3.4.0.6 Overview.

Information, Data, and Decisions (IDD) is an Internet-based course designed to enable students to tap into the enormous quantity of data on the web, and to learn the mathematics necessary to handle that data critically (see Appendix 3). It was developed by co-PI Hughes Hallett in collaboration with Eric Connally of Wellesley College and Ralph Teixeira of the Department of Mathematics at Harvard University, under the direction of Frank Hartmann, Kennedy School of Government. The course has been used for two very different audiences: mid-career public servants from developing countries at the Kennedy School of Government and incoming Wellesley undergraduates.

However, the structure of both courses was the same. After introducing the tools--a browser and a spreadsheet--students were given access to interesting data and asked to make judgments or decisions based on the data. The mathematics was introduced in the context of analyzing the data. Since most students were interested in the data, they were also interested in what the mathematics could tell them about the data.