Hello :) I have decided to write a Medium post to consolidate and evaluate my learning throughout this entire semester.
To consolidate my learning, I’m going to share more about what I knew before the class, and what I now know after an entire semester.
I took the class, not 100% knowing what to expect, primarily also because there were some changes to how the class was going to be conducted. I remember coming into the class thinking we were going to be assessed via a group project component and was surprised to hear that we were going to be individually assessed instead. Plus, the addition of Reddit and Medium as new platforms were novel ideas that I had not experienced in my other classes before. It definitely required some adjusting and adapting, but one semester later, I think I definitely benefitted from being thrown into the great unknown!
At the end of this semester, I wouldn’t necessarily say we became experts in technical areas such as Python, Excel, Tableau, etc. In fact, I would say that I am still in the process of learning how to navigate such platforms. But is this the point? Is the point of the class for you to become an expert in creating data visualisations using these technical platforms? I think it is much more than that.
I refer to this article for some context: https://www.thebalancecareers.com/top-skills-employers-want-2062481. This article basically lists some skills and attributes that employers are looking out for. Some of them are analytical skills, communication skills, a positive attitude, teamwork, etc. What I want to emphasise, is that I think the point of this class is to equip us with some of these skills, or at least make us improve in some of these areas.
Analytical skills: We learn how to analyse data, work with data, make sense of data. This helps to train us to be more analytical and critical of the data around us. And if anything, this class has shown me that anything and everything can be viewed to be useful data, be it in areas like food, luck, environment, happiness etc.
Communication skills: Communication need not take the form of verbal communication only. Learning how to create visualisations that speak to people, crafting posts that share knowledge with people, doing up a Medium post to share your progress, coming up tutorials to teach your classmates… things like these help to foster your communication skills in different ways. Even if you feel shy to speak up in class, you also have the Slack platform to air your views and share your insights. Unknowingly, I do think we have become better communicators through this class.
A positive attitude: I think this attitude should be a pre-requisite for this class. But this class does continue to push us beyond our boundaries and challenge ourselves by exposing us to the greater community beyond our class, beyond just being assessed by our prof. Did we feel uncomfortable about posting on Reddit? I think to some extent, we all did. But it made us feel comfortable about being uncomfortable. And keeping a positive attitude amidst all the challenges, negative comments, lack of comments that we receive… these things push us toward trying harder and striving further.
Teamwork: I had initially thought this class would be more about the individual, given how you had to come up with your own content and post it online. But I have also witnessed so much teamwork and collaboration amongst my classmates, and it takes place in multiple forms. Examples include coming up with tutorials, doing up data visualisations together, or even just sharing ideas to come up with something new. And just as what was mentioned in my previous Medium post, I do find myself being more efficient and effective when working with a peer! It has motivated me and pushed me to try new things and explore new methods.
So what’s the point of me saying all of these? My point is, even if it may seem daunting, demoralising or even pointless at times, what we are doing is significant. Just as Dr. Charles had mentioned yesterday, don’t ever think that what you are doing here is too trivial!
Next, I’m going to attempt to evaluate my learning as well. If I were to quantify things, I wouldn’t say I am the best student in this class. Definitely not, given how I have only done 9 Medium posts and 10 Reddit posts. I did also post some times on my Slack channel and engaged in some discussions, but there are other peers who have done much more in these aspects than me. But what do I think matters most? This ties in more with the skills I have mentioned above. I would go so far as to say I am more equipped in these areas after this entire semester. Still learning, but I am more confident in these areas now.
Analytical skills: Being an Economic student, I was more comfortable with analysing economic data based on the theories and concepts that I have learnt. But I definitely did not know how to analyse data beyond my scope of knowledge. Through this class, we have dealt with all sorts of data. I have little to no interest in energy (sorry!!), but when Jiayi and I were assigned this topic, we realised that we were still able to jump into it and sieve out the interesting points in the data to analyse, and then proceed to come up with ways to explain the data based on some brief desk research.
Communication skills: I would say that I have gotten better at framing what I want to tell people through the data. A very pivotal point was me connecting low mortgage approval rates and race and then realising that I was attempting to make a blatant link via causation even though I have mentioned before that correlation does not mean causation! And it made me even more aware of my posts eventually, and Prof has also advised me to start with something small. I did, and I did see that it translated better, told clearer stories, people understood it more. It was an important learning lesson for me.
A positive attitude: It’s quite funny when I look back to some of my first few posts and laugh at some of my 0 net upvotes. And yet I was not demoralised by them and continued to work on the new topics that we explored in class. I would imagine that if I had gotten a 0 in a test in the past, I don’t think I would even have the motivation to push on, but rather feel beaten down. But now I just laugh a bit and move on. Try new methods. Look at the work that others have done. This class has pushed me to speak to people about my work as well, and to learn from them on how to be better. Not just through the prof, but also through my peers as well.
Teamwork: You don’t always get to choose your teammates, but I’m so glad that Dr. Charles assigned our groups to work in, or I would never have had the opportunity to work with Jiayi! This class has pushed me out of my comfort zone in so many ways, and even for the assigned teamwork, I think it was quite amazing how we could come together and collaborate with our ideas and skills, even though we weren’t interacting much in the class during the semester. Other than that, this class also has pushed me to explore collaborations with my friends and peers, and I do believe we are stronger when we come together to share our ideas.
Beyond these aspects, I have also learnt more about the technical aspect of things. Learnt how to work with things like Excel and Stata and explored new websites like Datawrapper. And also Reddit! Was not an avid user of Reddit before this, but this platform is pretty cool and I think the different communities and subreddits have helped me to learn beyond the class’ scope. At the end of the day, numbers-wise, I may not have achieved as stellar results as the rest, but I am proud of my own personal achievement, and that’s important to me. I do want to try and continue pushing myself beyond this class, and I think we do need more platforms/classes where we get thrown into the great unknown and learn how to navigate ourselves. Being comfortable with the uncomfortable, because that’s where the real learning starts! :)
