How to teach Data Visualisation to Fresh Statisticians: A Case Study in Turkey

Year 2024, Issue: 3, 1 - 16, 22.01.2025

Ozancan Özdemir , Ceylan Yozgatlıgil

https://doi.org/10.26650/JODA.1472118

Abstract

This article presents the content, objectives, and student opinions regarding the first-year compulsory data processing and visualisation course taught in English, which is the first of its kind in Turkey. After exploring the academic and industrial applications of data visualisation and examining the tools used, the article highlights that the content developed was well-received by students. It was observed that all students developed a positive attitude towards data visualisation by the end of the semester. The students particularly enjoyed the group project, which involved data analysis and reporting using the Python programming language, as it allowed them to apply the data processing and visualisation steps and create a data analysis report.

Keywords

Statistics Education Research, Data Visualisation, Curriculum, Data Science Education

References

• Asamoah, D. (2022). Improving Data Visualization Skills: A Curriculum Design. International Journal of Education and Development using Information and Communication Technology (IJEDICT), 18(1), 213-235. google scholar
• Bach, B., Keck, M., Rajabiyazdi, F., Losev, T., Meirelles, I., Dykes, J., Laramee, R. S., AlKadi, M., Stoiber, C., Huron, S., Perin, C., Morais, L., Aigner, W., Kosminsky, D., Boucher, M., Knudsen, S., Manataki, A., Aerts, J., Hinrichs, U., Roberts, J. C., & Carpendale, S. (2023). Challenges and Opportunities in Data Visualization Education: A Call to Action. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. https://doi.org/10.1109/tvcg.2023.3327378 google scholar
• Bandi, A., & Fellah, A. (2017). Crafting a data visualization course for the tech industry. Journal of Computing Sciences in Colleges, 33(2), 46-56. google scholar
• Chen, C. H., Hardle, W. K., & Unwin, A. (2017). Handbook of Data Visualization. Springer Science & Business Media. google scholar
• DataCamp. (2023). Visualizing Data with Python and Tableau Tutorial. Retrieved from www.datacamp.com. google scholar
• Eberhard, K. (2023). The Effects of Visualization on Judgment and Decision-Making: A Systematic Literature Review. Manag Rev Q, 73, 167-214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11301-021-00235-8 google scholar
• Few, S. (2006). Information Dashboard Design: The Effective Visual Communication of Data. O’Reilly Media, Inc. google scholar
• Friendly, M., Chen, C., Hardle, W. K., & Unwin, A. (2008). A Brief History of Data Visualization. https://doi. org/10.1007/978-3-540-33037-0_2 google scholar
• Firat, E. E., Joshi, A., & Laramee, R. S. (2022). Interactive visualization literacy: The state-of-the-art. Information Visualization, 21(3), 285-310. https://doi.org/10.1177/14738716221081831 google scholar
• Forbes S, Chapman J., Harraway J, Stirling D., Wild C. (2014). Use of Data Visualisation in the Teaching of Statistics: A New Zealand Perspective. Special Issue: A Global View of Statistics Education Research, 13(2), 187-201. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v13i2.290 google scholar
• Garfield, J. B., delMas, R., Chance, B., & Ooms, A. (2000). Activities for teaching statistics: Grade level K-12. Addison-Wesley Longman. google scholar
• Gould, R., & Gould, S. (2005). Visualizing data: Elementary and middle school strategies. Heinemann, Portsmouth, NH. google scholar
• Heer, J., & Shneiderman, B. (2012). Interactive Dynamics for Visual Analysis: A Taxonomy of Tools that Support the Fluent and Flexible Use of Visualizations. Comm. of the ACM, 1-26. google scholar
• Heer, J. & Bostock, M. & Ogievetsky, V. (2010). A tour through the Visualization zoo. Commun, ACM, 53, 59-67. https://doi.org/10.1145/1743546.1743567. google scholar
• Hudiburgh, L. M., & Garbinsky, D. (2020). Data Visualization: Bringing Data to Life in an Introductory Statistics Course. Journal of Statistics Education, 28(3), 262-279. https://doi.org/10.1080/10691898.2020.1796399 google scholar
• Kandel, S., Paepcke, A., Hellerstein, J. M., & Heer, J. (2011). Wrangler: Interactive visual specification of data transformation scripts. In Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 3363-3372. https://doi.org/10.1145/1978942.1979444 google scholar
• Playfair, W. (1821). A letter on our agricultural distresses, their causes and remedies. Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, London. google scholar
• MindBowser. (2023). Tableau vs Python - Which One Is Better For Data Science?. Retrieved from www.mindbowser.com. google scholar
• Nolan, D., & Perrett, J. (2016). Teaching and Learning Data Visualization: Ideas and Assignments. The American Statistician, 70(3), 260-269. https://doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2015.1123651 google scholar
• Shneiderman, B. (1996). The Eyes Have It: A Task by Data Type Taxonomy for Information Visualizations. Proc. IEEE Symp. Visual Languages, 336-343. google scholar
• Simplilearn. (2023). The State of Data Visualization Tools in 2023. Simplilearn Blog. https://www.simplilearn.com/ data-visualization-tools-article google scholar
• Tufte, E. (2001). The visual display of quantitative information (2nd ed.). Graphics Press, Cheshire, Conn. http:// www.amazon.com/Visual-Display-Quantitative-Information/dp/0961392142 google scholar
• Urness, T. (2016). Incorporating data visualization in a course on computer graphics. Journal of Computing Science in Colleges, 31(5), 147-154. google scholar
• Wilke, C. O. (2019). Fundamentals of data visualization. O’Reilly Media. google scholar
• Zentner, A., Covit, R., & Guevarra, D. (2019). Exploring Effective Data Visualization Strategies in Higher Education. google scholar
• Queiroz T., Monteiro C., Carvalho L., & François K. (2017) Interpretation of Statistical Data: The Importance of Affective Expressions Special Issue: Statistical Literacy, 16(1), 163-180. https://doi.org/10.52041/serj.v16i1.222. google scholar