At the Professional Science Master’s program, we aim to equip our Master of Business and Science (MBS) students with cutting-edge education to help them succeed in the workplace. It’s no secret that businesses are becoming increasingly data-driven. Students in our concentration Analytics: Discovery Informatics & Data Sciences gain the knowledge, skills, and tools to understand and direct data-driven decision-making. We’ve introduced the new course Special Topics: Data Storytelling. In this course, students learn how to build a compelling narrative that drives business decisions using the power of data storytelling
About the Professor
Data Storytelling is taught by Lindy Ryan, Assistant Teaching Professor. Professor Ryan also serves as the instructor of the MBS course Business Intelligence (BI) with Visual Analytics.
Before her career in academia, Professor Ryan worked in the analytics industry, conducting research and providing training on Tableau and visual analytics concepts. She co-founded the business intelligence research and advisory firm Radiant Advisors in 2010, where she led the company’s research and data enablement practice for clients before founding Black Spot Books, an award-winning small press publishing company, in 2017. Professor Ryan’s research focuses on the intersection of data science, visual analysis, and storytelling.
Professor Ryan is also an award-winning author, editor, and short-film director. Visit our blog to learn more about her life outside the classroom.
An Inside Look
Data Storytelling was designed to serve as a companion to the MBS course BI with Visual Analytics. While these courses offer similar instruction, they are meant to serve two different student populations, said Professor Ryan.
Both BI with Visual Analytics and Data Storytelling provide students with foundational data visualization, visual design, and visual data storytelling best practices. BI with Visual Analytics is a more technical course intended for students with a background in statistics and analytics, and is required for students in the Analytics concentration. Data Storytelling places a stronger focus on communicating analytic insights to business audiences. In this course, students learn to build compelling narratives that harness the power of data storytelling to share the results of analyses clearly and effectively, allowing them to provide insights that enable business leaders to make business decisions with confidence. Students in all concentrations (including Analytics) are invited to take Data Storytelling.
Both courses leverage Tableau, the leading data visualization industry software, to craft data visualizations and stories. Students are strongly encouraged to have completed basic statistics before taking BI with Visual Analytics. Non-MBS students must request a Special Permission Number for BI with Visual Analytics. Students are not expected to have Tableau knowledge prior to enrollment, though students enrolled in both courses should be comfortable exploring and learning new technologies to apply learning, and expect to get hands-on with the software both in and out of class.
Data Storytelling is a project-based course where students use real-world datasets to build compelling narratives. This course also allows students to exercise soft skills in leadership, communication, critical thinking, and—of course—curiosity.
“We can tell data stories about anything,” said Professor Ryan, “we just have to have the data to do it. This course isn’t pigeonholed into intense data discussions. We’re focused more on communicating insights and being able to curate that.”
In Data Storytelling, students learn how to build narrative frameworks, develop narrative theories, and know the different genres of business data storytelling—tools that can be applied to all aspects of different businesses, said Professor Ryan.
“Every business uses data to make decisions,” said Professor Ryan. “Often, the only way to make decisions off of data is to know what that insight is saying.”
Students might be using data visualization to make decisions in their everyday lives without even realizing it, from tracking their physical activity to information about their music listening habits.
“Learning how to parse through information to understand what it’s telling you is the power of visual analytics and data visualization,” said Professor Ryan. “Learning how to communicate that insight and help lead others to take action is the power of data storytelling.”
Lindy highlighted the human brain’s remarkable ability to recognize images—in a seminal study, participants were able to recall approximately 10,000 images with an 83% accuracy rate.
“What we want to do is build emotion, to find ways to highlight data or to alert people to data by the way we’re architecting that framework or by the way we’re building and streamlining those visuals,” said Professor Ryan. “When you can inspire emotion, memory, trust, and retention—those things go a long way.”
This course will premier in fall 2024. To learn more, visit the MBS course catalog page.