One year after we launched the .Stat Academy, we are pleased to share some of the achievements and key milestones on this journey so far with you.
When we first started the .Stat Academy, our goal was to provide a comprehensive and accessible free online training and resources to support capacity building in the .Stat Suite and Data modelling in SDMX for data toolers and data producers. We wanted to create a platform that would help develop necessary skills to support data producers and data toolers who want to understand how to implement official statistics tooling and modelling best practices in their organisations (or who want to contribute as a member of a wider data driven team). To this date we have over 200 registered learners with more than 100 certified across 4 courses. We have surpassed our expectations and have every one of our members to thank for that!
We’ve worked hard over the past year to deliver a range of new resources including an introductionary course to SDMX as well as a more in depth training course on SDMX structural modelling for data producers. We launched a series of videos that are designed to help users get started with the .Stat Suite, and also collaborated with Community members and partners to deliver a number of webinars including using ILO SDMX tools for data preparation and modelling for the .Stat Suite.
“We are already seeing the huge value our courses are bringing, supporting a number of data modernisation and migration projects both at the OECD but also across the wider community, reaching a large number of data practitioners while also including an interactive approach that would otherwise be impossible to achieve with traditional approaches”.
– David Barraclough, Smart Data Practice Manager at the OECD, and chair of SDMX SWG.
The origins
“There are different types of learners and learning approaches – asynchronous / synchronous, cohorts, blended, micro learning. With the .Stat Academy our focus has been on self-paced learning with a certification. Of course these different learning approaches can be complementary.”
– Jonathan Challener, Community Manager
The .Stat Academy is an initiative from the Statistical Information System Collaboration Community (SIS-CC). An reference open source Community for official statistics, led by the OECD, it has been in existence officially since 2011 with its members sharing best practices and knowledge through co-investment and co-innovation. The community promotes the use and implementation of international open standards (e.g., SDMX) and tools (e.g., .Stat Suite).
The .Stat Academy provides an online learning hub delivering content such as courses in a self-paced manner, enabling learners to decide when they want to start and finish. We have designed the learning experience to be flexible and engaging, guiding the learner through a path to build knowledge over time in a way that best suits them. The platform is free and accessible for everyone wherever they are in the world.
“In the long run, what we would like to achieve with the Academy, is to build a large community of learners and teachers who can put their heads together to solve the most difficult of all problems: how to enable staff to continuously learn new techniques adoptable to new challenges, and how to encourage experts to share their expertise, and not only within their own organisation but for the community at large. Combining self-paced learning experience with synchronous online or onsite coaching are also part of the picture; adapting the Academy to develop sectorial or organisation-specific Academies constitute another potential angle for bringing more value in the future.”
– Eric Anvar, Head of Smart Data
What’s next?
We are continuously working on new online courses, and we are excited to announce the upcoming release of a new course on SDMX vocabulary. A step-by-step guide on data dissemination in .Stat Suite is also in the works and will be available soon. Moreover, we continue to create quick and easy to follow videos from our .Stat Suite Explained Series on new features to make your life easier. Also, keep an eye out for more showcases and webinars from our members and partners.
It is been wonderful seeing so many learners enrolling in our courses and sharing their experiences with us. We are grateful for all your feedback which has, and will continue to help us improve our content, pedagogy approach and overall experience for existing and future users. We want to take this opportunity to thank all of our members and supporters for making the .Stat Academy a success!
“Learning should be seen as a journey not an event.”
Here is to another great year of knowledge building and empowerment!
The .Stat Academy Team
