Designing Web-Based Technologies for Data Visualization Skill Development

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Autor/in	Thompson, JaCoya
Titel	Designing Web-Based Technologies for Data Visualization Skill Development
Quelle	(2023), (197 Seiten) PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit Ph.D. Dissertation, Northwestern University
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Monographie
ISBN	979-8-3795-8574-7
Schlagwörter	Hochschulschrift; Dissertation; Visual Aids; Web Based Instruction; Skill Development; Data; Middle School Teachers; High School Teachers; Mathematics Teachers; Educational Technology + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Thesis; Dissertations; Academic thesis; Anschauungsmaterial; Web Based Training; Kompetenzentwicklung; Qualifikationsentwicklung; Daten; Middle school; Middle schools; Teacher; Teachers; Mittelschule; Mittelstufenschule; Lehrer; Lehrerin; Lehrende; High school; High schools; Oberschule; Mathematics; Mathematik; Unterrichtsmedien
Abstract	As our world is increasingly filled with data visualizations, having the skills to leverage data visualizations is essential for participation in society. Confident engagement with data visualizations is critical for being an educated member of society; however, research has shown that it is difficult for individuals to digest and gain meaningful knowledge from data visualizations. Instead, individuals generally rely on the findings and interpretations of experts or individuals formally trained through higher education to help them understand data visualizations. While experts have benefited from the capacity to gain data-related information from data visualizations, others that do not have the training struggled to do so. This leaves the non-formally trained individual ill-equipped to access valuable data-related information often presented through data visualization. Information from data could help them learn, solve problems, make informed decisions, and advocate for themselves and others. Therefore, opportunities are needed to develop skills to read, communicate, and comprehend data visualizations appropriately and correctly for those that do not necessarily want to be experts but consumers of data information from publicly available data visualizations. This dissertation aims to contribute to research showing how web-based learning tools can be designed to engage users in practices related to data visualization and make authentic learning environments (Hurt et al., 2023; Grover et al.,2020) for data visualization skill development. Various tools and techniques are being developed as the acquirement of data visualization skills becomes increasingly important. Specific skills, such as reading and creating data visualization, are taught as early as elementary. Still, more efforts are needed to equip individuals with skills for daily data visualization consumption because data visualizations are now commonly encountered via the news, books, and the internet. This qualitative methods study investigated how web-based technologies can be designed to engage individuals in approaches to develop data visualization skills. Through implementations, this work explores how learners engage in data visualization processes as they question, make meaning, critically evaluate, synthesize, and communicated data information in an informal learning setting. Before the tool's design, I define the intended user type, research what data visualization skills are necessary for the user type, and how the user type currently acquires those skills. Users are defined as non-technical individuals not interested in building data visualization skills for science, technical, or research purposes. But to consume data visualizations they encounter daily. In this context, the skills will differ due to the intended users. For example, requiring less focus on analytical and technical skills and more skills related to reading, communicating, and comprehension of data visualizations. There are practices for data literacy and data visualization literacy to prepare individuals to read, communicate, and comprehend data visualizations. Data visualizations are the typical medium of conveying data to the public; therefore, this work suggests a synthesized set of skills and abilities from elements of data and data visualization literacy to support the development of data visualization skills. Ultimately, this dissertation characterizes data visualization skills as gaining data insights, communicating data insights, and avoiding misleading data visualizations. After defining users and data visualization skills, I explore the current practices and challenges of teaching and learning data visualization skills. These insights are based on surveys with middle and high school mathematics teachers. Mathematics teachers are used because they are the typical first source of teaching these skills. The surveys articulate the need for a tool to build data visualization skills highlighted in this work, particularly to avoid misleading data visualizations. In response to the survey insights, DataViz was developed. The design of DataViz was evaluated through two user studies and two informal implementations. The user study participants included middle and high school math teachers and students. The two user studies helped inform the design principles and suggested tool iteration. The two informal implementations explored how participants aged 12-17 engaged in data visualization skills through activities with and without DataViz. Implementation one has 5-sessions that include structured activities with and without DataViz. The study investigates how users gain data insights and avoid misleading data visualizations before, during, and after using DataViz. I found that through DataViz, users could have meaningful discussions around data visualizations, which helped them understand the data insights they gained. Through discussions and questioning, they also discovered if a data visualization was misleading. Implementation two is a 3-hour Saturday workshop. This study explored how DataViz and activities built around DataViz aided in building communication of data insights. During the workshop, I observed how new and old users of DataViz engaged with data visualizations to communicate stories. Participants used a questioning technique where they asked questions and used different types of evidence to investigate their questions. Through this technique discovered in implementation one, participants could communicate the data insights gained in a structure that required evidence to support their data insights. From the user studies and implementations, I found that users displayed data visualization skills often during peer discussions and by investigating questions around data visualizations. DataViz usage provided practice of practical approaches when encountering data visualization. To observe how users applied the training from DataViz, I observed examples of users making data-driven decisions and questioning data visualizations they encountered to avoid being misled. Communication of data insights was often based on their personal experiences. When they could not make those personal connections, they researched via the internet or inquired from peers to build or verify reasoning. As I observed previous and new users of DataViz, I observed how repeated users confidently engaged with data visualizations as they had more practice. Findings also suggest that combining activities with and without DataViz provided valuable practice for engaging with data visualizations. Supporting the effective use of DataViz required the development of several intentionally designed activities. These activities are described alongside the technology design principles and features, as they play an important role in how DataViz might be used to promote data and data visualization literacy. The combination of DataViz design principles and activities created a learning environment for users to gain data insights, communicate data insights, and correctly decode data visualizations. DataViz is focused and simple for beginners to use. Therefore, it is not a tool that advanced users and professionals will use in the long term to produce flexible and complex outputs. Instead, DataViz is positioned as an expandable tool that helps users proceed to more open-ended tools. DataViz introduces beginners to data visualization processes and data-centric thinking to help build their confidence and identity as someone who can work with data. This approach aligns with prior research that perceptions of "self-efficacy" are significant to the learning process (Zimmerman, 2000).This dissertation provides approaches for how to teach data visualization to novices. It explicitly contributes DataViz, an online platform for individuals to practice engaging with data visualizations and become data visualization consumers. In line with this contribution are the ways that DataViz can help individuals synthesize the public data visualizations they encounter. Furthermore, this work highlights ways to design learning technology and activities to support data visualization skills. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.] (As Provided).
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Update	2024/1/01