Database Reference
In-Depth Information
This list only gives a rough overview about the issues that are important for the
instructors. The course web pages do not provide additional detail—we found
no specific exam questions or model answers when investigating methods of ex-
amination further. In general, we could observe that examiners focus not only
on technical approaches or methods, but also students' capabilities for critical
reflection and to demonstrate their working knowledge of human visual percep-
tion.
3 Seminar Discussions
In the seminar session about teaching, Keith Andrews first presented the initial
survey result data. Next, workshop attendees discussed a variety of issues related
to teaching including “best practices” and ways to improve all our courses.
Curriculum:: A common problem reported by the attendees was some uncer-
tainty about how to logically organize the set of topics in an InfoVis course.
For example, Robert Spence's 2nd edition textbook on information visualization
follows the classical pipeline model of representation (data types, tree represen-
tations, ...), presentation (space and time limitations, including zooming, distor-
tion, ...), and interaction (navigation, browsing, mental models, ...) [62]. Many
alternative ways of organizing course content exist, however. One suggestion was
to consider four cross-cutting dimensions: data types, domains, techniques, and
methodologies. Cognitive and perceptual issues were presented as an alternative
dimension of importance. The group did not come to any decisions about what
the most suitable structure would be since this is clearly dependent on the ori-
entation of the course and its learning aims. Simply being aware of alternate
orderings is valuable as instructors consider alternatives however.
Study Materials: The discussion on the use of research papers for compulsory
reading identified many different strategies for doing so. Many attendees echoed
a frustration about the diculty in getting students to actually read assigned
articles, so many of the strategies addressed this particular issue. Several partic-
ipants reported about their own experiences and ideas, a number of which are
listed below.
- Papers are assigned, and students must present them. This takes place in
parallel with the regular lectures. This procedure seems to be pedagogically
beneficial because students learn to read actual research work, to prepare
a short talk and to give a presentation in the classroom. A disadvantage is
that student presentations vary greatly in quality. Some colleagues reported
on students losing interest in and not learning from poor presentations—
they would prefer the instructor to do all the lecturing. It is unclear if this
is truly a disadvantage, however. Perhaps, the amortized learning benefit is
high enough and this would justify the approach.
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