Teaching Data Visualization in First-Year Courses

Ryan Clement

Middlebury College

08.07.2019

Research so far...

• Interviewed 6 faculty members (working on scheduling ~7 more)
• Disciplines covered:
  • Geography, geology, economics (so far)
  • Math, History of Art, Sociology/Anthropology, Chinese (to come, hopefully) 
• Semi-structured interviews, topics include:
  • Participant's own past re: data visualization
  • Teaching data visualization in general
  • Teaching data visualization to first-year students
  • The library's role in data visualization

Emerging themes

• Need for Goldilocks data
• Tools that are robust, but without a steep learning curve
• Lack of confidence in student with 'learning about technology'

Challenges in the process

• Scheduling interviews during the summer
• Faculty saying 'but I don't teach this, so I won't be a help'
• Small pool of faculty from particularly important disciplines (e.g. economics, geography, etc...)
• Many faculty are making this up as they go
  • a challenge, but a strong sign that our work is necessary!

Future questions

• What about people who don't teach data visualization, but could -- why don't they?
• How do these themes resonate at other small liberal arts colleges? What about large research institutions?
• Can I find someone who would be willing to test any modules, rubrics, etc?

Thanks!

Ryan Clement

@rkclement