Digital Storytelling

3 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

To be successful, a data scientist needs to have many skills beyond coding. This course will teach you how to communicate your findings and data to users, clients, stakeholders to make the biggest impact on your organization and your career. The course consists of two types of activities: lectures and exercises. Lectures provide a theoretical foundation of storytelling; the exercises are designed to help you learn practical skills that work best for different audiences. You will learn what fits your personal style and practice the power of storytelling that can inform and influence decision-makers. Writing topics will include technical writing, writing for action, and writing for communication in data science with respect to non-technical readers. Storytelling and visualization topics will include methods for presenting results as conclusions, presenting results as actionable items, and creating visual narratives. Interactive visualizations will focus not only on clearly illustrating information within data for use in decision-making, but also for use in discovery and exploration, as well as question generation. Topics in expression, color use, and style will be included. You will learn how to make a point with your charts, and how to make your charts clear to the audience. Further topics in the area of information presentation will include speaking with clarity to a team, group, or large audience. All parts of the course will contain applications that focus on the utilization of the results of data science and analytics to promote public good, to encourage social concerns and equality, and to support change in areas such as business, public health, and public policy.