Gaps & TODOs — dataviz (Fall 2026)

Snapshot of what’s left after the 2026-08-24 revamp session. The site is structurally complete and sendable; these are the things to finish/polish as we go. Gitignored (in /notes/).

See execution-plan.md for the full history and decisions.

A. Should do before (or right after) publishing

  1. Re-render with API keys + refresh _freeze. The ported modules (getting-started, 1.1, 1.2, 3.1, 4.1, 5.1, 6.2) have a stale _freeze cache because their content changed. A full quarto render will re-execute them and needs: CENSUS_API_KEY (tidycensus), a FRED key (fredr), plus network for wbstats/vdemlite/World Bank. Do this on EJT’s machine before quarto publish.
  2. Publishing target. Point _publish.yml / quarto publish at the new eteitelbaum/dataviz repo and switch dataviz-gwu.rocks over to it when ready.
  3. Office hours — syllabus still says “Mondays 3–5 p.m.” (Calendly). Set Fall 2026 hours.
  4. Verify credit-hour numbers (37.5 / 75) against GW’s official boilerplate if the department requires exact wording.

B. Content to author (can ship without; fill in as we go)

  1. The new session materials (schedule rows currently have no slides/module):
    • Wk8 Flex session — “what makes good data viz? + project brainstorm.”
    • Wk13 & Wk15 Project studios — session plans (module-6.1 is the “Project studio” stub).
    • Wk16 Final presentations — format + a light rubric.
  2. Shiny consolidation. Old modules 5.1 / 5.2 / 6.1 / 6.2 (8 sessions of material) now map onto 2 teaching weeks + studios. Trim/merge so the two Shiny weeks aren’t overloaded.
  3. Positron intro (per IDE decision) — a short “Positron + Positron Assistant” walkthrough for a Wk13 studio (RStudio for Wks 1–10, Positron for the project phase).
  4. Labs are drafted with empty code chunks (intentional worksheets). Consider whether you want light solution keys or more scaffolding for any of the four.
  5. Quizzes are authored/graded in Blackboard (by design — the site only has the quiz.qmd pointer). Decide exact cadence/count (leaning ~weekly).
  6. Plot-first starter data. Lab 1 uses modules/data/dem_women.csv (works). Check that the Wk2–3 slides don’t assume data students haven’t wrangled yet.

B2. Weekly pages — built, need a review pass

  • ✅ Built weeks/week-1..16.qmd (deadline callout + Readings/Videos/Assignments), wired into sidebar, helper.R added and sourced by index + all week pages. Pattern matches CPE/quant4ia courses.
  • EJT: verify deadline dates. Rule used = “lab due the Monday after it’s assigned.” Lab 3 lands on Monday Oct 12 = fall break (flagged inline as “or as announced”). Decide the real due date. Also confirm proposal (Oct 19) and final (Dec 8) dates.
  • Video links: updated Getting Started + Wk4 (reading/reshaping/cleaning) + Wk5 (download/API) to the newer summer 2026 recordings (commit 9dd675c). Removed the placeholder Tables videos (dummy id wo9vZccmqwc). Tables (Wk9) now has NO videos — needs real tidycensus/gt/coef-plot recordings if you want them. Charting/color/maps videos were already the same IDs in both.

C. Polish / cosmetic

  1. Slides still use the OLD numbering (week-2.1 … week-13.2) and now mismatch the topic order (e.g. Wk2 “Charting” links week-5.1). Renumber/rename slides to topics, and update slide content to the new topic titles + plot-first order.
  2. Stale hardcoded raw URLs in slides point to eteitelbaum/dataviz-fall-2023 (e.g. slides/week-6.1.qmd). Repoint to the dataviz repo or a stable data host.
  3. ✅ Module page titles retitled to topic names (commit 0e357ad). Remaining (optional): the filenames are still module-5.1…6.2.qmd, so Part V’s files run 5.1, 5.2, 6.2, 6.1 (Deploying’s file is 6.2, before Project studio’s 6.1). Invisible to students (sidebar uses labels, correct order; only the URLs reflect it). A full slug-rename (building-shiny-app.qmd, etc.) would tidy the URLs but cascades into every link — defer unless wanted.
  4. Module internal cross-references still say “module 1.2”, “module 3.1”, etc. rather than topic names — cosmetic.
  5. weeks/week-z.qmd and week-zz.qmd are leftover placeholder pages that still link old coding-assignment-1/2. Not in nav; delete or fix.

D. Done this session (for reference)

Repo setup + public GitHub · Tue/Thu topic-based plot-first schedule · syllabus (AI policy, grading, room/days, credit hours) · ported 7 summer-2026 modules · dropped GitHub Classroom → Blackboard · project restructure (proposal + final, groups ≤3) · 4 in-class labs + assessment model (labs 50 / quizzes 20 / project 30) · quiz pointer page · Healy 2e integrated across viz weeks · IDE decision (RStudio now, Positron for project phase).