The Week in Vis 01 (Mon, Aug 31-Fri, Sep 4): What is Visualization?

in Weeks in Vis

This is the first of a weekly posting called The Week in Vis that explains what is going on in class during the week. It also should give you context for why we are doing things, and how it all fits together (so it is part of the “content” for the course).

Usually, I make this posting on Friday (before the week), but this is not a normal week. And this isn’t a normal week-in-vis posting.

The class is organized by week. Each week there is a key question that sums up the learning goals (often there is a related secondary question), and the “activities” of the week support that. In most weeks, these activities follow The Weekly Rhythm, but because the first week is short, it will be a bit different.

This week’s key questions are:

  1. What is Visualization?
  2. How are we going to learn about it? (How does class work? How do we work together to learn it?)

Hopefully, by the end of the week you’ll know the answers to those questions.

In order to understand how the class works, please make sure you’ve gone through everything on the Getting Started (Start Here!) page.

This week is like other weeks in that it has the usual Parts of Class, but the timing is adjusted because of the short week. This week we will have:

  1. Wednesday “lecture” (synchronous online class meeting), where we’ll talk about visualization and how the class will work. We’ll probably have some technical glitches to work out, but since you’ve already seen the Lectures (Class Meetings) page and gone through the Requirements (Things you Need for Class), things should go smoothly.
  2. Friday “lecture” (synchronous online class meeting), which will mainly be a collaborative design exercise to get you thinking about visualization.

Readings 01: What is Visualization? (for Friday) - normally, part of the readings are for Tuesday, and part are for Friday, but this week everything is for Friday. (hopefully, you’ve already see the page on Readings) 4. Online Discussion 01: What is Visualization? (due Fri, Sep 4): normally, “initial” postings are due on Tuesday and Friday. For this week, both initial postings are due on Friday. After this first assignment, the idea of “two initial postings” will make sense (see the Online Discussions instructions). We expect people to continue the discussion beyond the initial posts. 5. Seek and Find 01: Bring me a visualization! (due Fri, Sep 4) - this will be a weekly event, so the first one is good practice. See the Seek and Finds instructions for more info. 6. Survey 01: Class Setup and First Readings (due Fri, Sep 4). Surveys are important because its the main way I get feedback from students. It’s also a tool for me to get you to think about the material.