Teaching Information Visualization - Information Visualization: Human-Centered Issues and Perspectives - page 65

Teaching Information Visualization

Andreas Kerren 1 ,JohnT.Stasko 2 ,andJasonDykes 3

1 School of Mathematics and Systems Engineering, Vaxj¨oUniversity,
Vejdes Plats 7, SE-351 95 Vaxjo, Sweden,
[e-mail]
2 School of Interactive Computing & GVU Center, Georgia Institute of Technology,
85 5th St., NW, Atlanta, GA 30332-0760, USA,
[e-mail]
3 Department of Information Science, City University,
Northampton Square, London EC1V 0HB, UK,
[e-mail]

Abstract. Teaching InfoVis is a challenge because it is a new and grow-
ing field. This paper describes the results of a teaching survey based on
the information given by the attendees of Dagstuhl Seminar 07221. It
covers several aspects of offered InfoVis courses that range from differ-
ent kinds of study materials to practical exercises. We have reproduced
the discussion during the seminar and added our own experiences. We
hope that this paper can serve as an interesting and helpful source for
current and future InfoVis teachers.

1 Introduction

Education is an important aspect of any emerging and rapidly evolving disci-
pline and this is certainly the case in Information Visualization (InfoVis) with its
emphasis on the exploratory development of knowledge. Most of the researchers
participating in the Dagstuhl seminar and contributing to this volume are in-
volved in helping students graduate with competencies in visualization. The
growing number of courses in Information Visualization is matched by the vari-
ety of styles of courses offered, in terms of course content, materials used, and
evaluation methodologies. Attendees at Dagstuhl seminar were curious to learn
about the courses others offered and the approaches and resources that were be-
ing used, and so a session on Information Visualization teaching and education
was held.
To prepare for that session and benchmark current offerings, Keith Andrews
from Graz University, Austria, prepared a survey about InfoVis-related courses
and distributed it to the attendees. The survey was intended to gather a va-
riety of information, mostly demographic, including teaching styles, textbooks,
enrollments, teaching aids, examinations, etc. Nineteen participants completed
the survey and described their courses. This paper presents the survey results
and includes the perspectives of some of the participants in relation to their
own teaching experience in light of these and discussions amongst colleagues at
Dagstuhl.