E-learning professionalizes data analysis at all levels of NVWA.
The Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA) ensures that organizations comply with various laws. For example, it monitors the safety of consumer products and food, but also enforces laws on animal welfare and nature. Inspectors are committed to preventing abuses. So where exactly is their attention wanted? That's where the value of data comes in.
Intuition plus data.
The safety of fairground rides, conditions in slaughterhouses, hygiene in restaurants, the energy label on white goods, the safety of toys; there are quite a few issues the NVWA monitors. Some 1,500 inspectors are constantly on the job.
"Those people have often been working for us for years and really have a wealth of experience," says Tom Booijink, NVWA's data science specialist advisor.
"By now they know exactly where to go; their intuition is excellent. At the same time, there are other tools available today on which they can base their choices. With data, we estimate the probability of wrongdoing at a particular organization or at a particular time. Moreover, we reduce the risk of blind spots and can better justify our efforts to society."
In the field of data, they have been making solid progress for several years.
Increase knowledge.
In the organization, over a hundred employees are involved in data analysis. These are inspectors themselves, as well as data analysts and other employees.
Tom Booijink: "There is also a team of about twelve data scientists working on statistical analyses, advanced algorithms and prediction models. However, they received more and more questions from the organization about - for them - relatively simple analyses. This is a good sign that people in the organization are working with data more often. We wanted to seize this moment to professionalize further."
In their existing e-learning system, the NVWA wanted to set up a learning program on data.
Bringing data to life.
The NVWA works with SAS software and has already had good experiences with Cmotions' trainers in this area.
Tom Booijink: "The people at Cmotions really understand data and training. If there is one party that knows how to captivate our employees with data and help them professionalize, it is them."
The NVWA envisioned an e-learning in which participants from all levels of the organization would learn to perform a data analysis independently and professionally. Ideas already existed to highlight various topics, such as visualizing data. From here it was up to Cmotions to expand on these ideas and bring data analysis to life in an online course.
"The people at Cmotions really understand data and training. If there is one party that knows how to captivate our employees with data and help them professionalize, it's them."
Tom Booijink, Specialist advisor in data science at NVWA
Modules packed with theory and practice.
Together, Cmotions and NVWA decided to develop four separate modules that can be taken sequentially, but also separately. They are:
Intake and data exploration
Participants assess what data they have and need to answer the research question.
Data quality and preparation
Participants will learn to filter, deduplicate, infer new features and learn to combine datasets.
Exploration and analysis
A more statistical module covering significance and various statistical tests such as t-test, ANOVA, Chi-square and correlations.
Visualization and storytelling
Participants learn to build the report properly and choose visualizations that support the message.
Quiz questions, videos, demos, assignments.
Each module contains a part of theory, which is made relevant with appealing examples from the daily practice of the NVWA, for example on the sale of tobacco to possibly minors, or on the detection of bird flu.
Tom Booijink: "Examples like these bring the sometimes abstract material to life and make it very recognizable for our employees. In any case, Cmotions did a good job of breaking the material down into bite-sized chunks and presenting it in an accessible way."
Here, he refers to quiz questions, videos, demos and assignments that alternate and enliven the theory. Moreover, the e-learning is structured so that participants can skip all or part of a module because they already know that topic, for example.
"This way, the material remains relevant to all participants. And afterwards, the participants are at a similar level from which we can continue working."
Eve of rollout.
All of that - the design, the coordination with content managers, with internal stakeholders and with the e-learning software provider - was developed entirely in times of working from home. "That makes it extra clever that Cmotions has a good sense of how our business works. The end result is really top-notch. The form and content are strong, the subject matter is presented in understandable language," Tom Booijink concludes.
"As a result, the test groups responded very enthusiastically to the modules. We are now ready to offer this to the entire organization, complete with an internal communication campaign to encourage participation. I'm looking forward to it so much!"
"The end result is really top-notch. The form and content are strong, the subject matter is presented in understandable language."
Tom Booijink, Specialist advisor in data science at NVWA