Rather than teaching data analysis, putting students in a scenario where they need to use the data tools to answer questions is often more interesting, while still teaching the relevant skills. We’ll start our first example here, first with PowerPoint to set the background and establish the scenario, then by moving into Tableau and the data. The video below will help set the scene.
The PPT slides shown in the video are available for download below (the Tableau file download was in the previous chapter). Please note, you’ll need to update them to reflect your university, course name. etc. Click here for the ADL website and to see their other resources. The key for the PPT is to introduce the topic and set the stage for the students. The materials here are from a lesson taught on day two of an undergraduate course called Big Data in U.S. National Security. Once the stage is set with the slides, we move on to Tableau, as we will do here. For the class, the Tableau file (the same one we loaded in Chapter 1) is delivered to the students through Blackboard.
It is important to note that no matter how often you emphasize the importance of downloading and installing Tableau and the related file prior to class, at least a few students will have skipped this key preparation. By starting with the PPT file and any related discussion, you give those students time to catch up.
As we go through the questions mentioned in the PPT, it is important to provide time for slower moving students to keep up (or catch up). I’ll provide examples of this in the upcoming videos. Also of note are the questions – if you are teaching on Zoom (or other software) it is handy to share the questions in the chat in addition to the PPT and Tableau. This saves time flipping back and forth between files. As a reminder, here are the questions students answer as part of the first scenario (and their first homework assignment).
Scenario 1 Questions
- Are incidents increasing or decreasing?
- Who (what ideology) commits the most incidents?
- What type(s) of incidents are most common?
- Which group(s) commit the most incidents?
- Where do most incidents occur?
- What additional data would be helpful in making a more accurate assessment?
Next, we answer the questions ourselves in the videos below. Please follow along with your own Tableau file; be sure to pause the video as needed. In class, especially for the first couple of questions, it is common to pause, stop, and restart my lecture in response to student questions. Please be prepared for the same in your own classes, though always note that this is a data analysis class, not a computer repair service – students will need to handle some issues on their own.
As a reminder from the previous chapter, once the extremism file is loaded into Tableau it should look like the image below. We’ll start from here in the video.
Question 1: Are incidents increasing or decreasing?
Please click (or double-click) the video to begin.
From the video, we can see the answer to the first question is somewhat complicated – which we did on purpose, but hopefully you found this taste of data analysis in Tableau useful. We’ll move on to question 2 in the next video.
Question 2: Who (what ideology) commits the most incidents?
Please click (or double-click) the video to work on this question, plus find out how we saved the information/answer from question 1.
Question 3: What type(s) of incidents are most common?
Remember for this one, first see if you can find the answer yourself before diving into the video.
Question 4: Which group(s) commit the most incidents?
Hopefully by now you are getting the hang of it. Please try to answer the question about groups beforeconsulting the video. Then use the video to see how you did; this is also the method I use with my students during class to get them up and running on their own.
Questions 5 and 6: Where do most incidents occur and what additional data would be helpful in making a more accurate assessment?
Answering the location question in detail can get complicated – the more detail, the more useful the analysis can become, but also the more features of Tableau we will need to use. As you may have noticed already (or if you take a quick look at Tableau now), there are listings for city and state, plus latitude and longitude. If you would like to experiment, please go ahead – experimenting and playing around with the data and software is an excellent way to learn. Just be sure to use a new tab so you don’t overwrite something you would like to keep.
That’s it for the first scenario! Hopefully you feel more comfortable with the software and data analysis, and are thinking of ideas for how to incorporate similar data-driven scenarios into your own courses. We will look at another example scenario in the next chapter.