SPSS - UK Customers

Coventry University

Successfully teaching data mining to a wide range of students

The situation

Coventry University has a long tradition as a provider of education, tracing its roots as far back as 1843, when it was the Coventry College of Design. In 1970, it became a polytechnic, and in 1992 the title Coventry University was adopted. Coventry University offers more than 200 courses, taught by an academic staff of over 600, to 15,000 students. More courses come on stream every year in response to the changing needs of industry and society.

Coventry University is not cocooned in a world of its own: it does not ignore outside influences, but knows how to take advantage of the expertise on its doorstep. It has a long-established relationship with industry, and a long tradition of undertaking training, applied research and consultancy to meet the needs of local, national and international clients.

The challenge

The collaboration of academia and commerce advocated by Coventry University has led to its qualifications gaining recognition among company managers, thereby improving graduates’ job prospects. Dr Jane Reeves, Senior Lecturer at Coventry University explains: “The academic arena has completely changed over the past 10 years. Universities now have to market themselves actively to attract students and gain government funding. The self‑financing nature of today’s student means that ‘job prospects’ is the number one thing they look for.”

However, while the advent of cheaper and more sophisticated computer technology over the past five years has turned data warehousing and data mining into billion pound industries, they are still relatively new topics in higher education circles – despite their academic origin. “Just browsing through job advertisements now, you will find hundreds of jobs requiring SPSS or SAS or general data mining experience. We felt it would be popular module to have in some of our courses,” Dr Reeves comments.

The solution

After deciding to introduce a data mining course module, Coventry University looked for software to support it. They were already familiar with SPSS Inc. products, but had never seen IBM SPSS Modeler* in action. But after contacting consultants and training staff at SPSS Inc.’s Woking office, Dr Reeves’ team were given a professional overview of IBM SPSS Modeler technology and how it could be understood by students. They also gained an insight into the processes behind successful real‑life data mining projects. “More than a 1,000 staff, research students and undergraduates already use SPSS Inc. products at Coventry University, so we weren’t starting from scratch. IBM SPSS Modeler also appealed because of its visual approach,” says Dr Reeves.

In order to assess suitability, three staff from Coventry University attended an introductory course on IBM SPSS Modeler, and decided it was suitable for the students they had in mind. They also thought that the visual approach to data mining would be as novel for students as it was for them.

"Having undertaken IBM SPSS Modeler training – and with advice from friendly SPSS Inc. staff – we bought a licence for the software and the photocopying rights to the introductory course notes. However, the module teaches data mining and is not simply a course in the use of IBM SPSS Modeler.”

More than a 1,000 staff, research students and undergraduates already use SPSS Inc. products at Coventry University, so we weren’t starting from scratch. IBM SPSS Modeler also appealed because of its visual approach.

Dr Jane Reeves
Senior Lecturer
Coventry University

The results

In the academic year 2000/2001, the data mining module was put on for two hours per week for 25 weeks for second year undergraduate students in Information Technology, Computing and Mathematical Sciences, with assessment by course work and examination. The module requires knowledge of descriptive statistics, and attracted only 15 students, mainly from among those studying Information Technology. However, in the following academic year, the module attracted approximately 80 students studying a wide range of degrees.

"We are very impressed by the take up numbers for this new module, which showed a five‑fold increase over the first year. IBM SPSS Modeler has proved itself intuitive to use for the students and staff alike, and SPSS Inc. have been helpful to our cause," Jane Reeves concludes.

Interested in teaching or using data mining? Download the Coventry University PDF here.

*IBM SPSS Modeler, formerly called Clementine®, is part of SPSS Inc.’s Predictive Analytics Software portfolio.