Chapter 00

Introduction and Syllabus

IIMT3643
Faculty of Business and Economics
The University of Hong Kong
Instructor: Dr. Yipu DENG
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General Information
• Instructor
▫ Yipu Deng
▫ Office: KKL 1308
▫ Email: yipudeng@hku.hk

• Course
▫ Time: 1:30 PM to 4:20 PM on Thursdays with 2 breaks during each lecture
▫ Website: Moodle (syllabus, course schedule, slides, and other materials)

• Optional textbook
▫ Data visualization: exploring and explaining with data
▫ Practical tableau: 100 tips, tutorials, and strategies from a Tableau zen master

• Office hours (starting from Week 2)

▫ Friday 2:00 – 4:00 PM (except holidays) or by appointment
 https://youtu.be/xekEXM0Vonc 3

Why Data Visualization

• Value of data viz à make data powerful
§ Explore data in a more efficient way à find the meaning of data more
easily à better understand our data
§ Communicate a message à present finding clearly, tell engaging stories
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Why Data Visualization

• An essential skill required for lots of jobs
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Why Data Visualization

• While AI can assist with automating data visualization tasks,
learning data visualization techniques remains essential for
ensuring quality, customization, and a comprehensive
understanding of the visualizations.

▫ Verify and interpret the visualizations generated by AI

▫ Customize and refine the visualizations to better align with your goals and
audience

▫ Develop critical thinking, problem-solving, and communication skills, which

are transferable across various domains and industries
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What will be learned in this course?

• 1. Data visualization in Excel
▫ A tool that is widely used in workspaces across the world
▫ Make you better understand the fundamental idea of creating data viz

• 2. Data visualization in Tableau Desktop (basic &

advanced)
▫ A powerful and fastest growing tool used in Business Intelligence Industry
▫ User-friendly

• 3. Design theory and storytelling

▫ Specific design elements that can help create effective data viz
▫ Common mistakes made in data viz and how mistakes can be avoided
▫ Explain data to the audience and facilitate better decision making
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Course Objectives
• Present data with visual representations for your target
audience and task
• Create multiple versions of data visualization using
various software
• Identify appropriate data visualization techniques given
particular requirements impose by data
• Apply appropriate design principles in the creation of
presentations and visualizations
• Analyze, critique, and revise data visualizations

à How to explore data efficiently, how to better

understand data, and how to present your findings
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Class Format
• Practice-oriented lectures
▫ Demonstrations & In-class exercises
▫ Bring your laptop!
▫ Class participation will be graded

• Mentimeter
▫ Your correctness does not matter.
▫ Whenever you finish a task, please indicate it.
▫ Keep it open until the end of the session.

• Tutorials
▫ Tutorial participation will be graded (plan your attendance carefully)
▫ Mr. Eric Tam, the major teaching assistant for this course
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Grade Composition
• Participation (10%)
▫ In-class (5%)
▫ Tutorial (5%)
▫ You can also ask questions on the Moodle discussion forum; excellent
questions and discussions will be awarded for participation
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In-class Quizzes (10%)

• Format
▫ in-class exercises
-> build charts and answer corresponding questions

• Mentimeter
▫ Your correctness matters.
▫ A question that is part of an in-class quiz will have a prefix
indicating the quiz number.

• 10 quizzes in total, but we will only keep the top 5 scores.

• NO DISCUSSION & NO CHEATING!

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Mid-term Exam (35%)

• Time and location (tentative)
▫ 7 to 8 pm on Mar 14, MWT1
▫ Request for a make-up exam needs previous notice and
documentation.

• Format
▫ Build charts à I will offer you a sample exam paper.

• NO DISCUSSION & NO CHEATING!

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Individual Assignments (20%)

• 2 assignments
▫ Excel (10%)
▫ Tableau (10%)

• Submit your assignments to Moodle

• Only your latest submission will be graded

• Score deduction will be applied to incorrect answers, missing

or incomplete requirements

• Due at the end of due dates and no grace periods

• No Makeup! Do NOT Copy!

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Group Project (25%)

• Form groups of 3 to 4 people

• Two deliverables
▫ Project proposal (5%)
▫ Final report & dashboard (10%)

• Presentation (Apr 25th)

▫ Weight: 10%
▫ On-time attendance is required!
▫ More details on Moodle

• Peer evaluation
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Expectations of You
• Check Moodle regularly and bring your laptop

• Ask questions to me (in class, via email, office hours)

• Come prepared to discuss

• Significant contributions to teams

• Business (academic) integrity

• Feedback is highly welcomed