The University of Auckland has launched its first official Massive Online Open Course (MOOC) on the UK FutureLearn platform.

The 'Data to Insight: An Introduction to Data Analysis' MOOC teaches students how to find the stories that are told by statistical data.

The University's Professor Christopher Wild says that enrolling in the MOOC is a great opportunity to gain free knowledge in fundamental concepts and practical skills that turn data into insights.

“The course caters to those who are new to the subject and those who want to experience the world of statistics from a fresh perspective and is an entirely novel approach with intuitive, purpose-built software that teaches analysis capability very quickly,” Wild says.

The 8-week MOOC takes about three hours a week, and begins with fundamental concepts and goes beyond Year 13. The course uses a visualisation approach to fast-track the understanding of data.

Wild says that data has become everyone's business.

"Our goal is to help you think like a statistician so the course also teaches the limitations of data and how you can avoid being misled.”

Enrolments are open until 30 November 2014.