About this course: The data science revolution has produced reams of new data from a wide variety of new sources. These new datasets are being used to answer new questions in way never before conceived. Visualization remains one of the most powerful ways draw conclusions from data, but the influx of new data types requires the development of new visualization techniques and building blocks. This course provides you with the skills for creating those new visualization building blocks. We focus on the ggplot2 framework and describe how to use and extend the system to suit the specific needs of your organization or team. Upon completing this course, learners will be able to build the tools needed to visualize a wide variety of data types and will have the fundamentals needed to address new data types as they come about.

Created by: Johns Hopkins University

Taught by: Roger D. Peng, PhD, Associate Professor, Biostatistics
Bloomberg School of Public Health
Taught by: Brooke Anderson, Assistant Professor, Environmental & Radiological Health Sciences
Colorado State University

Basic Info	Course 4 of 5 in the Mastering Software Development in R Specialization
Level	Intermediate
Commitment	4 weeks, 2 hours per week
Language	English
How To Pass	Pass all graded assignments to complete the course.
User Ratings	4.2 stars Average User Rating 4.2See what learners said

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Welcome to Building Data Visualization Tools

Before we get started, we'll take a quick overview of the course.

1 video, 2 readings

Video: Welcome to Building Data Visualization Tools
Reading: Textbook: Mastering Software Development in R
Reading: Syllabus

Plotting with ggplot2

Now, we'll dive into creating and customizing ggplot2 plots.

13 readings

Reading: Introduction
Reading: Initializing a ggplot object
Reading: Plot aesthetics
Reading: Creating a basic ggplot plot
Reading: Geoms
Reading: Using multiple geoms
Reading: Constant aesthetics
Reading: Example plots
Reading: Extensions of ggplot2
Reading: Introduction
Reading: Guidelines for good plots
Reading: Scales and color
Reading: To find out more

Graded: Plotting with ggplot2

WEEK 2

Mapping and interactive plots

Mapping is a critical part of many data visualizations. During this module, we'll teach you how to create simple and dynamic maps with ggplot2 and ggmap, how to overlay data, and how to create chloropleth maps of US counties.

9 readings

Reading: Introduction
Reading: Basics of Mapping
Reading: ggmap, Google Maps API
Reading: Mapping US counties and states
Reading: More advanced mapping– Spatial objects
Reading: Where to find more on mapping with R
Reading: Overview of htmlWidgets
Reading: plotly package
Reading: Creating your own widget

Graded: Mapping and interactive plots

WEEK 3

The grid Package

The grid package in R implements the primitive graphical functions that underly the ggplot2 plotting system. In this module, you'll learn how to work with grid to build graphics.

7 readings

Reading: Introduction
Reading: Overview of grid graphics
Reading: Grobs
Reading: Viewports
Reading: Grid graphics coordinate systems
Reading: The gridExtra package
Reading: Where to find more about grid graphics

Graded: Basics of grid graphics

WEEK 4

Building New Graphical Elements

Building and modifying a theme in ggplot2 is a key feature of the ggplot2 package and system for building data graphics. In this final module, you'll learn to build a new theme and modifying existing themes with new features.

12 readings

Reading: Introduction
Reading: Why Build a New Theme?
Reading: Default Theme
Reading: Building a New Theme
Reading: Summary
Reading: Introduction
Reading: Building a Geom
Reading: Example: An Automatic Transparency Geom
Reading: Building a Stat
Reading: Example: Normal Confidence Intervals
Reading: Combining Geoms and Stats
Reading: Summary

Graded: Build a New Geom

FAQs

How It Works

Coursework

Each course is like an interactive textbook, featuring pre-recorded videos, quizzes and projects.

Help from Your Peers

Connect with thousands of other learners and debate ideas, discuss course material, and get help mastering concepts.

Certificates

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Creators

Johns Hopkins University

The mission of The Johns Hopkins University is to educate its students and cultivate their capacity for life-long learning, to foster independent and original research, and to bring the benefits of discovery to the world.

Pricing

	Audit	Purchase Course
Access to course materials	Available	Available
Access to graded materials	Not available	Available
Receive a final grade	Not available	Available
Earn a shareable Course Certificate	Not available	Available

Ratings and Reviews

Rated 4.2 out of 5 of 50 ratings

very useful, especially the final practical exam.

not 5 score because I think more time should have been spent in more modern interactive charts

A nice course

nice course

Good material. Thanks a lot for this course.

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