This site originated as an experimental Data Visualization module in Lehigh University journalism for Fall 2016. The experiment was a success and continues.
I had decided to use GitHub to create and host my syllabus for the module, which was actually part of a larger, current class, Jour 24 Visual Communication. Jour 24 thus had seven and one-half weeks of traditional visual communication and seven and one-half weeks of data visualization. A companion course, Jour 23 Editing and Critical Thinking, had seven and one-half weeks of traditional editing and seven and one-half weeks of data journalism.
My decision to use GitHub is so students will get to know it and get introduced to some fundamental coding and the idea of version control even as they work on other projects for the class. I annotated my steps and created my own Set Up Guide for those without any GitHub experience.
The Chronicle of Higher Education offers some good guides, geared for academics.
- Getting Started with GitHub using GitHub for Mac, from the Chronicle
- Direct Editing and Workflow in GitHub
- Reasons to Fork Syllabi
- Discussions of Forks and Pull Requests
- Value of File and Repository History through Commits
- Good List of Links for Resources about Guthub
- Limitations of GitHub for Writers
- Narrative Visualization: Telling Stories with Data. A dated piece but two Stanford profs examine the grammar and genres of narrative visualization.