How Universities are Filling the Analytics Skills Gap
How Universities are Filling the Analytics Skills Gap
Hettie Tabor, Director of Master of Science in Business Analytics, Southern Methodist University
Ruth Gilleran, Senior Lecturer of Information Technology, Babson College
Today’s Presenters
Tableau and the
SMU Cox
MSBA Program
3
Hettie Tabor
Director, Master of Science in Business
Analytics Program
Overview
4
The Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) degree at SMU Cox provides students with the expertise and specialized skills that employers in IT, marketing, operations and consulting are demanding now. The broad and intensive curriculum across a range of management disciplines and functions explores the latest methods of translating data into relevant information for decision-makers. In less than one year, the MSBA program prepares students to launch successful careers in the burgeoning field of business analytics.
The Master of Science in Business Analytics program began in 2014Check out our website: http://www.cox.smu.edu/web/msba-program/master-of-science-in-business-analytics.
The MSBA is a 33 credit hour, two semester (four, 7-week Modules) degree and is "jointly owned" by the Information Technology and Operations Management (ITOM) Department and the Marketing Department within the SMU Cox Business School.
Students have the option of two program specialization, or tracks: Business Process Analytics and Customer Analytics
Instruction is in traditional classroom with all courses being taught on the Main Campus.
Students enroll in the fall semester and graduate in May Class size is approximately 60 students Candidates come from a variety of backgrounds including
undergraduate degrees in economics, math, engineering and science and BBA graduates
The MSBA degree provides students with a both broad and intensive education in business analytics across a range of management disciplines and functions.
Graduates will be well prepared for jobs in IT, marketing, operations and consulting fields.
The MSBA Program has introduced a course called Data Visualization. In this course,
students are taught how to effectively communicate the results of the business
analytics that they perform, in both written and oral presentation. The key questions for
the analytic communications are: What is happening? Why is it happening? What
should we do from here?
The objective of this course is to enable students to learn:
• What Data Visualization is
• Best Methods of Communicating with Data
• Table and Graph Design Best Practices
• How to use a Data Visualization Tool (Tableau)
• How to tell a Story
This course is designed for Master of Science in Business Analytics (MSBA) students
who want to learn how to understand, document, analyze and improve data
visualization skills.
By the time students have completed this course, they will be able to:
• Understand and apply the principles and best practices of data visualization
• Design and implement data visualization using Tableau
Books: Show Me the Numbers, Designing Tables and Graphs to Enlighten, Analytics
Press, Second Edition, Stephen Few
Exercises are done using Tableau.
Data Visualization
5
Day 1 Introduction to Data Visualization
• Statistics and Analytics
• Quantitative Relationships
• Quantitative (Facts/Measures) and Categorical (Dimensions)
• Relationships with Categories
• Relationships between Quantities
• Measures of Average
• Measures of Variation
• Data Joins
• Data Blending
• Connecting to Data
• Refreshing Extracts
Data Visualization Guidelines and Tables
• Best Methods of Communication
• Tables
• Table Terminology
• When to Use Tables
• Table Design Best Practices
• Fundamental Variations in Tables
Tableau Overview
• Marks Card
• Pages
• Filters
Syllabus – Day 1
6
Data Visualization Guidelines and Charts
Graphs
• History of Graphs
• Graph Terminology
• When to Use Tables versus Graphs
• General Graph Design
• Basic Design Principles
• Gestalt Laws
• Visual Perception and Graphical Communications
• Charts
• Pie Charts
• Bar Charts
• Line Charts
• Area Charts
• Points
• Scatter Plots
• Bubble Charts
• Correlation
Syllabus – Day 2
7
Geospatial Graphs – Mapping and Images
• Basic Mapping
• Web Map Services
• Background Images
• Custom Geocoding
Dashboard
StoryPoints
Advanced Graphics
• Paths
• Histograms
• Box Plots
• Tree Maps
• Word Clouds
• Waterfall Charts
• Bump Charts
• Control Charts
• Benford’s Law
Syllabus – Day 3
8
Syllabus – Day 4
Syllabus – Day 5
Group Dashboard / Presentations
Syllabus – Day 6&7
9
Syllabus – Day 8 – Final Exam
10
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Agenda
1. About Babson
2. Where we use Tableau
3. How we use Tableau
Welcome
• Babson CollegeSenior Lecturer, Technology Operations and Information Management Division
2001-2016 (15 years)
Teach executive education, graduate, and undergraduate courses in Business Intelligence, Social Business, Software Project Design and Development and general IT concepts
• Computer AssociatesAssistant Vice President Business Applications
1985-2000 (15 years)
Entrepreneurial Thought & ActionRanked Number #1 School in Entrepreneurship for the past 19 consecutive years by US News and World Reports
Entrepreneurship of all kinds
Entrepreneurial Thought and Action
How It All Started…
• 2012-2013: Industry Board (BCG, EMC,
IBM, Rexar Analytics, IDG) identified data
visualization as a key aspect of data analytics
• 2013: Business Analytics concentrations
introduced at the MBA and undergraduate
level
• Fall 2013: Introduced Tableau in the core
courses for the concentration
Undergraduate Courses
Department Core/Elective Course
InformationTechnology
Core (sophomores) Managing Information System (SME2012)
Elective (sophomores-seniors)
Business Intelligence and Data Analytics (MIS3545)
Math Elective (sophomores-seniors)
Case Studies in Business Analytics (QTM2000)
Graduate Courses
Department Core/Elective Course
Information Technology
MBA Core Global Connections Through Technology (MIS7200)
Elective Competing on Analytics Using Technology (MIS9530)
Math Elective Introduction to Data Science and Business Analytics (QTM9515)
We Don’t Teach
Tableau
We teach
Storytelling
&
The Power of
Data Visualization
Aristotle’s Appeals
Logos (Logical appeal) – The data (In
God we trust, all others must bring
data!)
Ethos (Credible appeal) – Knowledge
on data sources and data quality
Pathos (Emotional appeal) – Use of
colors, shapes, sizes, chart types
65% of People are Visual Learners…(neglected majority)
“I prefer images, colors, structures, touch, positions and emotions…. to text.”
Source: Tableau Software, Jason Schumacher
Source: Tableau Software, Jason Schumacher
Color Choice Matters
Use the same color to represent the same variable so the
readers can focus on comparing the data
Color Continued
Use graduating shades of one color or colors on the same
side of the color wheel so readers can focus on the data
We Don’t Teach
Tableau
The Students Use It
Undergraduate School
Session Preparation
We Display Targets (KPIs) on
Dashboards
Graduate School
Using data they mock-up in Excel,
students build dashboards for
SMB clients
Using Tableau sample data and data
marketplace data, students tell stories
Tableau Support Many Data Sources
Data Marketplaces
Source URL Description
Amazon http://aws.amazon.com/datasets Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Climate, Economic, Encyclopedic, Geographic,
Mathematics ( NOTE: With exception of the genome data, most of the data sets are
dated 2009.)
Factual http://www.factual.com/products#location-data Restaurants, doctors, hotels, local businesses, Yelp, Facebook, Foursquare
Finance http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/~%20adamodar/New_H
ome_Page/data.html
Corporate governance, discount rate estimation, performance measures, capital
structures, dividend policy, cash flow estimation, growth rate estimation, multiples,
option pricing models
Geo Sites http://geocommons.com/ Agriculture, business and labor, demographics, economic and financial, education,
geographical boundaries, government and politics, health and medicine,
infrastructure, law enforcement, military and defense, real estate, retail, science and
environment, sports and culture, technology, travel
Government -
Federal
https://explore.data.gov/catalog/raw Data collected by the US Federal Government Executive Branch. 5800 datasets.
Search by government agency, office, or bureau.
Government-
Census
http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/ Population, births, deaths, health, and labor force
Machine
Learning
http://archive.ics.uci.edu/ml/datasets.html Datasets for machine learning. Life sciences, physical sciences, engineering, social
sciences, business, game, other)
Marketing http://research.chicagobooth.edu/kilts/marketing-
databases
Nielsen data-consumer panel data and retail scanner data.
Microsoft http://datamarket.azure.com/ Automotive, industrial, aerospace, finance, communications, consumer goods,
distribution, data quality, demographics, government, health and wellness, high tech,
electronics, manufacturing, media and entertainment, real estate, retail, hospitality,
science, statistics, sports, games, transportation, navigation, weather, climate
Transportation http://www.rita.dot.gov/bts/data_and_statistics/dat
abases
US Department of Transportation, Research and Innovation Technology
Administration (RITA), Bureau of Transportation Statistics (airline data, ferries,
border crossing, imports and exports, household travel survey , trans border freight
data
What’s Next….
• Explore additional datasets
• Beyond data visualization, Tableau for data exploration
Live Q&A
Questions? • Academic Programs: [email protected]• Hettie Tabor: [email protected]• Ruth Gilleran: [email protected]