[Infovis] Identifying Important and Difficult Concepts to Learn in Information Visualization

[Parsons, Paul]

Dear Colleagues,

We are soliciting assistance with a research study on information visualization education. Details of the study are provided below. If you agree to participate in and complete the study, you will be entered into a draw for one of two Amazon Gift cards (US$50 value). The odds of winning will depend on the number of participants, but we estimate that they should not be lower than 1/50.


Please let us know at your earliest convenience if you are able to participate by completing the following 10-minute survey: https://purdue.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_7TWT2e3iLPoqKYR.


Thank you for your time and consideration,

Paul Parsons, Vetria Byrd, and Camilo Vieira

Purdue University


Interest in information visualization (InfoVis) has been growing in recent years, leading to growth in InfoVis training in both academic and non-academic contexts. As a result, InfoVis pedagogy has become an important topic for research and discussion. Little scholarship has focused directly on InfoVis education, however, and research informing curriculum design is underdeveloped. This research study aims to identify InfoVis concepts that are both important and difficult to learn. The results from this study can be used to support the curriculum development process for InfoVis programs, and to inform educational research and pedagogical practices.

We are inviting you to participate in this research because you are part of a community of InfoVis educators, researchers, and practitioners. We are specifically interested in your input based on your experience teaching, learning, and/or practicing InfoVis.

Your participation in this study consists of three rounds of data collection that are explained below. Throughout the three rounds your identity will be kept anonymous to other respondents (though not to the researchers). That is, you will not directly interact with other respondents and you will not know who they are, nor they will be able to identify you.  Only the researchers will be able to connect your identity with your responses. Please note that all data (with and without identifiers) will be kept permanently and will be stored in a hard drive by Dr. Vieira in a locked cabinet within his office at Purdue University.

Each round is expected to take approximately 10 to 15 minutes. Further, it is anticipated that there will be several weeks between each round to collate all responses, revise the instrument for the next iteration, and provide feedback to you. At the close of the third round, you will be offered the choice to receive a copy of the final report.

The Delphi process provides an interactive communication structure between researchers and subject matter experts (SMEs) to develop themes, needs, and directions about a topic. This Delphi process will consist of three anonymous, iterative rounds as follows:

Goal Round 1: To identify important and difficult concepts to learn in InfoVis education.

Goal Round 2: To rank different levels of relevance and difficulty for each of the InfoVis concepts provided on a consolidated list.

Goal Round 3: To revise the collective responses and gain consensus among the respondents.

There are no foreseeable risks associated with this project, nor are there any direct benefits to participants. This project has been reviewed by the Purdue University IRB office and approved as IRB #1704019129.

We apologize for the length of this introductory message; however, this message fulfills the requirements for the Delphi Method and of our Human Subjects protocol.

If you have any questions or concerns, please contact us: Dr. Paul Parsons, Purdue University at parsonsp at purdue.edu or 765-494-0511; Dr. Vetria Byrd, Purdue University at vbyrd at purdue.edu or 765-494-6335; and Dr. Camilo Vieira, Purdue University at cvieira at purdue.edu or 765-775-0430.



Paul Parsons, PhD | Assistant Professor
Computer Graphics Technology | Purdue University
parsonsp at purdue.edu | web.ics.purdue.edu/~parsonsp