Syllabus.md

Data Visualization

Spring 2015 | QMSS G4063 | MW 1:10pm-2:25pm | 313 Fayerweather  
Quantitative Methods in the Social Sciences (QMSS)  
Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) 
Columbia University

Instructor

Elliot Cohen, Ph.D.

Learning Objectives

... and resources to help you get there

• Tufte's Rules. Above all else, show the data.
• Grammar of Graphics. Wilkinson's theory and Wickham's implementation.
• Meet your computer
  • command line
  • text editors
  • file paths
• Working with data in R
  • Basic training
  • Data analysis with plyr
  • Data visualization with ggplot
  • Scripting, debugging and writing functions
  • Reproducible research and dynamic output with Rmarkdown
• Communicating & sharing your results in the browser
  • github.io
  • HTML, CSS, JavaScript
  • Interactive visualization with D3
• Version control and collaboration with github
  • Don't get scared, get started!
  • Github Help
  • Git intro for readers
  • Git intro for visual and auditory learners
  • Git workflow for beginners
  • Forking
  • Sharing and Collaborating

Detailed Syllabus

Subject to change. Syllabus will be updated periodically throughout the semester based on progress assessments and student learning outcomes.

• Jan. 21 (W): Welcome! Introduction, context and history of Data Viz. Review syllabus and course resources.
• Jan. 26 (M): Anscombe's Quartet. Statistical graphics. Visual model diagnostics.
• Jan. 28 (W): R tutorial.
• Feb. 02 (M): Quiz 1 (Tufte and Wilkinson Ch. 1-3). From Wilkinson's grammar of graphics to implementation with Hadley's ggplot2.
• Feb. 04 (W): Meet your computer. Git and github tutorial.
• Feb. 09 (M): Guest Lecture Michael Malecki - Data Maps. Reading due today: value-by-alpha maps & more on value-by-alpha maps
• Feb. 11 (W): Guest Lecture Swupnil Sahai - Tableau.
• Feb. 16 (M): Time Series: The Climate Hockey Stick (IPCC). WSJ and NYT Business Section graphics. gapminder
• Feb. 18 (W): Handling time series in R with date() and POSIX() objects. In-class assignment: Handling geophysical time series -- example from wind energy analysis.
• Feb. 23 (M): Narrative Graphics of Space and Time (Minard's narrative of Napoleon Failed Conquest of Russia). NYT Ebola Graphics.
• Feb. 25 (W): In-class assignment: Re-Create Minard's Napolean Conquest in R.
• Mar. 2 (M): Split-Apply-Combine with Hadley's plyr. Reshaping data with reshape2. Creating the expected data structure for ggplot, and d3.
• Mar. 4 (W): Scripting, debugging and writing functions in R.
• Mar. 9 (M): Colors! Semantically resonant colors. Color pallettes. HEX.
• Mar. 11 (W): Cartography with Data Maps, rMaps, Maps or other R libraries.
• Mar. 16 (M): Mid-term Quiz
• Mar. 18: SPRING BREAK
• Mar. 23: SPRING BREAK
• Mar. 25: TBD based on mid-term progress assessment.
• Mar. 30
• Apr. 1
• Apr. 6
• Apr. 8
• Apr. 13
• Apr. 15
• Apr. 20
• Apr. 22
• Apr, 27
• Apr. 29
• May 4
• FINAL EXAMS