Syllabus

Welcome to Data Visualization!

Office Hours

Prof: Jean Clipperton OH Weds 11-12:00pm on zoom only and Thurs 10-11:00 am in person or on zoom. Please sign up here!

Learning Objectives

By the end of the course, students will be able to:

  • Understand the principles of designing and creating effective data visualizations.
  • Evaluate, critique, and improve upon one’s own and others’ data visualizations based on how good a job the visualization does for communicating a message clearly and correctly.
  • Post-process and refine plots for effective communication.
  • Use visualizations for evaluating statistical models and for statistical inference.
  • Master using R and a variety of modern data visualization packages to create data visualizations.
  • Work reproducibly individually and collaboratively using Git and GitHub.

Prerequisites

MACS 30500 or an equivalent programming course in R. In particular, you should feel comfortable with the following operations in R:

  • Importing data files
  • Tidying and wrangling data
  • Data transformation
  • Data visualizations
  • Reproducible documents and rmarkdown
  • Core programming fundamentals (e.g. functions, iterative operations, conditional expressions)
  • tidyverse approaches to data scientific operations in R
  • Reproducible workflows
  • Git/GitHub

What do I need for this course?

Class sessions are a mix of lecture, demonstration, and live coding. It is essential to have a computer so you can follow along and complete the exercises. Before the course starts, you should install the following software on your computer:

R - easiest approach is to select a pre-compiled binary appropriate for your operating system. RStudio IDE - this is a powerful user interface for programming in R. You could use base R, but you would regret it. Git - Git is a version control system which is used to manage projects and track changes in computer files. Once installed, it can be integrated into RStudio to manage your course assignments and other projects. Comprehensive instructions for downloading and setting up this software can be found here.

Textbooks

We will draw from a variety of sources in this class. Primarily we will utilize the following textbooks. All are available electronically via open-source license.

  • Hadley Wickham, Danielle Navarro, and Thomas Lin Pedersen. ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis. (in progress) 3rd edition. Springer, 2021.
  • Claus O. Wilke. Fundamentals of Data Visualization. O’Reilly Media, 2019.
  • Kieran Healy. Data Visualization: A Practical Introduction. Princeton University Press, 2018.

Additional readings will be assigned as necessary and will either be free electronically or on electronic course reserve via the UChicago library. All course reserves can be accessed through the course Canvas site.

Assignments / grading

You can see our assignments listed out above with their respective deadlines. Generally speaking, you can expect the assignments and deadlines to be constant.

  • Each assignment is largely graded along a check / check-plus / check-minus with most assignments getting a ‘check’, this includes the final assignment.
  • Getting all checks is sufficient for a B+ in the course.
  • A check-plus on the final is required for an A- in the course.
  • Distinctions between and A and A- come from overall quality of work (at least two homework assignments at the check-plus level in addition to the final exam), and general engagement in the course.
  • The distinction between a check and a check-plus comes from the level of completion. A check-level assignment satisfies the requirements of the prompt but may not be as polished or thoughtful. For more on the rubric, see the rubric discussion.

Course policies

Access & Inclusion

Difference enhances both the teaching and learning experiences. The classroom is a space where all students are welcome, regardless of age, dis/ability, ethnicity, gender identity and/or expression, national origin, race, religious non/belief, sex, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and alignment with other identities or contexts. Furthermore, if any student has a particular consideration, including learning and participation style, that affects their ability to meet course expectations, please see me as soon as possible. I am personally committed to creating and maintaining an inclusive learning environment for each and every student. Please, do not hesitate to contact me with specific needs or concerns, and the sooner the better. Maintaining transparency (and communication in general) with your instructor is not only a good professional skill, but also a good way to develop a more one-on-one relationship. Furthermore, accommodations are far easier and effective to arrange when planned than when rushed. In short, I will make every effort to ensure students equal access. Please let me know how I can help make this class work for you.

My classroom is intended to be a constructive and critical space, wherein all students feel comfortable engaging openly with the material, each other, and oneself. However, this is only possible when everyone commits to this endeavor. I expect you to do so, and to help your peers (and me) to do the same. While I very much encourage (and celebrate) dissent and/or debate, I will not tolerate disrespect in my classroom. Please let me know if you feel the principles expressed in this syllabus are not being upheld so that I can address it as soon as possible.

Communication

I am generally available via email at the address above, and will do my best to respond within 24 hours of contact during the week and 48 hours on weekends–I try not to check email much on weekends FYI. In addition to the office hours above, there will likely be time at the end of each class meeting to discuss individual issues. Please do not hesitate to be in touch with any questions or concerns. It’s helpful for me if you put ‘MACS 40700’ in the heading. I do ask that you check the syllabus/website before contacting me because the answer you seek is most likely there already.

Last updated on Jan 4, 2026