Visualizing Survey Data in Tableau

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Presenter:
Craig Abbey, University at Buffalo
 
Requirements:
Computer with necessary software provided to registrants
Workshop software provided: Tableau 10.3.1
 
Intended Audience/Prerequisites:
1) Participants are expected to already know the basics of Tableau, including knowing how to connect to multiple data sources, filter data, sort data and create basic data visualizations in the Tableau environment.

2) Participants should have basic knowledge of higher education surveys data. 

Description:
Tableau is an important software package in the IR professional toolbox for data visualization and reporting. The need to easily display and promote the use of survey data in institutions is key to continuous improvement. However, training and examples tend to focus on databases unrelated to higher education making it difficult for IR professional to relate and learn. This workshop uses higher education data with practical, hands-on exercises that focus on real higher education survey reporting and analysis needs that IR professionals tackle regularly. No matter how well staffed an IR office is, there is always room for improving efficiency, reducing the time it takes to answer common questions. Following a brief lecture on best practices and questions to consider before sharing survey results, the transformation and preparation will be discussed and practiced in an exercise. Five additional hands-on exercises follow, covering the key topics for displaying survey results, each reinforcing points from earlier exercises to enhance student learning.
 
Intended Learning Outcomes:
In this workshop, participants will learn how to use Tableau to visualize survey data through a series of hands-on exercises using higher education data. Attendees will acquire the skills to transform survey data, create a variety of basic and advanced visualizations, build basic calculations, work with weighted data and build interactive dashboards they can share with their campus. Consideration of audience, small cell sizes and design best practices will be discussed. Perfect for those with some Tableau experience who want to visualize survey data, this workshop will help participants gain Tableau expertise.