This article aims to reflect on the problem of the development of data literacy, as a frontier of numeracy in the context of higher education and specifically in the case of initial educators’ training. Therefore, a case study generated in this specific context will be introduced, supporting the analysis of two issues: first, the place that can be conferred to data literacy as part of a set of transversal academic skills, attempting to understand the numerous difficulties and motivational issues that emerge among the students along the exploration and adoption of Open Data as open educational resources. In particular, it should be emphasized that in this case we are talking about university students who are not required to master statistics and data analysis as professional skills. In secundis, the article considers the problems of learning design when dealing with the use of Open Data in higher education. The results of this article point to a number of recommendations for three levels of analysis within educational research and areas of innovation: macro (i.e. socio–economic and cultural systems), meso (i.e. the institutional system and teaching/learning design strategies) and micro (i.e. the class and the individual’s learning processes).

Keywords: data literacy, open data, higher education teaching and learning, educators’ initial training.