This course prepares students to interpret data and to communicate their findings to a general audience by designing content for the web. Students will learn to develop and analyze web sites using technologies like HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and web scraping. In addition to these technical skills, students will also think critically about the empirical limitations, social implications, and ethical consequences of data science from examples introduced throughout the class. Students will finish the class with professional-looking websites containing a portfolio of their previous and on-going projects.
The class will focus on developing both students’ technical and expository skills. On the technical side, students will begin to develop with modern web technologies like Markdown, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, HTTP and web scraping. On the expository side, students will learn to interpret data, identify threats and limitations, and develop a practice of responsibly critiquing others’ work. Thus students will:
- Master technical skills to develop and to communicate with web technologies
- Learn to communicate technical ideas to different audiences across different media
- Develop a practice of peer-reviewed feedback to improve others’ projects
- Learn to think critically about empirical claims based on data