SGIA40M15: Communicating Quantitative Evidence: Visualizations, Narratives and Tables

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• To equip students with knowledge of different types of graphical tools that can be utilised to display findings
• To help students understand the language of graphics through advanced plotting tools
• To equip students with an understanding of how to create effective and clear tables
• To help students think through the challenges of displaying information to different audiences and stakeholders
• To help students think through normative considerations in presenting data.

• Indicative content will vary from year to year. However, topics may include:
• Presenting descriptive data
• How to use software to create clear graphs and tables
• Presenting complex regression stories through graph
• Using maps to illustrate trends
• Data types
• Managing messy data.

Subject-specific Knowledge:

• Have knowledge of the R environment and its core components
• Have knowledge of complimentary tools like photoshop or AI platforms that can be used to enhance graphical presentation.

Subject-specific Skills:

• Being able to write effectively about data, including to a policy audience.
• To understand how to use graphical tools within the R environment to build clear and concise graphs
• The ability to design tables and graphs that translate complex findings into easily digestible results
• The ability to output graphs and tables and understand the effects of different file types in what can be achieved with them
• The ability to analyse a range of data and understand how to tidy data into formats that it can be used effectively
• Be able to open and process information from a range of file types such as tab separated data.

Key Skills:

• Communication skills: be able to translate complex findings for audiences that do not possess statistical skills
• Be able to identify appropriate strategies to present data
• Be able to use software to aid presentation of data.

• The course is taught solely through labs to provide ample opportunity for hands on exploration of the techniques that students are being taught. During labs, instruction will be given alongside exercises for students to complete. Summative assessment is a 2,000-word policy briefing (50%) where students provide a brief report with clear graphs and tables that help policy makers identify appropriate strategies and understand complex issues. Additionally, students will have a 1,500-word data presentation improvement project (50%) where they will be given a representation of data and will be tasked with improving it and justifying the decisions that they make.
• Formative assessment is a practice data presentation improvement project. This project will provide students with the opportunity to practice for the summative graphic improvement project, as well as practice in making clear graphs and tables, which is a key component of the policy project summative.

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