OPIM 5501 Visual Analytics

Course Title: OPIM 5501 Visual Analytics
Type: Elective, intensive course
Term/Time: Summer 2017 / June 5th to July 6th
Instructor: John Wilson
Teaching Assistant: NA
Overall Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
Knowledge/Skills Gained: Data Visualization, Tableau
Summary: This is an easy A class if you don't screw up the exam and spend a lot of time on the group project.

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Visual Analytics used to be a semester-long course until summer 2017. After finishing this subject in an intensive manner this summer, the professor mentioned that it was quite successful. Therefore, this class is now transformed into a compressive format so students can complete it in 2 months.

Students actually learn Tableau by themselves through completing exercises inside and outside the classroom. The professor teaches us some principles of data visualization. For instance, it's better to use comparison in shapes, lengths, or positions than too many colors. Bar charts should mostly begin at zero to avoid unintentional or intentional misinterpretation. People tend to pay more attention to the upper-left part, so the most important information should be there. It's important to spend time, but not too much time, studying and remembering these lecture notes because the exam accounts for 50% of your final grade (see syllabus here). Nonetheless, it doesn't cost you too much time to remember these notes, so you really just need to study a couple hours before the exam.

The most critical part is the group project on which students spend most of their time. It really takes time to find a good example and a corresponding dataset. I would say the group project was the most valuable part in this class that worths the tuition I paid.

However, MSBAPM at Stamford campus now provide intensive Tableau courses starting in November 2017 with a discount code for students and faculty (Please find that email, go to HuskyCT, or visit the website at http://citi.uconn.edu/DataVisualization). If the overall cost is less than the tuition (about $2,700 for 3-credit subject in summer 2017); plus you have time and reliable transportation back and forth between Hartford and Stamford, why not attending it? A disadvantage would probably be that you won't have a group project to show or discuss in your LinkedIn, cover letter, or interview. Nonetheless, you can always do a project by yourself.

To sum up, this is an elective course. I don't recommend take this subject just because you want to learn Tableau, since there are many other inexpensive ways to learn Tableau. John Wilson is the professor highly recommended because of his experiences in teaching and in industries. Whether to take this class depends on you.