Data Stewardship Fundamentals

Data is a vital resource for organizations, as it supports business decisions and propels modernization efforts.

Data reuse refers to using existing data to gain new insights or answer new questions, rather than collecting new data. This practice is becoming increasingly important in today’s data-driven world, where the amount of data is growing at an unprecedented rate. Data stewardship enables access to and re-use of data for public benefit in a systematic, sustainable, and responsible way.

This course aims to establish a solid knowledge base for data stewardship. It delves into the basics of data stewardship, including the skills of successful stewards, their functions, obligations, essential principles and practices. Additionally, the course covers a fundamental understanding of data governance framework, policies, procedures, and its importance in every organization. In this course, a team of experts will guide you through four segments. After finishing, you’ll be equipped to apply your newly acquired skills and expand your learning journey in data stewardship, responsible data re-use, and effectively managing data.

The course consists of the following four segments:

• Introduction to data: general definitions related to data; data types; databases; characteristics; and general challenges.
• Data governance, policy, procedures, and structure: the principles of data governance; data governance structure.
• Data management and stewardship roles, skills, competencies: role of a data steward; the importance of data stewardship in today’s data-driven world; different types of data stewards; roles and responsibilities; competencies; skills; and knowledge.
• Key components of data stewardship: FAIR (findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable) data; data lifecycle; data management planning; data quality; security; regulations; integrity; and protection.

On completion of this course, participants will be able to:

• Learn the key definitions concerning data, metadata and FAIR data.
• Understand the challenges that organizations face regarding data management.
• Understand the principles of data governance and how data governance is structured in different type of organizations.
• Describe the role of a data steward and identify the key competencies and skills required for data stewards.
• Determine the key elements of data stewardship.

This course covers the fundamentals of effective data management and stewardship, starting from data definitions and challenges to data governance, key data stewardship skills, and best practices. Whether you are a beginner interested in data stewardship or a professional seeking to enhance your skills, this course has something for everyone.

Participants will be given PowerPoint slides for each segment, along with a variety of learning tasks. The course will be concluded with quizzes and hands-on practices.