101PD

Universal · Original 101PD learning guide

Data Literacy and Analytics Foundations for Better Decisions

A practical foundation for asking measurable questions, evaluating data quality, choosing summaries, reading charts, and communicating uncertainty.

A chart can be numerically correct and still answer the wrong question. Data literacy begins before calculation—with definitions, collection, missingness, comparison groups, and the decision the analysis must support.

Skills you will practice

  • Metric definition
  • Data-quality review
  • Descriptive analysis
  • Chart interpretation
  • Uncertainty communication
  • Evidence-based recommendations

Prerequisites

  • Comfort with basic arithmetic; no coding or statistics background is required.

Designed for

Managers · Operations staff · Administrative professionals · Small-business owners

What a learner should be able to do

  1. Outcome 1

    Translate a business question into measurable variables and comparison rules.

  2. Outcome 2

    Identify missing, inconsistent, biased, or improperly combined data.

  3. Outcome 3

    Choose appropriate summaries and visual forms for common decisions.

  4. Outcome 4

    Communicate what the evidence supports, what it does not, and what to collect next.

Original curriculum architecture

The final course will expand these modules with original explanations, realistic cases, practice questions, and source review.

Module 1

Ask a measurable question

Decision, population, measure, time period, comparison, and success threshold.

Module 2

Inspect the evidence

Sources, definitions, missing values, duplicates, bias, and data lineage.

Module 3

Summarize and visualize

Counts, rates, distributions, variation, trends, comparisons, and chart selection.

Module 4

Explain the limits

Correlation, causation, uncertainty, small samples, and next evidence.

Applied portfolio exercise

Decision evidence brief

Analyze a fictional operational dataset and prepare a one-page recommendation with explicit limitations.

  • Question and metric sheet
  • Data-quality log
  • Two decision charts
  • Recommendation brief

Sources and boundaries

Sources establish current requirements and standards. They do not supply 101PD’s lesson text, scenarios, assessments, or project work.