Cloud-Powered Equity

Driving Student Success in Data Analytics

Damien Dupré, DCU Business School

About Me

Since 2019, I have been teaching Data Analytics and Statistics at DCU Business School.

Diversity Issues in Data Analytics

Data Analytics, and STEM domains more broadly, face persistent challenges with diversity.

Gender Imbalance

Women continue to be significantly underrepresented in STEM programmes and professions due to limited role models, implicit biases, and structural inequities.

Socioeconomic Disparities

Individuals from economically disadvantaged backgrounds are much less likely to pursue advanced study or careers in STEM fields.

While many factors explain these issues, some can be directly tackled in class.

Teaching Data Analytics …

… Involves guiding learners to interpret data effectively and apply it to informed decision-making.

This requires introducing key concepts such as data collection, cleaning, and transformation, alongside statistical methods and visualisation techniques.

The teacher’s role extends beyond demonstrating tools such as Excel, SQL, Python, or Tableau but to help students understand when and why to use them.

Teaching Data Analytics

Building trust and confidence in the technologies is essential to ensure students remain engaged.


To increase learner adoption of the taught technologies:

They need to see the output before using the tool;

They should be able to obtain first results quickly;

It is important to limit initial verbose and issues at set up.

Technology Acceptance Model

This matches with past research initiated by Fred Davis and collaborators in 1989.

TAM PEOU Perceived ease of use PU Perceived usefulness A Attitude towards using BI Behavioural intention to use U Actual system use

TAM PEOU Perceived ease of use PU Perceived usefulness PEOU->PU A Attitude towards using PEOU->A PU->A BI Behavioural intention to use PU->BI A->BI U Actual system use

TAM PEOU Perceived ease of use PU Perceived usefulness PEOU->PU A Attitude towards using PEOU->A PU->A BI Behavioural intention to use PU->BI A->BI U Actual system use BI->U

Software vs. Diversity

Locally installed software often creates barriers to learner adoption:

  • Learners must first master basic operations;
  • It takes time and expertise before having a convincing output;
  • Installation is often lengthy and cumbersome, particularly on older or entry-level computers.

Software for Diversity

Cloud-based software mirrors traditional on-premise versions but is hosted on remote servers and accessed through a web browser:

They eliminate installation requirements and are ready for immediate use;

They are independent of the user’s local computing power;

Final outputs published by other users can be accessed freely.

Case Study 1:
Teaching Tableau

Data Visualisation Dashboards

Tableau (Salesforce) is a platform for creating interactive data visualisation dashboards, comparable to Power BI (Microsoft) and Looker Studio (Alphabet).

It was widely used to present COVID-19 data globally.

Originally released as licensed on-premise software, Tableau also offers an open-access cloud version called Tableau Public which has now 5 million of users account created and 11 million of dashboards available online.

Tableau Public

Students can assess what is possible as well as getting inspired.

Free to use, students can immediately login and deep dive in the software.

The only way to save is by publishing online. It makes them accountable and egger to perform.


Using these advantages, EDHEC Business School in France and UNICEF, in partnership with Tableau, have launched the Student Data Viz Challenge.

The Student Data Viz Challenge

Created in 2020, the challenge is open to all students in Europe to design the best dashboards using data from the UNICEF organisation.

Integrating the Challenge’s instructions as an assignment in my Data Analytics and Storytelling course, then leaving the opportunity for the students to participate to the actual challenge if they want to.

Since 2020, DCU students have consistently featured in the Top 10! The highlight came in 2024 when 5 DCU students were placed in the Top 10 including winner and runner-up!

The Student Data Viz Challenge

“After being introduced to Tableau through one of her courses, Federica became immediately captivated by the tool and the ability to transform data into compelling stories. While creating her first dashboard, she felt Tableau was a hidden talent she had just discovered which inspired her to enroll in the EDHC Student Dataviz Challenge. She aimed to create something new and learn along the way but was met with victory. Federica’s goal is to prioritize crafting a clear and engaging narrative over simply explaining the data tables and their construction.” https://www.tableau.com/blog/datafam-roundup-july-8-12-2024

Case Study 2:
Teaching and

Coding for Data Reporting

While the first steps into coding are slow and tedious, using cloud-based solutions to bypass the frustrating stage of software installation is essential.

Google Colab to Teach Python

Google Colab is a cloud solution giving access for free to Jupyter Notebooks (interface to run Python Code).

Initially released in 2017, it is now wildly adopted because it allows user to start coding without installing the language and regardless of their systems’ characteristics.

For Business Students in Master’s, it offers a ideal platform to start learning without running into difficulties. When adding GenAI “vibe coding” solutions, all students can expend their skills very quickly.

Posit Cloud to Teach R

Posit Cloud is a freemium service providing an online environment with the R coding language and the RStudio Integrated Development Environment (IDE).

While the platform only offers 20h/month free for each student, it is enough to introduce the language and the IDE.

PhD Students from all disciplines thrive in this online coding environment. They can immediately start to investigate their data and obtain results.

Going Forward

Supporting under represented groups starts by adapting the way we teach.

Tools are not neutral. Licensed and on-premise software are not only intrusive but also generating inequalities due to their initial complexity.

Teaching Data Analytics with cloud-based software, helps to highlight the Ease-of-use and the Usefulness of the tools which are used as leverage to promote learners success.

If curious about my method, all slides are available online here: https://damien-dupre.github.io/courses/


Thanks for your attention

and don’t hesitate to ask if you have any questions!

@damien-dupre
@damien-dupre

https://damien-dupre.github.io
damien.dupre@dcu.ie