MAST 6212 – Data Visualization and Communication

Semester: Spring 2018 - Module A Professor: Hettie Tabor

Classroom: 318 Fincher
Thursday 2:00-4:50p 280 Crow MBA Tel: (214)668-2661
Thursday 6:30-9:20p 279 Crow MSBA Email: [email protected]
Friday 9:30-12:20a 280 Crow MSBA Office Hours:
Friday 2:00-4:50p 280 Crow MSBA By appointment

Course Web Site: Canvas

Course Overview
In this course, students will be taught how to effectively communicate the results of the
business analytics that they perform, in both written and oral presentation. The key
questions for the analytic communications are: What is happening? Why is it
happening? What should we do from here?

The objective of this course is to enable students to learn:

 What Data Visualization is
 Best Methods of Communicating with Data
 Table and Graph Design Best Practices
 How to do Data Blending (Alteryx)
 How to use a Data Visualization Tool (Tableau)
 How to tell a Story

Who should take this Course?

This course is designed for Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) students and
MBA students who want to learn how to understand, document, analyze and improve
data visualization skills.

Learning Outcomes

By the time students have completed this course, they will be able to:
- Understand and apply the principles and best practices of data visualization
- Design and implement Alteryx for Data Blending
- Design and implement Data Visualization using Tableau

Each class session for this course generally requires a minimum of eight to nine hours of
advance preparation time on the part of the student.

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Recommendations for Additional Resources:
Books: Show Me the Numbers, Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Analytics
Press, Second Edition, Stephen Few

Exercises:
We will be using Exercises based using Tableau and Alteryx. All exercises and activities
will be posted on Canvas.

Grading:
Class Participation 5%
Quizzes 10%
Homework Assignments 20%
Group Project 20%
Final Exam 45%
Total 100%
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Class Participation
Considering the interactive nature of the class sessions, class participation is an
important part of the learning experience in this course. Please make every effort to
attend class and to contribute to the discussion. Prepare for each class by reading the
assigned material and pondering the discussion questions.

I take the following into account in grading class participation:

- Attendance: If you are not there, you cannot participate. When you are there, I
expect for you to participate in the class by asking and answering questions and
providing insights.
- Appropriate use of laptops and mobile technology: As outlined in the Laptop
Policy section of this syllabus, laptops and tablets should only be used to take
notes and perform data blending using Alteryx or create visualizations using
Tableau, and to complete class assignments. Any other use will impact your
class participation grade negatively. Also, texting on cell- or smart-phones will
also have a negative impact on your class participation grade.
- In-Class Participation: The following are some guidelines that I use to grade class
participation. If you almost never speak up in class, demonstrate that you have
not prepared the required homework when called on or miss several classes, you
will receive a participation grade of no higher than a C. If you contribute
occasionally but rarely say anything insightful, your participation grade will be a
B. The path to an A participation grade involves things like: understanding the
materials and applying it to the class discussion, integrating comments made by
fellow-students earlier in the discussion, taking substantive issue with a class-
mate’s analysis, and generally demonstrating that you have understood the
material.

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Quizzes
Class attendance is required.  In each class, we will have a quiz. Quizzes count for 10% of
your grade.  One and only one quiz will be dropped at the end of the course.  You will
not be allowed to take the quiz if you are not in class.  If you need to miss a class, you
will need to notify me prior to the class. Quizzes will be done at the beginning of class
and you will be given 15 minutes to take the quiz. If you arrive late you will NOT get
extra time to complete the quiz. All students will be asked to post the quiz at the 15
minutes time limit.
Lockdown Browser
All students must install lockdown browser in order to take quizzes. 
(http://www.smu.edu/OIT/Services/LockDownBrowser)

Homework
Homework must be completed each week prior to the start date of the following class.
Late homework will receive a 0. No exceptions. Homework will be submitted through
Canvas. If it is not submitted on Canvas, it will not be graded. All homework
assignments will be used for the overall grade.

Group Project
In groups of 5 students you will complete a data visualization project using Alteryx and
Tableau. Groups will be assigned in the initial class.

The project will consist of:

Extraction of data and data management using Alteryx and the development of a Data
Visualization Dashboard using Tableau. Data will be provided by local companies. The
companies will be assigned at the beginning of class. Students will be required to
present this in front of the class and to the company supplying the data.

All group members must participate in the group project – this includes driving the
presentation and being able to answer questions regarding the presentation and
deliverable. Any group member can be asked questions about the dashboards that were
created and must be able to answer them – if they cannot, this will reflect poorly for the
whole group and can lead to a lower overall score. The client will also provide some
feedback on which groups have provided the best dashboards.

Dashboards will be graded by:

- Insight on the data from the group
- Usefulness (these are dashboards the company may actually use)
- Creativity
- Use of the entire group
- Overall Presentation

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Final Exams:  A Final exam will be administered as specified in the official examination
schedule which is expected in week 8 of the class.   The exam will be a case study
requiring you to extract data using Alteryx and build dashboards in Tableau.

Policies
Use of Laptops/Tablets in Class
Students are permitted to use laptops/tablets during the class sessions to:
1) take notes, and
2) do online research immediately relevant to the discussion going on during the
class session.
3) do Exercises when instructed by the Professor using the appropriate tools
4) develop analytics and dashboards using the appropriate tools

I consider it inappropriate for students to email, instant message, tweet, surf the web,
visit social networking sites (Facebook, MySpace, WeChat), use earphones, listen to
music or do homework during class sessions. I expect students to minimize the
distractions that using a laptop or tablet presents to themselves and those around
them.

Academic Honesty
There are three areas of academic honesty that I would like to stress with regard to this
course. These are individual work, group work and plagiarism.

 Individual Work: your exercises will be graded as your independent, individual work.
It is to be completed and written up by each student independently and without
any assistance. All quizzes and the final exam are also done independently by each
individual student. If students are caught collaborating all students involved will be
given a 0 on the homework, quiz or test.

 Group Work: for the group project (i.e., all deliverables and presentations) it is
expected that all students in the group contribute equally. On group work it is
assumed that each group member understands, agrees with and is responsible for
all group products. This means that you need to avoid too much of a divide and
conquer approach. Breaking the group project into a set of individual work
products is a breach of academic honesty, just as it is a breach of academic honesty
for one group member to do the entire group project o his/her own.

 Plagiarism: In any assignment, if parts of the submitted work rely on other people’s
work, this has to be stated clearly. I expect students to reference their work
(through footnotes, for instance) to identify the source of ideas, concepts and
theories.

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Disability Accommodations:
Students needing academic accommodations for a disability must first register
with Disability Accommodations & Success Strategies (DASS).  Students can
call 214-768-1470 or visit http://www.smu.edu/Provost/ALEC/DASS to begin
the process.  Once registered, students should then schedule an appointment
with the professor as early in the semester as possible, present a DASS
Accommodation Letter, and make appropriate arrangements.  Please note
that accommodations are not retroactive and require advance notice to
implement.

Religious Observance:
Religiously observant students wishing to be absent on holidays that require
missing class should notify their professors in writing at the beginning of the
semester, and should discuss with them, in advance, acceptable ways of
making up any work missed because of the absence. (See University Policy No.
1.9.)

Excused Absences for University Extracurricular Activities:

Students participating in an officially sanctioned, scheduled University extracurricular
activity should be given the opportunity to make up class assignments or other graded
assignments missed as a result of their participation.  It is the responsibility of the
student to make arrangements with the instructor prior to any missed scheduled
examination or other missed assignment for making up the work.

Campus Carry Law:

In accordance with Texas Senate Bill 11, also known as the “campus carry” law,
following consultation with entire University community SMU determined to remain a
weapons-free campus. Specifically, SMU prohibits possession of weapons (either openly
or in a concealed manner) on campus. For more information, please see: 
http://www.smu.edu/BusinessFinance/Police/Weapons_Policy.

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Course Outline (subject to change)
# Date Topic Due Date for
1 8/24 Syllabus and Course Review Have
or Graph Design IQ Test Lockdown
8/25 Introduction to Data Visualization Browser
- What is Data Visualization Installed.
- Statistics and Analytics
- Quantitative Relationships Have Alteryx
- Quantitative (Facts/Measures) and Categorical and Tableau
(Dimensions) on your
- Relationships with Categories desktop
- Relationships between Quantities
- Measures of Average In Class
- Measures of Variation Exercises:
- Data Joins Connecting
- Data Blending to Data
- Connecting to Data and
- Refreshing Extracts Tables in
Data Visualization Guidelines and Tables Tableau
- Best Methods of Communication
- Tables
o Table Terminology
o When to Use Tables
o Table Design Best Practices
o Fundamental Variations in Tables
- Tableau Overview
o Marks Card
o Pages
o Filters
- Data Blending using Alteryx
- Tables using Tableau

Homework:
Choose a team for the final dashboard presentation
Homework Day 1 – Connecting to Data and Tables

2 8/31 Quiz (15 minutes) Team

or 9/1 Data Visualization Guidelines and Charts Assignments
- Graphs and Sign-up
o History of Graphs
o Graph Terminology In Class
o When to Use Tables versus Graphs Exercises:
o General Graph Design Graphs

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 o Basic Design Principles Homework:
- Gestalt Laws Connecting
- Visual Perception and Graphical Communications to Data and
- Charts Tables
o Pie Charts
o Bar Charts
o Line Charts
o Area Charts
o Points
o Scatter Plots
o Bubble Charts

Reading
- How to Make Data Visualization Better with Gestalt
Laws, Udhaya Padmanabhan, Shilp Choudhury
- Which chart or graph is right for you? Tell impactful
stories with data, Maila Hardin, Daniel Hom, Ross
Perez & Lori Williams, January 2012
- 5 data visualization pitfalls (and how to avoid them),
Qlickview
- Silliest Pie Charts

Homework
- Graphics
3 9/7 or Quiz (15 minutes) In Class
9/8 Data Visualization Guidelines and Charts Exercises:
- Homework Review Correlation
Correlation and
Geospatial Graphs – Mapping and Images Geospatial
- Basic Mapping Charts
- Web Map Services
- Background Images Homework:
- Custom Geocoding Day 2
Graphics
Homework
- Geospatial Charts
4 9/14 Quiz (15 minutes) In Class
or Correlation and Geospatial Exercises:
9/15 - Homework Review Custom
Custom Geocoding Geocoding,
Dashboards Dashboards
Story Points and Story
Points

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 Homework
- Dashboards and Storypoints Homework:
Day 3
Geospatial
5 9/21 Quiz (15 minutes) In Class
or Custom Geocoding, Dashboard and Story Points Exercises:
9/22 - Homework Review Advanced
Advanced Graphics Charting
- Paths
- Histograms Homework:
- Box Plots Day 3
- Tree Maps Dashboards
- Word Clouds and Story
- Waterfall Charts Points
- Bump Charts
- Control Charts
- Benford’s Law
6 9/28 Final Project Presentations (to be determined with Final
or companies) Presentations
9/29 6:30-7:00 – First Group
7:00-7:10 – Break – setup
7:10-7:40 – Second Group
7:40-7:50 – Break/setup
7:50-8:20 – Third Group
8:20-8:30 – Break/setup
8:30-9:10 – Fourth Group
7 10/5 Final Project Presentations (to be determined with Final
or companies) Presentations
10/6 9:00-9:30 – First Group
9:30-9:40 – Break – setup
9:40-10:10 – Second Group
10:10-10:20 – Break/setup
10:20-11:00 – Third Group
11:00-11:10 – Break/setup
11:10-11:40 – Fourth Group
8 TBD Final Exam
10/12 MBA class – 10/12 2:00-4:50 – 280 Crow
or MSBA Classes – 10/13 9:30-12:20 – 190/Crow and 280
10/13 Crow