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Week 15: Time Series Data + Studio

December 01, 2025

Texts to have read / watched
Writing to turn in

Plan for the day:

  • First half: Let’s discuss!
    • How to assess a semester? Final portfolios + reflections (10-20 min)
    • Writing at the transition: excitements, incitements, questions, quests (5 min)
    • Writing to remember (around 10:20)
    • Sharing (around 10:30)
  • Break (10 minutes)
  • Second half: Let’s practice!
    • Studio time!
      • Set goals
      • Make progress
      • Exit note
    • Early final presentation (15 min)
  • Homework for next time:
    • iteration 4: presented

First half: Let’s discuss

How to assess a semester? Final portfolios + reflections

We’ve done a fair amount of reflective writing this semester: in-class warm-ups and writing-to-remember, Mindful Practice Journals, discussion board posts and mid-process presentations.

At the end of the term, I’m asking you to go back through it and see what it teaches you to read it all in one fell swoop. And then to name what that process – like the process of moving through this whole course – has helped you learn.

Your final assignment is a reflective letter to me and your own future self, both articulating – perhaps discovering – your learning in the class, and illustrating what you've learned with reference to features of your products or your processes.

The goal here is less a restatement of what you’ve already written than an opportunity to think synthetically, across iterations and into the future. In particular, I’ll be curious to hear:

  1. What methods and workflows have worked for you (perhaps as compared to those that have not)? What were the challenges and the joys that keep you moving through them?

  2. What surprised you, or what surprises you now as you look back? e.g. What things did you learn that you did not expect to learn, or not learn that you had expected to? What realizations or questions do those surprises point you toward?

  3. What feedback has been most helpful to you, and how did you receive it? What have you done as a result of that feedback? Did giving feedback help you as well? In what ways?

  4. Thinking about the digital tools and digital objects of study you encountered this semester, are there any you want to explore further? What are your plans for doing so?

  5. Finally, what evidence of engagement with the course as a community can you share that isn’t covered by the above? You might, for example, point to successes in the recurring seminar activities from the syllabus / policies page (reprinted below for convenience).

You can be confident that you are successfully working through this seminar by...
  • Contributing respectfully to our weekly topical conversations, whether in class or online.
    • Consider: What is the purpose of seminar conversation? How do we learn from it? How do we balance speaking up, sitting back, branching out, and listening in, to produce the most effective learning environment for ourselves and others?
  • Completing the project iterations as described in the course plan, and on the schedule recommended.
    • Consider: Why is iteration important? Why is the schedule important? How can I be not answering my question and nevertheless succeeding in the context of this seminar?
  • Offering a content-rich, web-based palimpsest that you are proud to share with others.
    • Consider: Why pride? Why do we share our findings publicly at this point in our (different) careers?
  • Offering cogent and professional presentations that stay within the requested time limit.
    • Consider: Why is presentation to peers important? Why is the time limit important?
  • Writing two peer evaluations after each iteration is due, reflecting back what you notice and what you wonder about your peers' projects.
    • Consider: Why are these evaluations requested on top of in-class discussion? How can I help someone else improve when I am still so unsure of what I am doing? How can evaluating someone else's work help me improve?
  • Working at least 2-4 hours on your project every week, and documenting this effort in your Mindful Practice Journal.
    • Consider: Why is consistency important? Why is documentation important? Why is so much self-reflection a part of this seminar?

How will these be evaluated?

As I often do when grading, especially for courses with multimodal submissions, I think in terms of baseline and aspirational forms of response (drawing on Reilly and Atkins 2013).

I’ve put a first draft in our shared notes doc, but there’s room for discussion and revision.

Please split into groups or 3 or 4 to talk through the options. What works for you? Especially, what doesn't work for you as a baseline requirement? What other ideas do you have for ways to amaze? Use "suggesting" mode to propose edits, or add comments in the margins with questions.

EXT: If your group is finished, first loop back to see if there are any new comments or suggestions to respond to.

Writing at the transition (5 min)

A reflective letter at the end of a course is one way to think about change over time. But there are other ways! Like slope charts, line graphs, beeswarm plots, and more!

Take a few moments to re-orient yourself toward the reading on Time Series Data – or, if you ran out of time or missed my email because of the holiday, skim now to catch yourself up a bit. (Readings are listed at the top of this page.)

What was exciting here? What's challenging? What questions were answered, and what questions were raised? What do you still need to know in order to do your own data exploration or communication? Does any of what you read this week change how you'll read in the future?

Discussion: Questions, comments, connections

Let’s discuss! We can take notes at bit.ly/dsam2025fall-notes.

If we get to writing by around 10:20, we should still have time for studio in the second half.

Who would like to share?

Writing to remember

Spend some time putting marks on a page to help you think through, and consolidate for yourself, what we discussed today. What do you want to remember? What are you left wondering?

After a few minutes, I’ll ask everyone to share one thing, to which the only response will be “thank you.”

Break (10 minutes)

I’m guessing we’ll hit the break at around 10:40 or so. Try to be back for a 10:45 start, so we have time to get hands-on.

Second half: Let’s practice!

It’s a studio day!

  1. Think about the state of your project as it stands now, and where you’d like to be by next class. Try to make a list of the parts, steps, or or pieces you want to accomplish. Try to be specific. e.g. Rather than “work on website,” you might say, “rewrite landing page for an audience beyond this class”; rather than “work on analysis,” you might say, “follow tutorial to make a bump chart of themes”; etc.

  2. Look over your list, and choose one thing you’d like to accomplish – or ask about – in class. If you can’t pick just one, choose a top three… and then pick one to start with.

  3. Use the time to move your project forward. Aim to stop and take an exit note from 11:30-11:35, so we can have one early final presentation.

  4. Exit note: write a quick update to your studio plan. What are your goals for the next week?

Homework for next time

Remember that we have a new time and location next week: we're meeting on Tuesday, December 9, from noon to 4pm, in room 202 of the Cathedral. I'll bring the OWL and post a Zoom link as needed, but please come in person if you're able!

  • As always, continue working on your project, and take notes in your Mindful Practice Journal.

  • Optionally, schedule a meeting with Ben in office hours for early feedback as you build your presentation and public-facing site.

  • For our final meeting as a class, prepare a now-10-minute presentation on your independent project, focused now on the public-facing site and the choices you’ve made. In this fourth iteration, you should be able to look back through your journal and your project site to answer the following:

    • What materials (sources, processing steps, arguments) are you providing on your site, ie. for readers beyond our class?
    • How have you prepared your materials for presentation to a public readership?
    • When you look back at your initial goals, where have you ended up?
    • What have you learned in the process that could apply to future projects?
NB: What does a "public-facing project" entail? At a minimum, you should have at least a landing page introducing your project to new viewers, even if that landing page is just a README file (in a repo) or tab (within a worksheet). Think about your audience, and what they would need to understand what you're providing them.

Post your presentation files, along with a link to your developing public-facing project, to the discussion forum. A video recording of your presentation is optional but welcome.

NB: Bring your own dongle, if you need one.

  • Looking ahead, final reflections will be due by noon on Friday, December 12, so I can get grades in by Tuesday’s deadline. I’ll get both forums posted in case you want to turn in early.
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