WEEK 1: the art of feedback

We start our journey with feedback because of the important role it will play throughout our learning and skill development. In this week’s lecture on Monday, June 3 at 11AM ET we’ll spend time understanding who and how to ask for useful input, practice giving thoughtful feedback to others, and start to see the value of developing critical eyes to improve our own work.

You can watch the art of feedback lecture recording below:

OFFICE HOURS

We’ll have two sessions of office hours this week. These are optional sessions that you can join to ask questions or chat. Alternatively, if you aren’t able to attend a session this week you can pre-submit a question here.

Learning resources for this week

The following materials will reinforce and expand upon the lessons covered in this week’s lecture. They've been grouped into those that are required learning materials to tackle before lecture, some additional resources should you wish to explore topics to further embed your learning following lecture, and a synthesizing activity where you’ll have a chance to apply this week’s learnings to your final course project.

Review before lecture
choose a format that will help you learn best—select at least one from the section below

READ | Let’s Practice! exercise 9.3
give & receive effective feedback (pages 382–384)
Think about: what avenues will you use to get feedback on your coursework? Beyond that: who will you turn to for feedback, and when might input be useful in your daily work?

LISTEN | SWD podcast episode 1: the art of feedback
listening time 33:38 (transcript)
We each face constraints every time we communicate with data. What common constraints do you face? Given those, how will you approach soliciting feedback?

WATCH | learning through critique
viewing time 58:35
In the video, Cole introduces the idea of forming guiding principles that you can use to frame your feedback to others. Do you follow any guiding principles for communicating with data?
(You must first sign up for SWD community so we can upgrade your account to premium.)

Recommended resources
following lecture dive deeper into topics of your choosing

Icon-read-blog.png

READ | two blog posts
(1 ) how would you show this data? consider what feedback you’d give & how you’d deliver it
(2) how you would visualize hurricanes: note the tone of critique when it is shared
Tip: check these posts out before listening to the podcast (next activity), where you’ll hear The Economist’s Head of Data Journalism, Alex Selby-Boothroyd respond to critique.

LISTEN | SWD podcast episode 69: feedback you hate to receive
listening time 22:53
Cole covers five categories of common graph and slide feedback that people hate to receive. Tune in to learn strategies and practical tips that will help you turn undesirable feedback into useful and insightful input for better graphs and presentations.

PRACTICE | practice providing feedback
Giving thoughtful feedback to others on their data communications can help sharpen both your data visualization and influencing skills. In this exercise, take time to practice the art of providing feedback and refine a graph to incorporate your suggested changes.

Synthesize activity
required for certificate of completion

Icon-synthesize.png

SYNTHESIZE | choose a topic for your course project & apply this week’s learnings
We will introduce the course project in this week’s lecture; review full details on the course project page. This week, it’s time to choose your project: identify your topic and data. Also, complete the ask for feedback exercise (only visible to course participants), then spend time reviewing your classmates’ feedback requests and offer input on one or more.

Awesome work! Feedback is going to play an important role throughout the rest of our journey together. Consider how you can use input from others to strengthen your work and provide feedback to others to sharpen your skills.

Next week… We’re going to get graphing and explore some of the many ways to visualize data. See you then!