The Search for Everything: data Analytics and Storytelling in the 21st Century
Undergraduate
MUR-MSP202 2025Course information for 2025 intake View information for 2024 course intake
Work with data and see the impact you can have on everyday life. From collection to analysis, you’ll explore how data tells stories, informs decisions, and influences human behaviour. Get creative with visualisation. Get ethical with your approaches.
- Study method
- 100% online
- Assessments
- 100% online
- Enrol by
- 16 Feb 2025
- Entry requirements
- Prior study needed
- Duration
- 13 weeks
- Price from
- $1,165
- Upfront cost
- $0
- Loan available
- HECS-HELP and FEE-HELP available
The Search for Everything: data Analytics and Storytelling in the 21st Century
About this subject
On successful completion of the subject you should be able to:
- Describe the impact of data analytics on society and broad industry sectors
- Analyse and discuss ethical issues impacting the use of data analytics
- Apply data analysis skills, learning to clean, prepare, and manipulate data
- Present data-driven insights in a range of formats for internal and external stakeholders.
- Introducing Data Analysis
- Types of Analytics / Types of Data
- Data in the World of Work
- Ethics & Data
- Cleaning Data
- Manipulating Data
- Presenting Data
- Creative Visualisation
- Becoming a Data Storyteller
- Presenting to Stakeholders
- Analytics & Human Behaviour
- The Future of Data Analytics
Note:If you study this subject in Winter, the subject will be a shorter duration (5 weeks) and will require at least 20 hours of study per week.
Data analytics is present in every moment of our lives. Smartphones, smart cars, smart fridges. Netflix, Stan, Amazon, and Facebook. Strava and Nike providing feedback on your current workout. FlyBuys, Qantas Frequent Flyers, and Woolworths Rewards. At the heart of comprehensive data collection and analysis is a desire and quest to understand ‘everything’, and this unit invites students into every layer of this data-driven world. MSP202 teaches students how to clean, manipulate, and transform data into creative visualisations using Microsoft Excel to tell a story for invested stakeholders. Students examine the impact of data analytics in the context of their career and the world of work more broadly, including the spheres of marketing and communications, journalism, the creative arts, sport, health, and education, grounding practical skills in a social context and reinforcing the how and why of data analysis. We explore ethical issues relating to data surveillance, the positive and negative implications of data mining on human behaviour, and the analytics machines central to the functioning of Google, Amazon, Facebook, and Uber. The unit offers students the skills to engage with data with an awareness of ethical considerations, and the capacity to manipulate that data to make sense of it for invested stakeholders, telling a story that has the capacity to change the world.
Please Note: All students studying at Murdoch University will need to complete the compulsory unit, Murdoch Academic Passport (MAP100), which only takes 2-3 hours to complete online. Find out more: http://goto.murdoch.edu.au/MurdochAcademicPassport
- Presentation (40%)
- Essay (30%)
- Case Study (30%)
For textbook details check your university's handbook, website or learning management system (LMS).
This research-based university in Perth has a strong interdisciplinary focus and a reputation for outstanding teaching and ground-breaking research. With more than 25,000 students and 2,400 staff from over 90 countries, and campuses in Dubai and Singapore, Murdoch embraces free thinking, shared ideas and knowledge to make a difference, and Open Universities Australia is certainly part of that.
Learn more about Murdoch University.
Explore Murdoch courses.
- QS Ranking 2024:
- 27
- Times Higher Education Ranking 2024:
- 26
Entry requirements
Others
To enrol in this subject, you must have passed a minimum of 12 credit points at 100-level.
Additional requirements
No additional requirements
Study load
- 0.125 EFTSL
- This is in the range of 10 to 12 hours of study each week.
Equivalent full time study load (EFTSL) is one way to calculate your study load. One (1.0) EFTSL is equivalent to a full-time study load for one year.
Find out more information on Commonwealth Loans to understand what this means to your eligibility for financial support.
What to study next?
Once you’ve completed this subject it can be credited towards one of the following courses
Bachelor of Global Security (Terrorism and Counterterrorism Studies)
Undergraduate
MUR-BGS-DEGBachelor of Arts (International Aid and Development)
Undergraduate
MUR-AID-DEGBachelor of Arts (Sustainable Development)
Undergraduate
MUR-ASD-DEGBachelor of Arts (Community Development)
Undergraduate
MUR-CDV-DEGSingle subject FAQs
What’s a single subject?
Single subjects are the individual components that make up a degree. With Open Universities Australia, you’re able to study many of them as stand-alone subjects, including postgraduate single subjects, without having to commit to a degree.
Each of your subjects will be held over the course of a study term, and they’ll usually require 10 to 12 hours of study each week. Subjects are identified by a title and a code, for example, Developmental Psychology, PSY20007.
How can I use single subjects to get into a full degree?
First, find the degree that you would like to study on our website.
If that degree allows entry via undergraduate subjects, there will be information about this under the Entry Requirements section. You will find a list of 2-4 open enrolment subjects you need to successfully complete to qualify for admission into that qualification.
Once you pass those subjects, you will satisfy the academic requirements for the degree, and you can apply for entry.
Our student advisors are here to help you take that next step, so don’t hesitate to reach out when you’re ready! We’ve also made it easier to figure out the right way to get started on our pathways page.
Can anyone help me choose a subject?
Our student advisors are more than happy to help you plan your online study. Get in touch with an advisor by:
How do I pay for my subjects?
You can pay up front with your credit card, or you may be eligible for a HELP loan from the Australian government depending on your citizenship status and where you’ll live during your studies.
For more information about how to pay for your studies visit our fees page or contact a student advisor.
How do I enrol?
When you’ve made your choice, click ‘Enrol now’ on the relevant course page and follow the prompts to begin your enrolment. We’ll ask you to supply some supporting documentation, including proof of your identity, your tax file number, and a unique student identifier (USI) during this process.
Your university will get in touch with you via email to confirm whether or not your application has been successful.
If you get stuck at any time, reach out to us and we’ll talk you through it.
You can also take a look at our online self-service enrolling instructions.
When is the cut-off date for enrolling?
Close of enrolment times vary between universities and subjects. You can check the cut-off dates for upcoming study terms by visiting key dates.