interviews, focus groups, and surveys that get you the information you need. (Course offered by the Data Innovation Project, housed within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine)

How do you know if your organization is having its intended impact? How do you collect data to track your outcomes? What data do you already have and what do you need to collect? And, now that you have data, WHAT do you do with it? In this workshop we clarify and define the core components of a performance measurement plan. This hands-on session will guide you through the purpose and processes of developing a performance measurement approach. (Course offered by the Data Innovation Project, housed within the Cutler Institute for Health and Social Policy at the University of Southern Maine)