Editing Data Into Insights (Spring 2021) (section)

== Discussion Questions ==

This course will have two "modes". For much of the class, we will be reading about theories of communication and rhetoric, about principles of data visualization, etc. For these sessions, you will be required to submit 1-2 discussion questions on Discord on Monday by noon. I will then curate some of these questions (and add some of my own) to use to guide our discussion on Tuesday. I will post the questions on the Etherpad at https://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/com-495-data-insight

Questions should engage with the readings and either connect to other concepts or to the "real world". Here are some good example questions:

* The readings this week talked a lot about how data visualizations can be misleading. How can we tell when visualizations are intentionally trying to mislead versus when they are just poorly designed?
* I was confused by the reading on counterfactuals. We obviously can't really know what would have happened in different conditions, so why even try?
* Imagine you were asked to create an ad campaign to recruit students to Purdue. What types of appeals would you use and why?

During other weeks, we will be more focused on learning practical skills (mostly data manipulation and visualization in R). On those weeks, discussions will center around identifying places where folks are still confused and students will be randomly selected to share their responses to homework questions.