Start Here (TL;DR)

by Mike Gleicher on August 20, 2018

This is a (TL;DR) for the initial course web.

There is a pile of stuff on the course web for you to look at. Enough that it might be hard to find everything. Here’s a summary of the key points, with links…

  • This course is about principles of vis, not necessarily about implementation details.
  • Class attendance is required. You should bring things to draw with.
  • You are not required to buy any books, but there are some you might want to get. There is a lot of reading for this class.
  • Each week there will be reading, an online discussion, a seek and find, and lectures. In many weeks, there will be in-class exercises and parts of the “design challenges” (mini projects).
  • Everything counts towards your grade, even if it isn’t graded.
  • There is a late policy.
  • I am upfront about my philosophy about visualization, and the class is designed around that.
  • I have tried to articulate the learning goals for the class.

A List of Pages you need to read:

  1. Course Announcement (general info) – to get an idea of what this class is
  2. What is this class and why? – since I am making it explicit, you should know
  3. Syllabus (class info – not the detailed schedule)
  4. Course Policies (page, stuff could be on the syllabus)
  5. Books for the class
  6. The parts of class – describes the different class activities, and their rules
  7. How to Visualize – this will be a reading for week 1, but it might give you a better sense of my philosophy.
  8. (optional) Learning Goals – I have tried to make explicit what I want students to learn from this class
  9. (optional) Readings – This is a list of all the readings for the semester. They will be given to you a week at a time. But if you want to see the whole list (which is kindof intimidating), you can see it on this page.

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