CRN 41666

ARTE 5901.1 ST:Data Visualization for the COVID-19 Pandemic

Description

Visualization of epidemiological statistics is playing a significant role in public awareness campaigns about the COVID-19 pandemic. Beginning in January 2020, the public began to see a variety of data visualization strategies applied for communicating the spread of the virus in different parts of the world. These include a broad range of data visualization techniques including bar and line charts, choropleth maps, bubble charts, bell curve simulation with and without animation.

Students will locate examples of data visualization used to illustrate the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic on the public internet. Examples will be classified according to criteria developed during the course and stored in a shared Data Visualization Data Set. Students will research and prepare presentations that critique the technique, quality and effectiveness of selected examples.

Learning Objectives

The Learning Objectives of this seminar will direct the students to:

• Collect from public websites on a weekly basis in such a way that they can be shared and cataloged examples of data visualizations being used to communicate the current state of the pandemic;
• Critique these data visualizations and the data sources being used to generate them;
• Develop a critical sense of what they do and do not communicate.
• Use their native and foreign language skills to search for sources in the countries effected by the pandemic (ex: Italy, France, Spain, Germany, Iran, China, Korea, Japan)