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Learn data sharing with online courses and programs

Data sharing encourages connection and collaboration between researchers and other major stakeholders. Learn data sharing with online courses delivered through edX.

What is data sharing?

Data sharing is the process of making data available to others. Through data sharing, researchers can circulate the same information with multiple people, encouraging transparency, communication, and collaboration. It is used across many industries and includes many different forms of data, ranging from corporate statistics to scientific data.Footnote 1

Data sharing can be particularly integral to the business world, as it can help companies establish connections with customers and the greater community. Publicly available data also encourages greater feedback, which can drive innovation.Footnote 2

But what is meant by data sharing, exactly? Here are a few examples of what data sharing looks like in practice:Footnote 3

  • Companies within the same field share data to gain deeper market insights and identify fraud patterns or potential market threats. 

  • Enterprises share data with customers to establish trust and provide required information about their products or offerings. 

  • Educational institutions share data to gain external insights and improve student outcomes.

  • Social media platforms facilitate extensive data sharing on both personal and corporate levels.

As cybercrime spikes, data sharing is also essential to protect critical infrastructure, providing access to threat information that might otherwise be unavailable to an organization.Footnote 4 By using shared resources, organizations can enhance security, proactively leveraging their partners’ knowledge, experience, and capabilities.Footnote 5

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Data sharing course curriculum

For those interested in learning how to collect, manage, and use data, data sharing classes can help build your understanding of how to work with different forms of data. A data sharing class can provide learners with an opportunity to study data management and ethics. Learners can gain practical experience sharing individual-level research data and exploring the best practices for sharing this data. 

edX offers a variety of learning opportunities for people of all backgrounds and aspirations who want to break into the data world. From full programs that can enable you to earn a bachelor’s degree in data science or even a master’s degree in data science to more focused instruction on specific skills offered through data analytics boot camps, you can leverage the power of edX to build the knowledge base and skills you need to begin working in this field.

Jobs that use data sharing

Data sharing has a wide range of applications. 

If you’re working for an e-commerce brand, you can use data sharing to analyze customer behavior and inform future marketing campaigns. If you’re working for a bank, you can use data sharing to evaluate client finances. And if you’re working for an educational institution, you can use data sharing to identify pedagogical gaps and improve student outcomes.

Across industries, data sharing is a critical responsibility for jobs in data science, cybersecurity, infrastructure and operations, and more. For example, a company might hire big data analysts to quickly and accurately share their research and data so they can: 

  • Better understand their consumer base

  • Make more informed decisions

  • Keep up with industry demands

  • Improve their bottom line

While understanding the processes behind data sharing can be an important skill, professionals who specialize in working with data have many other duties and responsibilities, which can require additional data science and analytics expertise. If you are considering pursuing a career in this field, explore the requirements for different jobs and align your learning pathways to your career aspirations. A specialized boot camp may work well for an experienced data scientist who wants to brush up on a skill, whereas somebody new to the field may choose to learn through a bachelor’s degree or a particular master’s degree program. Every learner is different, but there are also many different options that can fit your needs.

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Frequently asked questions

Data sharing is the process of making data available to others — whether it takes the form of research papers, scholarly publications, corporate statistics, scientific data, or annual reports.

There are plenty of courses available to help you learn data sharing online, and some are self-paced and can be completed in only a few weeks. If you don’t have prior experience, you may wish to enroll in an introductory coding or data sharing training course. If you’re already familiar with the basics, you may want to explore advanced courses.

Data sharing drives continuous innovation, encouraging connection and collaboration between researchers, businesses, educational institutions, and other stakeholders. Publicly available data enables better research and development, and can lead to important findings in various fields.

According to the principles of data sharing, data, metadata, products, and information should be fully and openly shared, subject to both national and international jurisdictional laws and policies.Footnote 6 Those who produce, share, and use the data and metadata must ensure that its authenticity, quality, and integrity are maintained, and that it’s treated with the security requested by the data steward.

Data sharing gives organizations, businesses, educational institutions, and individuals greater access to a wider information pool that can help them make better decisions in the future.Footnote 7 It also saves time, enhances research quality, and fosters collaboration and connection between research teams.