foundations data data everywhere module 5 answers

In this post, I provide accurate answers and detailed explanations for Module 5: Endless career possibilities of Course 1: Foundations: Data, Data Everywhere.

Whether you’re preparing for quizzes or brushing up on your knowledge, these insights will help you master the concepts effectively. Let’s dive into the questions and their detailed explanations.

Test your knowledge on making fair business decisions

Practice Quiz

1. What steps do data analysts take to ensure fairness when collecting data? Select all that apply.

  • Clean the data provided
  • Use an inclusive sample population ✅
  • Understand the social context ✅
  • Include data self-reported by individuals ✅

Explanation:
To ensure fairness, analysts should:

  1. Use inclusive sample populations to represent diverse groups.
  2. Understand the social context to identify potential biases or disparities in the data.
  3. Include self-reported data when possible to reflect the true experiences and identities of individuals.

2. Avens Engineering needs more engineers, so they purchase ads on a job search website. The website’s data reveals that 86% of engineers are men. Based on that number, an analyst decides that men are more likely to be successful applicants, so they target the ads to male job seekers. What should the analyst have done instead?

  • Only show ads for the engineering jobs to women.
  • Decline to accept ads from Avens Engineering because of fairness concerns.
  • Make sure their recommendation doesn’t create or reinforce bias ✅
  • Let Avens Engineering decide which type of applicants to target ads to.

Explanation:
The analyst should avoid reinforcing existing biases, such as targeting ads exclusively to men based on historical data. Instead, they should promote practices that ensure equal opportunities for all qualified candidates, irrespective of gender.

3. On a railway line, peak ridership occurs between 7:00 AM and 5:00 PM. The fairness of a passenger survey could be improved by over-sampling data from which group?

  • Nighttime riders ✅
  • Daytime riders
  • Female passengers
  • Male passengers

Explanation:
Since peak ridership occurs during the daytime, nighttime riders are likely underrepresented in the survey data. Over-sampling nighttime riders would ensure their perspectives are included, leading to a more balanced and fair dataset.

4. A real estate company needs to hire a human resources assistant. The owner asks a data analyst to help them decide where to advertise the job opening. The analyst learns that the majority of human resources professionals are women, validates this finding with research, and targets ads to a women's community college. This is fair because the analyst conducted research to make sure the information about gender breakdown of human resources professionals was accurate.

  • True
  • False ✅

Explanation:
Targeting ads solely to a women’s community college is not fair, even if the research indicates a gender disparity in the profession. Such targeting can perpetuate stereotypes and exclude qualified candidates from other demographics.

*Module 5 challenge*

Graded Quiz

5. An online gardening magazine wants to understand why its subscriber numbers have been increasing. A data analyst discovers that significantly more people subscribe when the magazine has its annual 50%-off sale. This is an example of what?

  • Analyzing consumer preferences using artificial intelligence
  • Analyzing customer buying behaviors ✅
  • Analyzing social media engagement
  • Analyzing the number of customers by calculating daily foot traffic

Explanation:
The analysis focuses on how customers respond to price discounts, which is an example of examining buying behaviors.

6. Fill in the blank: A doctor’s office has discovered that patients are waiting 20 minutes longer for their appointments than in past years. To help solve this problem, a data analyst could investigate how many nurses are on staff at a given time compared to the number of _____.

  • doctors seeing new patients
  • patients with appointments ✅
  • negative comments about the wait times on social media
  • doctors on staff at the same time

7. A problem is an obstacle to be solved, an issue is a topic to investigate, and a question is designed to discover information.

  • True ✅
  • False

8. What is a question or problem that a data analyst answers for a business?

  • Mission statement
  • Hypothesis
  • Complaint
  • Business task ✅

9. Fill in the blank: Data-driven decision-making is described as using _____ to guide business strategy.

  • gut instinct
  • visualizations
  • facts ✅
  • intuition

10. It’s possible for conclusions drawn from data analysis to be both true and unfair.

  • True
  • False

11. A data analyst is analyzing fruit and vegetable sales at a grocery store. They’re able to find data on everything except red onions. What’s the best course of action?

  • Ask a teammate for help finding data on red onions. ✅
  • Exclude red onions from the analysis.
  • Exclude all onion varieties from the analysis.
  • Use the data on white onions instead, as they’re both onion varieties.

12. Collaborating with a social scientist to provide insights into human bias and social contexts is an effective way to avoid bias in your data.

  • True
  • False 

13. A restaurant hires a data analyst to determine the best times to have the restaurant open. Which of the following methods can the data analyst use to help build a better schedule for the restaurant? Select all that apply.

  • Analyze weekly weather data
  • Analyze staffing levels for different days
  • Examine hourly customer numbers ✅
  • Survey customers on their preferred times to dine ✅

14. A restaurant has noticed that customers often wait longer in line than in previous years. How could a data analyst help solve this problem?

  • Analyze the average sales amount per customer
  • Analyze customer survey results about the preferred opening hours of the restaurant
  • Analyze the number of staff on shift at any time ✅
  • Analyze the products customers are purchasing

15. Fill in the blank: A business task is described as the _____ a data analyst answers for a business.

  • solution
  • complaint
  • question ✅
  • comment

16. When you make decisions using observation and intuition as a guide, you only see part of the picture. What can improve your decision-making?

  • Using data ✅
  • Using assumptions
  • Creating surveys
  • Being decisive

17. Data analysts ensure their analysis is fair for what reason?

  • Fairness helps them avoid biased conclusions. ✅
  • Fairness helps them stay organized.
  • Fairness helps them communicate with stakeholders.
  • Fairness helps them pick and choose which data to include from a dataset.

18. A large hotel chain sees about 500 customers per week. A data analyst working there is gathering data through customer satisfaction surveys. They are anxious to begin analysis, so they start analyzing the data as soon as they receive 50 survey responses. This is an example of what? Select all that apply.

  • Failing to include diverse perspectives in data collection ✅
  • Failing to collect data anonymously
  • Failing to reward customers for participating in the survey
  • Failing to have a large enough sample size ✅

19. An online gardening magazine wants to understand why its subscriber numbers have been increasing. What kind of reports can a data analyst provide to help answer that question? Select all that apply.

  • Reports that describe how many customers shared positive comments about the gardening magazine on social media in the past year ✅
  • Reports that predict the success of sales leads to secure future subscribers
  • Reports that examine how a recent 50%-off sale affected the number of subscription purchases ✅
  • Reports that compare past weather patterns to the number of people asking gardening questions to their social media ✅

20. Fill in the blank: In data analytics, a question is _____.

  • an obstacle or complication that needs to be worked out
  • a way to discover information ✅
  • a topic to investigate
  • a subject to analyze

21. What must a data analyst establish before they can start to plan the best approach to gather and analyze information?

  • The business task ✅
  • The statement
  • The complaint
  • The solution

22. What is the process of using facts to guide business strategy?

  • Data-driven decision-making ✅
  • Data ethics
  • Data visualization
  • Data programming

23. A data analyst is developing a model. They start by gathering data for groups that are underrepresented in a sample. What strategy could they employ to ensure these groups are represented fairly?

  • Oversample the underrepresented group ✅
  • Sample the underrepresented group normally
  • Combine the underrepresented group with another group
  • Exclude the underrepresented group from the sample

24. A restaurant is trying to develop more effective staffing strategies. A data analyst recognizes that there are significantly fewer customers earlier in the business day. They conclude that opening later would be more effective for staffing. What is this an example of?

  • Creating efficiencies by analyzing customer foot traffic ✅
  • Tailoring products to consumer buying habits
  • Creating more effective customer communication
  • Gathering customer opinions about business changes

25. A restaurant has noticed many popular dishes are running out early in the day. How could a data analyst help identify a solution to this problem? Select all that apply.

  • Analyze ordering patterns of those products ✅
  • Examine the number of sales of those products ✅
  • Examine overall daily sales of the restaurant ✅
  • Analyze the number of staff on shift during peak times

26. When working for a restaurant, a data analyst is asked to examine and report on the daily sales data from year to year to help with making more efficient staffing decisions. What is this an example of?

  • A business task ✅
  • An issue
  • A solution
  • A breakthrough

27. Data-driven decision-making is using facts to guide business strategy. The benefits include which of the following? Select all that apply.

  • Getting a complete picture of a problem and its causes ✅
  • Combining observation with objective data ✅
  • Using data analytics to find the best possible solution to a problem ✅
  • Making the most of intuition and gut instinct

Explanation:
Data-driven decision-making uses factual insights to form strategies. It avoids relying solely on intuition or gut instinct.

28. A data analyst is analyzing fruit and vegetable sales at a grocery store. They’re able to find data on everything except red onions. If they exclude red onions from the analysis, this would be an example of creating or reinforcing bias.

  • True ✅
  • False

29. A hotel is trying to gather data on their guests' satisfaction with their stay. Which of the following options would best help the hotel account for potential bias in their data?

  • Surveying guests at random times throughout the year ✅
  • Only surveying guests who have booked their stay through a certain third-party website
  • Only surveying guests who have stayed at the hotel during peak season
  • Only surveying guests who have stayed at the hotel for more than 3 nights

Explanation:
Random sampling across different times ensures a diverse representation of guest experiences, reducing the likelihood of bias.

30. A restaurant is struggling to accurately staff for the different daily customer volumes. On some days, there are many servers and few customers. On other days, the restaurant is very busy and there are not enough servers and kitchen staff. What reports could a data analyst use to create more efficient staffing strategies? Select all that apply.

  • Reports of past and future reservations ✅
  • Reports of past weather patterns in the area of the restaurant
  • Reports using historical sales data to predict sales for the current day/date ✅
  • Reports of planned local events in the area of the restaurant ✅

31. Fill in the blank: In data analytics, a topic to investigate is also known as a(n) _____.

  • theme
  • issue ✅
  • question
  • statement

32. When a choice is made between good, bad, or a combination of consequences based on facts, it is also known as what?

  • Data-driven decision-making ✅
  • Data ethics
  • Data visualization
  • Data programming

33. At what point in the data analysis process should a data analyst consider fairness?

  • When decisions are made based on the conclusions
  • When data collection begins ✅
  • When data is being organized for reporting
  • When conclusions are presented

34. A restaurant is considering changing their operating hours. They survey customers that come in between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. to get feedback on this potential change. What can the restaurant do to ensure the data analysis process is fair?

  • Expand the times when they survey customers ✅
  • Survey only repeat customers
  • Reward customers for participating in the survey
  • Survey people walking by on the street

35. A doctor’s office discovers that patients are waiting 20 minutes longer for their appointments than in past years. In what ways could a data analyst help solve this problem? Select all that apply.

  • Analyze the average length of an appointment this year compared to past years. ✅
  • Analyze the number of patients seen per day compared to past years. ✅
  • Analyze a recent change in the average rating for the doctor’s office on social media.
  • Analyze how many doctors and nurses are on staff at a given time compared to the number of patients with appointments ✅

Explanation:
These actions directly address factors that influence wait times, such as patient volume, appointment duration, and staffing levels. Social media ratings are unrelated to this operational issue.

36. Fill in the blank: Fairness is achieved when data analysis doesn’t create or _____ bias.

  • reinforce ✅
  • constrain
  • highlight
  • resolve

37. A gym wants to start offering exercise classes. A data analyst plans to survey 10 people to determine which classes would be most popular. To ensure the data collected is fair, what steps should they take? Select all that apply.

  • Ensure participants represent a variety of profiles and backgrounds. ✅
  • Collect data anonymously. ✅ 
  • Survey only people who don’t currently go to the gym.
  • Increase the number of participants. ✅

38. A doctor’s office has discovered that patients are waiting 20 minutes longer for their appointments than in past years. A data analyst could help solve this problem by analyzing how many doctors and nurses are on staff at a given time compared to the number of patients with appointments.

  • True ✅
  • False

39. Fill in the blank: Once an analyst has identified a problem for a business, they establish a(n)_____ to help inform the process of gathering the correct information.

  • issue
  • business task ✅
  • statement
  • solution

40. Which of the following best describes what fairness in data analytics means?

  • Ensuring that analysis does not create or reinforce bias ✅
  • Including data from dominant groups
  • Collecting data objectively
  • Including self-reported data

41. A college IT department needs to reduce the number of computers on campus for student use. How could a data analyst help identify a solution to this problem?

  • Analyze the number of classes schedules across all classrooms
  • Analyze the utilization of the computer labs on campus ✅
  • Analyze data on the number of students enrolled
  • Analyze the square footage of all computer labs on campus

42. Data analysts answer questions and solve problems. These are called business tasks.

  • True ✅
  • False

Explanation:
Business tasks involve solving problems and answering questions that are crucial for achieving organizational goals.

43. While working on an analysis, a data analyst learns that their team did not account for bias when they originally gathered the data. How might this factor affect the conclusion produced by the analysis?

  • The analysis could result in a low sample size.
  • The analysis could create a modeling error.
  • The analysis could lead to a lack of anonymity.
  • The analysis could present an incomplete picture. ✅

44. In data analytics, what is the term for an obstacle to be solved?

  • Question
  • Issue
  • Problem ✅
  • Solution

45. Fill in the blank: As a data analyst considering problems that involve people and their behaviors and activities, it’s important to take into account the complicated _____ that could create bias in conclusions.

  • social context ✅
  • company politics
  • performance
  • attendance habits

46. Describe the difference between a question and a problem in data analytics.

  • A question is a topic to investigate, whereas a problem is a subject to investigate.
  • A question can have many answers, whereas a problem only has one solution.
  • A question is uncertain, whereas a problem is clearly specified.
  • A question is designed to discover information, whereas a problem is an obstacle or complication that needs to be solved. ✅

47. Fill in the blank: A business task is described as the _____ a data analyst answers for a business.

  • complaint
  • comment
  • question ✅
  • solution

48. Fill in the blank: _____ in data analytics is when the data analysis process does not create or reinforce bias.

  • Predictability
  • Transparency
  • Fairness ✅
  • Consideration

49. A data analyst at a restaurant analyzes data about past sales and customer trends. They identify that the restaurant does not generate enough revenue to pay the staff whenever the restaurant is open before 4 p.m. The restaurant then adjusts their hours of operation to open at 4 p.m. What is this an example of?

  • Using intuition to create efficiencies
  • Following data ethics
  • Survey data gathering
  • Data-driven decision-making ✅

50. A problem is an obstacle to be solved, an issue is a topic to investigate, and a question is designed to discover information.

  • True ✅
  • False

51. A data analyst focuses much of their work effort for a business on what?

  • Complaints
  • Strategies
  • Breakthroughs
  • Business tasks ✅

52. When reviewing student data, a data analyst calculates course pass rates across the entire student population in two ways: once for students in academic support programs and once for students not utilizing academic support. What would be an example of a factor creating a bias in this example?

  • Ensuring a large enough sample size is used
  • Picking and choosing data from the data set
  • Not accounting for opportunities to utilize support programs ✅
  • Considering systemic issues that may influence data

Explanation:
Failing to account for varying opportunities to access academic support programs can skew the results and create bias in the analysis.

53. Fill in the blank: A problem is an obstacle to be solved, an issue is a topic to investigate, and a _____ is designed to discover information.

  • question ✅
  • breakthrough
  • business task
  • theme

Explanation:
A question is formulated to guide the process of discovering specific information or insights.

54. Which of the following are examples of fairness in data analysis? Select all that apply.

  • Making sure a sample population represents all groups ✅
  • Considering systematic factors that may influence data ✅
  • Picking and choosing which data to include from a dataset
  • Factoring in social contexts that could create bias in conclusions ✅

Explanation:
Fairness involves ensuring representation, considering systemic factors, and factoring in social contexts. Picking and choosing data selectively introduces bias and should not be selected.

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