Telling stories with data helps us to both understand the problem at hand and to articulate a viewpoint about potential solutions. This class will provide students with tools and skills to provide actionable insights for data-driven decision making in business and policy environments. Students will complete several short assignments through which they will gain familiarity with different statistical concepts and visualization approaches. In each assignment, students will produce 1-2 charts to tell a story with the data. They will also work in small groups to produce a capstone project to apply a wider range of techniques and tell a more in depth story to address a key business or policy question. Assignments will involve both written and oral presentation.
During this course, students will develop the following tactical skills:
- Gain experience with a variety of publicly available data sources;
- Gain familiarity with data tools like Excel, Python, and the Jupyter ecosystem; and,
- Learn how to use application programming interfaces (APIs) to retrieve data.
No previous programming experience is required.