Accompanies each report to help users understand and use that specific report’s data. It is often called a data guide, interpretation guide, or interpretive guide. The report’s reference sheet (described below) functions as the guide’s first page, and subsequent pages contain the report’s instructions (how to read the report), essential questions (showing the user where to look on this report – and what to look for – to answer each question listed in the purpose area of the guide’s 1st page), and a “more info” section (offering where to get additional information on related topics).
Published in Chapter:
Data System-Embedded Guidance Significantly Improves Data Analyses: When Data Is Made ‘Over-the-Counter' for Users
Jenny Grant Rankin (Northcentral University, USA)
Copyright: © 2016
|Pages: 27
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-4666-8833-9.ch005
Abstract
In the field of Education, computerized data systems are used to manage, retrieve, and analyze information. Educators view this information in the form of data reports, which educators use to inform decisions that impact students. These decisions are frequently undermined by misunderstandings concerning the data and its implications. Yet data systems and their reports typically display data without any guidance concerning the data's proper analysis. In a quantitative study, medicine labeling conventions were applied to data systems to embed guidance in the proper use of contents. Among 211 educators of varied backgrounds and roles, data analyses were found to be 307% more accurate when a report label/footer was present, 205% more accurate when a 1-page reference sheet was present, and 273% more accurate when a reference guide was present. Findings hold implications for those who provide or use tools for high-stakes information retrieval, analysis, and/or management, particularly in Education.