SD1S111 - Understanding Communities and Data 01 Sep 2024 - 31 Aug 2030 | Version 0

Associated Module Information

Module Code: SD1S111
Module Title: Understanding Communities and Data
Faculty: Faculty of Business and Creative Industries
Faculty Group: Leadership and Public Services
Faculty Sub Group: Leadership and Public Services
Module Leader: Beth Dando
Module Team: Jennifer Law, Paul Lewis, David Phillips, Daniel Welch, Helen Martin, Hayley Jenkins, Anthony Lloyd, Anthony Lloyd, Simon Neenan, Steven Llewellyn
First Intended Intake: SEP 2024 Final Year of Intake: 2029
Date Closed:
Credit Value: 20 Credit Level: 4
Language: English
Percentage of Module Taught in Welsh: 0
Equivalent Module:
HECOS codes: 100647 - public policy
HECOS Code Weighting: 100

Document Version Information

Version 0
Valid From 01 Sep 2024
Valid To 31 Aug 2030

Module Aims

1. To apply a range of strategies to understand key challenges and strengths of an identified community (e.g. socio-economic characteristics, community issue and attitude) and reflect upon areas for improvement.    

2. To examine why and how public services use data while positioning activities in the context of human-centred development.

Content Summary

This module is intended to introduce students with the range of communities and contexts in which various challenges are embedded. A key emphasis is to understand people’s rich discussions to find solutions to their own problems. Students will be encouraged to consider social, economic, environmental, and cultural well-being of Wales and the world.   

Part of the objectives is to understand data, which potentially provide reliable information to influence favourable intervention in a community. Students will become familiar with various data and how public bodies collect data (qualitative, quantitative and beyond) for policy need or influencing services. Though research methods are not the focus, students will be encouraged to identify what data are required to promote human centred public services

Learning and Teaching Methods

Activity Type Hours
Lecture 10
Seminars 30
Fieldwork 6
Independent Study 88
Directed Study (including online independent learning) 72
Total Hours Selected 206

Learning Outcomes

# Learning Outcome
LO1 To understand key challenges and strengths of an identified community and reflect upon areas for improvement.
LO2 To understand practicalities and techniques of why and how public services use data to promote human-centred development.

Module Requisites

N/A

Assessment Criteria

Assessment Category Assessment Type Description Duration Word Count Weight (%) Best of? Pass Mark
Asynchronous Assessment Poster 1 Community Profiling/group work 0 1000 50 No 40
Asynchronous Assessment Report 1 Analysis of public service response to identified local issues. 0 1500 50 No 40

Assessment Matrix

Assessment Type Learning Outcomes
LO1 LO2
Poster 1
Report 1

Reading List

Bell, C. and Newby, H. (2021) Community Studies: An Introduction to the Sociology of the Local Community. London: Routledge.  

Crawford, K., Price, M. and Price, B. (2015)?Groupwork Practice for Social Workers. Sage: London 

Munné, R. (2016) Big Data in the Public Sector. In Cavanillas, J., Curry, E., Wahlster, W. (eds) New Horizons for a Data-Driven Economy. Springer, Cham. 

NESTA (2017) Designing for Public Services. Retrieved from https://media.nesta.org.uk/ 

Vigoda-Gadot, E. and Vashdi, D. R. (2020) Handbook of Research Methods in Public Administration, Management and Policy. England: Edward Elgar Publishing.  

Smith, C. F. (2019) Writing public policy: a practical guide to communicating in the policy making process. Oxford : Oxford University Press.  

Welsh Government (2023) Wellbeing of Wales 2023. Retrieved from https://gov.wales