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Sample Assignments

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The following are some historic examples of assignments, intended to give you some context for the grading scheme. Note that none of these are very long, but they all show different degrees of connection to the readings (and in the case of the Seek and Find examples, to the visualizations). We do not take formatting or (minor) spelling/grammar errors into account when grading.

Since grades for assignments are assigned based on overall quality across multiple answers, these examples are only provided to show expectations.

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Readings

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Each module will have required readings in the first two weeks. The first week will have backbone and core readings. The second week will have advanced and experientialmodern and historic readings. Modules will also suggest optional readings.

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Parts of Class and Rubrics

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This class has many components (assignment types). There are Lectures, In Class Activities, Reading Surveys, Content Surveys, Anonymous Surveys, Seek and Finds, Design Warmups, and Design Exercises.

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Calendar

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WeekMondayWednesdayFriday
Welcome: What is Vis?
1
Reading 0-1
Sep 2
Lecture:
Sep 4
Reading Survey 0: Introduction
Assignment: None
2
Reading 0-2
Sep 7
Lecture:
Sep 9
Lecture:
Sep 11
Content Survey 0: Experiential Readings
Seek and Find 0: Bring a Visualization
Video Experiment 0
Module 1: Building Blocks
3
Reading 1-1
Sep 14
Lecture:
Sep 16
Lecture:
Sep 18
Reading Survey 1: Building Blocks
Seek and Find 1: Data, Tasks, Encodings
4
Reading 1-2
Sep 21
Lecture:
Sep 23
Lecture:
Sep 25
Content Survey 1: Building Blocks
Design Warmup 1: Ask Questions, Sketch Answers
5
Sep 28
Lecture:
Sep 30
Lecture:
Oct 2
Anonymous Survey 1: Attitudes and Preferences
Design Exercise 1: Sketches and Questions
Module 2: Methodology: Making and Using Visualizations
6
Reading 2-1
Oct 5
Lecture:
Oct 7
Lecture:
Oct 9
Reading Survey 2: Implementation and Methodology
Seek and Find 2: Too much stuff
7
Reading 2-2
Oct 12
Lecture:
Oct 14
Lecture:
Oct 16
Content Survey 2: Implementation and Methodology
Design Warmup 2: Make my visualizations
8
Oct 19
Lecture:
Oct 21
Lecture:
Oct 23
Anonymous Survey 2: How is this working?
Design Exercise 2: Life Expectancy (stories)
Module 3: Principles and Formalism
9
Reading 3-1
Oct 26
Lecture:
Oct 28
Lecture:
Oct 30
Reading Survey 3: Principles and Formalism
Seek and Find 3: Comparison (SF4)
10
Reading 3-2
Nov 2
Lecture:
Nov 4
Lecture:
Nov 6
Content Survey 3: Principles and Formalism
Design Warmup 3: Working with Census Data
11
Nov 9
Lecture:
Nov 11
Lecture:
Nov 13
Anonymous Survey 3: Check In
Design Exercise 3: Census (aggregations)
Module 4: Standard (Hard) Problems
12
Reading 4-1
Nov 16
Lecture:
Nov 18
Lecture:
Nov 20
Reading Survey 4: Hard Problems
Seek and Find 4: Graphs
13
Reading 4-2
Nov 23
Lecture:
Nov 25
Lecture:
Nov 27
Thanksgiving Break
Design Warmup 4: Experiment with Flight Data (distributions)
14
Nov 30
Lecture:
Dec 2
Lecture:
Dec 4
Content Survey 4: Hard Problems
Design Exercise 4: More Flight Data
Wrap Up
15
Reading 5-1
Dec 7
Lecture:
Dec 9
Lecture:
Dec 11
Anonymous Survey 4: Class Survey
Design Exercise 5: Portfolio (Resubmissions)
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GAI Policies

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Summary: Use AI tools (Claude, ChatGPT, Co-Pilot, etc.) to help you in your learning, not to do the assignments for you. Treat them like another student: you can get them to help you, but you are responsible for your own work. Give them proper credit / attribution. Don’t claim their work as your own.

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Course Learning Outcomes

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Course learning outcomes explain what we are trying to achieve in the course. For the student, it gives you a sense of what I (as instructor) am trying to do. As instructor, it guides the design of the class.

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What and Why

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This class is a principles-and-design-oriented exploration of Data Visualization. This posting will explain the content, style, and rationale for the class. The class is different from most other CS classes.

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Getting Started

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Here’s what you should do to get started…

  1. Understand what this class is about - please read the What and Why page (and maybe the Course Learning Outcomes) which will give you a sense of what this class is about. Reading the first tutorials can give you the philosophy of the course in a nutshell. This isn’t your standard CS class. If this class isn’t for you, we won’t be offended if you drop early.
  2. Understand how the class will work - look at Policy Overview page to get an idea of the mechanics. The Syllabus has details about policies, but also a bit of the description of the content.
  3. Be prepared for class - class attendance is required. Please bring drawing supplies (pens or pencils, in multiple colors - I recommend black + four other colors)

    Attendance is part of class. This class involves in-class experiences. This requires students to be in class - if you are not in class for the in-class experience, you won’t have the in-class experience. If you know that you will miss a lot of classes, or do not intend to come to class “nearly all of the time”, please do not take the class.

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