Survey Results for Surveys 2, 3 and 4

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Here are some summaries of Surveys 2-4. These really are giving me some insights on how class is going. I really do read them, and they really do help.

I had read these in a timely fashion, but later realized I never summarized them for you.

And I still “owe” you the video about Treemaps.

Survey 2 Highlights

  • 20% of class comfortable with JavaScript, 25% percent doesn’t know much (and is willing to admit it)

    I can’t really teach much about D3 in depth

  • Tools people have seen before.

    • D3 (about 10%)
    • Tableau (10%)
    • Plotly (10%)
    • Matplotlib (87%)
    • R graphics (31%)

    Clearly, a lot of Python programmers.

    Matplotlib is a good point for comparison, and often I use it as an example in the implementation lecture (but we had a guest lecture instead).

    There seems to be a decent number of R users.

  • Most people were OK with the end of Ware, but 20% didn’t like starting with the end.

  • People who watched the video supplement (lessons of ICE 1) thought it was helpful.

  • People appreciated how we “taught” critique, but want more practice

  • Pretty even split on skipping Tufte, making a video, and talking about it later.

  • Takeaways from Card et al

  • Implications of perception

    It was interesting to see what people wrote. I think in general, people got things from these readings.

Survey 3

  • Slight preference for one big group for S&F (40% vs 25%)

    I will switch to this in the future, although. I may also look at the data (and see if there is a difference in discussion quality or assignment).

  • 90% of the people are OK with programming.

    I need to figure out what to do with the other 10%. But I will.

  • Even split on people who prefer to work alone vs. want to work with a partner. I haven’t decided what to do yet.

  • Most people are OK with the surveys / reflections. About half actually experience that it helps them. The others believe what education science says.

    I am still going with “trust me, it’s good for you, you may not appreciate how much it helps until afterwards.”

  • Only 20% said thought we needed to provide more guidance for Tableau. Most thought learning from resources was fine.

  • Reading peoples’ thoughts on the resources was really intersting. I think the idea of practice is interesting. I also see the importance of giving more framing.

    There is a coupling with quantity of reading - which I think is more of a framing issue. The over-whelmingness of the readings probably comes from not realizing the right level of detail to read at. If you are worrying about the details, there are lots of them.

    The “read before lecture” model wasn’t exactly right here. The unusual cadence of the class (with lecture on Wednesday) didn’t help.

Survey 4

  • More students use Tableau Online (57%) The rest are split between using the class license and getting their own student license.

  • Most people intend to use Tableau beyond the requirements.

  • Most people prefer to watch lectures live.

    I realize that this question doesn’t get at the “do you prefer async lectures to sync ones” - I will ask that in a later survey.

  • Some people still would like to see more on how the building blocks (encodings) connect to more complex designs, affordances, and analysis.

    We will get more practice.

  • Almost everyone appreciate the general strategy.

    This is good, since it’s a key learning goal.

  • What is working /not. Lots of great feedback. (thanks for the enouragement!)

    • In class discussion - lots of people like it but…

    • Need more discussion / breakout time

      • I’m working on it. I need to improve my “class time management” skills.

    • Need to consistent groups

      • this is a tech issue (BBCU makes it random)

    • Young and I do joing groups - but usually, I only visit 1 or two groups.

    • Examples in class (and group critique)

    • Diverse readings are appreciated)

    • Need for more office hours, lab sessions… I will work on this.

    • More mini exercises (yes, I want to do this - will work harder to make time)

    • Even the small amount of interaction to the live lectures makes them feel live (and different than pre-recorded).

    • Some things are more thought provoking than others. (again, I’m trying, but not everything is great)

  • Other Thoughts

    • Table of assignments - it is there, see the course web, sidebar.

    • In class activities mechanics are hard. I agree - and am trying to improve it. It means I’ve limited the amount of them, which is a different problem.

    • Not enough practice making. I’d like to give people more opportunities to practice, but this connects to the mechanics problem. The class is a bit foundation heavy

    • Forced discussion feels forced. I’m trying to balance between forcing people to discuss, and letting the discussions be natural. I think this is hard. The conversational aspect can have a lot of value, but getting it to work for everyone has been tricky.

    • Suggestion: limit discussion posting lengths. I have to think about this - I dislike hard limits, but I think guidelines might be helpful.

    • Reading quantity and diversity. People have very diverse opinions on this. The first weeks are a bit reading heavy. (there are some other reading heavy weeks). One thing I may try in the future: not asking people to read entire papers, but rather giving more specific focus.

    • Redundancy of readings and lectures. I am trying to balance a need to emphasize and interpret aspects the readings as I want, with using time to complement the readings. I try to focus on adding value, not just repeating (except sometimes when things are so important I think you need to see it multiple times).