RPG: Updates to Student Course Distribution

October 24, 2019

Based on user feedback, the Report Prioritization Group released updates to the BI Portal visualization, Student Course Distribution.

Change Summary:

This is the first major update to the Course Progress in Major/Student Course Distribution visualization since it was implemented about 3 years ago. The changes discussed below are mostly usability enhancements based on feedback we collected from users.

Before

After

  • Display:
    • Changed cells from circles to squares
    • Removed Course Names from being displayed vertically on the top of a viz. Course information is now available in the tooltip.
    • Updated the colors to be more intuitive (i.e. gray for “no activity”)
    • Added a legend to clarify what is being displayed
  • New “Drill-down” Functionality:
    • This visualization now includes a new drill-down represented by a “plus” sign next to a Student No column label
    • This allows a user to drill to a course section level via curriculum code. If a user wants to go back to a starting point, just click on the “minus” sign next to a “Curriculum Code” label.
  • Filters: 
    • New Filters allow you to more easily narrow down the results
      • Campus
      • Curriculum Code
    • Updated filters: 
      • We moved the filters section from top of the viz to the left freeing up extra space for more filters.
      • We made the filters “cascading” so that each filter only shows relevant values based on the previous selections

What is Next?

We have additional updates planned for Course Progress in Major, including:

  • Splitting the three views into three distinct, but linked tools.
  • Update the data source to pull in more than just the 20 “most common” courses now that we have additional space in the chart.
  • Prototype the integration of MyPlan data to demonstrate if a student plans to take a course in the future.

Questions and Feedback:

These updates were based on feedback from users like you. We rely on your questions and comments to help us understand what we should build/change, so please don’t hesitate to write to share your experience, feedback, or suggestions for improvement.

As always, if you have any questions, please write help@uw.edu and put “RPG: Course Progress in Major” in the subject line.