Recreating My Online Information Visualization Course

One video lecture at a time

This is me introducing the course on Coursera many years ago. I recorded a few lectures in a shirt and blazer and then gave up. But I kind of like the way I look in this picture now! (And I was also much younger … Where have all those years gone?!)

Hey folks, Happy New Year! I hope you had a great start! The start of the semester has been quite busy for me, and this is the first time this month that I have found some time to sit down and write.

I have just started teaching the Spring edition of my PhD-level Information Visualization course, and I have decided the time has arrived for me to do something I wanted to do for many years: record and publish all the video lectures I use for the course! This is a gigantic task, and I am completely terrified by what I have gotten myself into. But the thing is, there’s never going to be a good time to do it. So, this semester, I’ll give it a try. I don’t know if I’ll succeed, but you’ll see me try here!

Let me give you a bit more background and explain why I am doing this.

The story of my Coursera course

When I was a professor at New York University, I developed a specialization in Information Visualization for Coursera ( a specialization in Coursera is made of a set of related courses). With the help of a whole team from NYU, I developed a very thorough set of courses and made them available on the Coursera platform. The platform allowed me to teach thousands of students worldwide, and it was one of the most rewarding experiences of my career as a professor. Over the years, I heard from many students how much they enjoyed the course and how it influenced their careers. Knowing that a student from the other side of the world could learn what I teach and then use it to find a job seems like a priceless privilege for a person like me who has devoted a very large part of his academic career to developing strategies to teach people the science and craft of visualizing data.

However, after a while, I realized that my course development process had two critical flaws. First, the video lectures were almost impossible to edit and update. When I developed the course, I recorded myself in a green room using very expensive equipment, with the help of a professional who took care of the lights, audio, and all the rest. In addition, my slides were given as input to a designer who created an embellished version to make them more polished. At the time, this seemed all cool and dandy, but I had not anticipated the problem that once all these people were gone, I would have been left with a set of lectures that was practically impossible to update.

The second problem I encountered was that Coursera did not provide much help in managing the course, and I was constantly struggling to keep up with the multiple problems on the platform. When you design a massive course, there are always bugs here and there, and a team is needed to fix them swiftly. Unfortunately, I did not receive the level of support I expected and was left with the embarrassment of a course that had a number of glitches here and there, with nobody taking care of solving them. Eventually, after some time, I decided to take it down, but not without a sense of big loss. Not only for me but, above all, for the many students I was serving around the world.

Recreating the course

I’ve long envisioned rebuilding a course like the one I had on Coursera, but this time, entirely under my control and optimized for easy updates. And this is what brings me to today’s message: I have started recording the video lectures and will keep producing new ones (roughly) every week. You will receive a notification through this newsletter, and you’ll also find the lectures on my YouTube channel (sign up there, too, to receive notifications on YT).

Producing the whole set of lectures will take the whole semester, but eventually, the whole course will be available again and in a completely updated format and content. At the time of writing, I plan to split the course into three large modules that can be learned independently.

1. Fundamentals: Visual Data Analysis and Presentation

2. The Science of Data Visualization

3. Advanced and Interactive Data Visualizations

Each module will contain 4-5 individual lessons (video lectures) and associated material such as quizzes, exercises, and readings.

Since the modules are quite independent, I should be able to start producing the “fundamentals” module as a course as soon as I finish it.

My current plan is to make all the video lectures available for free and then build a course that you can take for a reasonable fee, containing all the additional material and, possibly, synchronous interactions with other students and with me. I have not decided yet, but I think I’ll create multiple tiers/offerings to make it accessible to as many people as possible. My main goal is to make a strong academic course available to as many people as possible around the world.

It’s a daunting task, and I am quite scared. But it’s also incredibly exciting! I know for a fact that this course can bring a lot of value to many people, so the work is definitely worth the effort.

If you want to help me in this endeavor, please send comments when I post the video lectures and let me know what you like and what can be improved. Knowing there are a few supporters out there is a big help when facing a huge pile of work.

Thanks for reading! I am very excited about all the plans I have for this year!