Teach students to drive positive change with compelling data stories
Join the hundreds of universities worldwide that use storytelling with data books as part of their curricula. Here you will find links to real-world datasets, exercises, case studies, videos, podcasts, and other free materials available to assist you in teaching from the storytelling with data books. Learn more about connecting with other educators and industry professionals, and how to get personalized support from the SWD team.
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Interested in evaluating the books for your course?
Watch instructor-focused videos
Meet the author
Watch Cole discuss the books & other learning resources. Jump to topics of interest using the timestamps below.
00:50 Overview of the three books
16:40 How to use the books together
19:00 Teach communication & presentation skills
26:10 Learning videos for students
32:20 Course project considerations
36:18 SWD Community resources
42:38 Hear from other instructors using the book
Tour available resources
Watch a quick overview of the materials available on the instructor resource hub.
Syllabus share
Learn about Elizabeth’s approach to
creating a university course syllabus.
Project considerations
In this video, Amy covers key elements
of a final course project.
Download a copy of our SWY course project framework, which outlines considerations for an end-of-term evaluation of the material covered in a course.
LEARNING RESOURCES
REAL-WORLD DATASETS
You are welcome to download examples from our books and use them to teach (with proper attribution). Most solutions are Excel-based, with select exercises demonstrated in other tools (Tableau, PowerBI, Python, R, Datawrapper, Flourish, Google Data Studio, and more). All of the examples are anonymized from real organizations, giving your students insight into scenarios they’ll encounter in the workplace. Also, check out this list of publicly available data for use in your course.
EXERCISES & CASE STUDIES
Many instructors create assignments using the exercise bank in the online SWD community. It’s free for anyone to sign up for this supportive environment, where the data, scenario, and steps are provided for dozens of hands-on exercises that are based on real-world scenarios. Once someone uploads their solution to an exercise, they gain access to others that have been shared previously by the community—and the SWD team—to continue learning by comparing and contrasting approaches.
MAKEOVER EXAMPLES
Examples and illustrations are powerful ways to broaden and deepen student learning. Our makeovers page provides more real-world illustrations of the lessons covered in the storytelling with data books. These articles each cover a specific area of focus, but they all walk through the process of visualizing data and transforming graphs into compelling, action-inspiring communications.
CHART GUIDE
To understand the use cases and the pros and cons of different chart types, we encourage you to check our comprehensive and ever-growing SWD chart guide. In this guide, we share the good and the bad of commonly used charts and graphs for data communications. If you're looking for additional graphs to share with students, and want us to expand our chart guide, let us know in this conversation.
VIDEOS
Check out the SWD YouTube channel to see video examples of effective data storytelling, quick tips, tool tutorials, and in-depth case studies as presented by Cole and the SWD team. New videos are posted regularly and range from shorter videos to longer in-depth makeovers of real-world examples that illustrate multiple lessons from the book. You can incorporate these videos as part of your lectures, or provide them separately as student resources.
BLOG ARTICLES
Students can also read more at the SWD blog. These quick-to-consume articles reinforce many of the concepts covered in the books and provide practical tips to help bring data to life and use it to communicate a story to an audience. Topics range from tool tutorials to step-by-step makeovers and other themes related to presenting data in a business setting.
PODCAST RECORDINGS
In the SWD podcast, Cole and the SWD team talk with experts to explore a variety of topics related to visualizing data and communicating effectively. These 30- to 60-minute conversations help ground the lessons and enable students to become effective data communicators.
Find more resources
Are you looking for something specific? Our search and filter feature allows you to locate topic-related resources that you can incorporate into your lectures and other learning materials.
CONNECT WITH OTHERS
Chat with other instructors, students, & professionals
In the SWD community, you can engage in conversations with other educators to ask questions or share experiences, ask your students to weigh in on a topic of discussion, or hear from working professionals on practical applications of communication techniques.
Share your feedback with Cole and the SWD team
Are there other resources that you would find helpful? Complete this form to share your feedback and connect with the SWD team. We always enjoy hearing how instructors use the storytelling with data lessons. We’re eager to do what we can to help enable you and your students.
Get personalized support from the SWD team
Need to brainstorm ideas for developing your course? Subscribe to premium for direct access to the SWD team through weekly office hours, our full video library and in regular virtual events where you can see how the SWD team teaches lessons in a live, interactive setting.