36104 Data Visualisation and Narratives
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Subject handbook information prior to 2021 is available in the Archives.
Credit points: 8 cp
Subject level:
Postgraduate
Result type: Grade, no marksRequisite elaboration/waiver:
Any student wishing to enrol in first- and second-year subjects concurrently, needs to apply for a waiver.
Note
This subject requires attendance at the evening and Saturday sessions, which form important parts of assessed work.
Description
This subject engages students in the power of narrative and visualisation as 'person-centred’ methods for sense making around data. Students explore a range of techniques and open source technologies for visualising different types of data, that could include medical, open government, accounting, business, scientific, satellite, and historical data as a means of generating new insights. Students experiment with and evaluate different methods for communicating insights to a range of stakeholders and domain experts in a chosen field. Through investigating different narrative approaches to 'tell the story', students hone their skills to succinctly and persuasively communicate descriptions of phenomena studied in the data set as well as confidently justify their findings.
Subject learning objectives (SLOs)
Upon successful completion of this subject students should be able to:
SLO:1. | Justify the selection and analysis of data as the basis for ‘data narratives’ for different stakeholders. |
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SLO:2. | Apply a range of visualisation and narrative techniques to a variety of data types. |
SLO:3. | Justify the selection of narrative tools and techniques to illuminate critical aspects of problems. |
SLO:4. | Justify and communicate ‘data narratives’ to stakeholders from a range of industries and contexts drawing on relevant data patterns and analyses. |
Course intended learning outcomes (CILOs)
This subject also contributes specifically to the development of the following course outcomes:
- Making the invisible visible
Use transdisciplinary approaches to seeing and doing to uncover underrepresented, or misrepresented, elements of a system (1.4) - Critiquing trends and theoretical frameworks
Critique contemporary trends and theoretical frameworks in data science for relevance to one's own practice (2.1) - Exploring, interpreting and visualising data
Explore, analyse, manipulate, interpret and visualise data using data science techniques, software and technologies to make sense of data rich environments (2.2) - Designing and managing data investigations
Apply and assess data science concepts, theories, practices and tools for designing and managing data discovery investigations in professional environments that draw upon diverse data sources, including efforts to shed light on underrepresented components (2.4) - Examining and articulating data value
Critically examine the perceived value of data analytics outcomes and clearly articulate implications for different stakeholders and organisations (3.2) - Developing communication skills
Collaborate to develop and refine multimodal communication skills needed to successfully work in data science teams (4.1) - Engaging audiences
Explore and craft interpretative narratives that engage key audiences with data analytics and potential significance for action, at a societal, industrial, organisational, group or individual levels (4.2) - Informing decision making
Develop, test, justify and deliver data project propositions, methodologies, analytics outcomes and recommendations for informing decision-making, both to specialist and non-specialist audiences (4.3)
Contribution to the development of graduate attributes
The subject provides opportunities for you as a student to build your professional toolkit through analysing, manipulating, interpreting and visualising data to develop compelling narratives that help make sense of data rich environments. In doing this you experiment with a range of data visualisation, storytelling and communication approaches to engage key audiences with data analytics. Finally, the subject challenges you to identify potential avenues for action and persuasively justify your recommendations for informing decision-making, both to specialist and non-specialist audiences.
So your experiences as a student in this subject support you to develop the following graduate attributes (GA):
• GA 1 Sociotechnical systems thinking
• GA 2 Creative, analytical and rigorous sense making
• GA 4 Persuasive and robust communication
Teaching and learning strategies
Online Preparation and Assignments: from the pre-semester Preparation and Orientation weeks to the end of the subject students will be completing online activities that are designed to prepare them for intensive workshops on campus and client data challenges. A range of online media applications will be used to provide specific resources and activities that students complete before coming to each on-campus session. Online media also provide the platform to share information and encourage interaction between students, staff, stakeholders and industry experts. This subject uses the CIC Around networked learning tool, for students to develop critical thinking and written communication skills; and peer assessment techniques and tools, for students to reflect on the most effective ways to communicate a message by visualising data.
Intensive Workshops: Dynamic and interactive workshop sessions will include in-class exercises and presentations that provide opportunities to develop innovative practice suited to data science contexts and industry professionals. Presentation and discussion formats involve introductions to innovative practice and tools as well as critical debate and reflection of learning in context. Clients and industry experts will be partners in the program.
Professional Development Portfolio: Portfolio thinking will continue to frame students' curation, consolidation and communication of evidence of their learning and development of graduate attributes and their professional evolution. The portfolio environment provides a key platform for building an individual professional narrative, as well as personal reflection upon and integration of visualisation and ‘story-telling’ work done in class and in teams. Students will be developing their personal ‘toolkit’ of visualisation and narrative strategies and tools within their portfolio. Regular feedback opportunities from peers and the teaching team are built into class sessions, assignments and online activities.
Transdisciplinary Visualisation Challenges: Building upon their developing critical approaches to working in teams, students will collaborate to harness their diverse perspectives to communicate solutions to problems in data science and innovation. Working in teams on 'real life' data challenges, students will together build and share transdisciplinary approaches to visualisations and narratives that can add value to a wide range of ‘real client’ organisations and communities.
Content (topics)
Building compelling visuals: understand design principles that underpin all good visualisations
Mastering tools and techniques: learn to use main stream tools and programming techniques for visualisation
Crafting Narratives: understand and use techniques to tell stories about data
Storytelling with Data: learn how to communicate visually using data
Assessment
Assessment task 1: Story telling with visualisations
Objective(s): | SLO:1, SLO:2, SLO:3 and SLO:4 |
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Type: | Report |
Groupwork: | Group, group assessed |
Weight: | 30% |
Length: | Minimum 700 words |
Criteria: | Part A: Written report
Part B: Oral presentation
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Assessment task 2: In-class quizzes and assessments
Objective(s): | SLO:2 and SLO:3 |
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Type: | Quiz/test |
Groupwork: | Individual |
Weight: | 20% |
Criteria: | Answer quiz questions correctly and complete tutorial tasks on time. |
Assessment task 3: Visual analytics project
Objective(s): | SLO:1, SLO:2, SLO:3 and SLO:4 |
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Type: | Report |
Groupwork: | Individual |
Weight: | 50% |
Length: | 2000 words plus Executive Summary (500 words) and visualizations, excluding appendix which can be of any length. |
Criteria: | Part A: Progress report
Part B: Final report
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Minimum requirements
Students must attempt each assessment task and achieve an overall pass mark in order to pass this subject.