Data Academy

A training program for City and County of San Francisco staff. Explore, refine and enhance skills in data use, data management, and process improvement.

The Data Academy is produced in partnership with the Office of the Controller.

Course Catalog

Delivering Better Data & Research Insights [OPEN]

When someone approaches you with a problem, how do you ensure that the method you’ve chosen will give you answers? How do you distill problems into actionable research or data questions? And once you’ve got your question, how do you decide between quantitative or qualitative methods?

Intro to ArcGIS Online [OPEN]

This workshop will cover display and exploration of spatial data, geo-located surveys, dashboards and Story Maps. At the end of the workshop you will be able to import data, and do some basic analysis such as finding the nearest facility, finding relationships, determining how many of something are within an area.

Intro to ArcGIS Pro [OPEN]

This workshop will leverage City of San Francisco geospatial data to demonstrate creating and editing GIS data as well as performing basic intermediate level spatial analysis techniques. These topics will include: Zonal statistics, spatial joins, and attribute field calculations.

Intro to Project Management

This course will cover fundamental concepts in project management and is meant for a beginner audience. It will focus on the use of project management tools for improved day-to-day management of and contribution to City projects.

Intro to Python for GIS Analysis [OPEN]

This workshop will cover basic python use in GIS analysis. By completing this workshop, you will be able to read GIS data from various sources, manipulate data in tabular and spatial forms, and perform basic GIS analyses. We'll be covering these workflows with both the ArcGIS API for Python and open source packages.

Intro to QGIS [OPEN]

By completing this workshop you will be able to use QGIS to tinker with spatial data, perform analysis to answer interesting questions, and make beautiful maps. Whether you are totally new to GIS, or have experience with other GIS software and would like to transfer those skills to a non-proprietary platform, this workshop is a great place to start.

Intro to R

In this introductory class, participants will learn practical skills necessary for reading data into R from external sources, manipulating the data, and visualizing it.  The course will also cover other basic programming concepts as they are implemented in R.

Intro to SQL [OPEN]

Data analysis and manipulation is often done in Excel.  However, with larger and more complex datasets, a relational database (e.g. Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server/Access) is often a more popular and effective choice. This course introduces attendees to a global database language SQL (Structured Query Language).

Intro to Statistics [OPEN]

In this two-part introductory statistics course, participants will learn the building blocks necessary to understand the data they work with and conduct more advanced analysis in the future. Statistical concepts covered include: probabilities, data variability measures and distributions, significance testing, and more.

Intro to Survey Design [OPEN]

This classroom-based workshop is an interactive course meant for beginner to intermediate surveyors. It covers basic topics like: when should you survey, how to talk about surveys, and how to design a survey.

Leveraging the City's Open Data [OPEN]

This course helps you unlock features of the City's open data portal to improve your own data workflows.

Intermediate Power BI [OPEN]

This course is the 2nd in DataSF’s series on PowerBI.  This course will provide a strong foundation in Data Structure and Data Modeling through the tool of PowerBI.  Analyst tasked with getting multiple data sources to talk to each other in PowerBI will find this class of use.

Intro to Power BI [OPEN]

This course is designed to give you a strong foundation in Power BI and a jump-start on your 1st Power BI project. Power BI is a powerful, low-cost program that focuses on the entire business intelligence chain: from data wrangling to visualizing to sharing to automation.

Lean 101

Have you ever wanted to change the way your workplace operates but didn’t know where to begin? Wish you could clear the obstacles in your daily work or reduce bureaucracy for your customers?  This training aims to introduce you to the Lean methodology and the tools you need to rapidly improve the work you do every day.

Service Design in Government

Ever wanted to use design thinking to create more effective project outcomes? Plan to have fun practicing these techniques and then commit to trying to apply what youíve learned to one or more of your projects in 24 hours.