Data Visualization

1.5 Credits · Level: Graduate, Undergraduate

The course will help students develop the skill of how to create and interpret a wide range of visualizations. Beginning with basic visualizations (such as bar, pie and line charts), students will build their skills towards advanced visualizations such as heat maps, sansky plots and compound plots. The course will provide an overview of how to recognize when visualizations are being manipulated to mislead audiences, how to use common tools including Excel, python and free online platforms to develop visualizations; and how to choose visual products for optimal impact and for accessibility. The course will also provide some exposure to interactive visualizations and how they are developed. Students will be expected to complete a short paper where they analyze how a publication of their choosing uses visualizations to manipulate readers. For the final module deliverable, students will also be expected to create a short presentation on an international affairs-related topic of their choice. They will be responsible for finding and visualizing data related to their chosen topic as well as developing a visualization-based presentation that seeks to convince the audience of a specific argument or view-point