What is Data Collection?

Name: What is Data Collection?
Author: Bernie Kuan

Large volumes of data are constantly being generated around us from many different sources whether we realize it or not. To properly leverage data for your…

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Course: On-Demand

In these lessons, we'll introduce data collection and explain its importance, while also cover the types of data available for collection, which are primary data, secondary data, and third-party data. Let's get started. More data is generated daily than ever before. Knowing how to collect and organize it to produce meaningful outcomes has become a requirement for working within any modern organization. To transform data into meaningful, impactful business results, it's important to first collect, organize, and analyze it. Regardless of whether you're trying to understand underlying factors contributing to a business's decreasing revenue, or you're trying to find the best type of customer demographic to target in an ad campaign, it's helpful to understand what type of data is available, where to find different data, what data is relevant, and how to go about collecting valuable data points. Data is generated and collected all the time. In fact, every time we interact with the world, data is being generated and collected. Sometimes it's direct and obvious, like with emails, mail, or telephone calls asking to collect your personal information or your opinion. Other times, the data collected about you is less obvious, like when you're shopping and a store collects data about your purchase transactions, credit card information, and if you allow them, personal information such as your address, phone number, and email. When you log onto a website that captures the pages you're looking at, the buttons you click, and how much time you spend on different parts of the site. Or when you turn on electronics or your stove and the utility company collects information about your electric or gas usage. Companies invest a lot of money to innovate ways to collect data from customers. One reason for this is the more data a company collects, the more they can leverage that data to generate or improve revenue. For example, a retail store can use information collected about purchasing behavior to better place relevant products that are more likely to sell and make customers buy more. A website can leverage your interactions to understand how to improve their user experience to keep you on their site longer or to offer advertising space. And utility companies need to collect your usage data to charge you for the use of electricity and gas. Manufacturing data is extremely valuable for a company, because it can both empower strategic analytic insights to drive revenue and reduce costs, as well as increase the efficiency and output of their operations.

Beginner Provider : Bernie Kuan 5 Lessons · 22m in English

Course Description

Large volumes of data are constantly being generated around us from many different sources whether we realize it or not. To properly leverage data for your goals, the data collection process is critical. There are many techniques to capturing data, but before that, we must first be able to identify the different sources of data you can collect it from.

What You'll Learn

Recognize the importance of data collection and the role it plays in leveraging data for your goals
Identify the different sources from which data can be collected
Distinguish between primary, secondary, and third-party data
Evaluate the benefits and drawbacks of primary, secondary, and third-party data
Trace how data moves through the data lifecycle

Key Takeaways

Large volumes of data are constantly generated around us from many different sources, whether we realize it or not.
The data collection process is critical to properly leveraging data for your goals.
Before applying techniques to capture data, you must first identify the different sources you can collect it from.
Data can be classified as primary, secondary, or third-party, and each type carries its own benefits and drawbacks.

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this course cover?

It covers the importance of data collection, the data lifecycle, identifying data sources, and collecting primary, secondary, and third-party data.

What is the difference between primary, secondary, and third-party data in this course?

The course teaches you to determine the differences between primary, secondary, and third-party data and to understand the benefits and drawbacks of each.

What skills will I gain from this course?

You will build skills in data capture, data collection, data profiling, data selection, working with source data, and survey data collection.

How is the course structured?

The course is organized into lessons covering The Need to Collect Data, The Data Lifecycle, Collecting Primary Data, Collecting Secondary Data, and Collecting Third-party Data.