Training materials:
We help you teach Datawrapper
240 slides and 5 exercises for your next Datawrapper workshop
As soon as you become a Datawrapper user, you might want to teach Datawrapper in your own or in other organizations to introduce others to the wonderful world of chart & map-making. We love that. And we want to support that. That’s why we’re offering training slides, which – hopefully – make it easier for you to prepare and give Datawrapper workshops:
Workshop slides
You can find the 240 slides of exercises and other modules on Google Slides: tiny.cc/datawrapper-workshop
From there, you can download the slides as a Powerpoint file or PDF. You can use this material for all kinds of commercial and noncommercial workshops without attributing us. (You can also print these slides, but only in a workshop context.)
We prepared both talkslides (“modules”) and exercises for you. All slides contains speaker notes (View > Show speaker notes) with suggestions on what to talk about while showing them.
Modules
Use them to explain what you can do with Datawrapper:
Introduction to
Datawrapper
Introduces Datawrapper and its core features, like responsiveness, hover effects, themes, and the pricing.
Datawrapper vis types (charts, maps, tables)
Shows some of the chart types you can create, all the map types (choropleth, symbol, and locator maps), and table features.
Other Datawrapper
features
Explains the colorblind check, live updates, PNG, SVG & PDF export and team features.
Datawrapper resources
Lists and explains where workshop attendees can get help or inspiration when working with Datawrapper in the future.
Exercises
part of your workshop.
We prepared five of them with different difficulty levels. All of them work great for demos (= you show attendees how it’s done but they don’t follow along) and for workshops in which attendees build Datawrapper visualizations on their own laptops.
These exercises are not set in stone. Adjust them to your needs: If your organization re-uses a certain dataset again and again, show your workshop participants how to use this one in Datawrapper. If you teach in a country/city with a great open data portal, use their data. If you teach people in a certain field, try to get data from that field.
You will find that every exercise comes with a lot of screenshot slides that show the whole process. We don’t recommend that you show these slides during your workshop. Instead, open Datawrapper in the browser and show everything your attendees are supposed to do, live. This way, you can react to spontaneous questions (“Can I do x, too?”).
Exercise 1 Let’s build a stacked bar chart
Let’s build a stacked bar chart
Short exercise to show the different available Datawrapper chart types while talking about the essentials of chart making like responsiveness, colors and chart titles.
Dataset: The Datawrapper sample dataset “Rural and urban population.”
Focus: Which chart types Datawrapper offers and when to use which one, how to use colors to make charts understandable, stacked bar chart settings.
Also touches on: Pie/Donut chart settings, why and how to use transpose, why and how to test for mobile readers, number formats, share & embed settings after publishing.
Exercise 2 Let’s build a line chart with Worldbank data
Let’s build a line chart with Worldbank data
Covers the whole process from the data to a visualization with fancy annotations. Includes cleaning up the data, although Excel skills are not necessary. Prepare the data set beforehand and hand them out as Google Sheet link if you want to shorten the exercise and/or make it easier.
Dataset: The Worldbank dataset about unemployment in all countries between 1991-2019. The exercise is prepared so the resulting chart shows unemployment in European countries, but it can compare unemployment rates in any country.
Focus: Line chart settings, cleaning up data for use in Datawrapper, how to use colors, annotations and highlight ranges to make a strong statement with a chart.
Also touches on: How to navigate the Worldbank Data Portal, the difference between data file types (CSV, Excel, XML), why and how to use transpose, why and how to test for mobile readers, number formats, how to write a chart title, share & embed settings after publishing.
Exercise 3 Let’s build a locator map of our city
Let’s build a locator map of our city
An easy exercise if your attendees should have a good-looking map at the end without the need to tackle data first. Or make the exercise far more challenging and include a lesson on how to import GeoJSON markers, areas, or lines.
Dataset: None. The markers show the favorite places of your workshop attendees.
Focus: Creating & formatting markers and some other, simple locator map settings.
Also touches on: Why and how to test for mobile readers, share & embed settings after publishing.
Exercise 4 Let’s build a choropleth map of the US election results 2020
Let’s build a choropleth map of the US election results 2020
A fairly easy exercise in which attendees rebuild the famous election map they’ve probably seen many times before. The map shows the election results on a county-level, making it impressively detailed.
Dataset: A prepared data set of the results of the US election 2020 for each US county, handed out as a Google Sheets link.
Focus: Choropleth map settings; how to use colors to create a useful and truthful map; how to add map labels.
Also touches on: How to encode two values in one map (results for Democrats and for Republicans) and the disadvantages that comes with it, how maps are great for showing patterns, how hard it is to “read” values out of maps, how to show multiple values in tooltips, (if wanted: how to write a chart title), share & embed settings after publishing.
Exercise 5 Let’s build a choropleth map with IMF data
Let’s build a choropleth map with IMF data
This exercise uses data directly from the IMF “World Economic Outlook Database”. No spreadsheet cleanup is needed before importing to Datawrapper, making it a great way to experience the full process from data to map. Make sure every attendee follows along in the IMF data portal, as it’s easy to get stuck otherwise.
Dataset: Unemployment data by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for all countries for the current or last year. The exercise is prepared so the resulting map shows unemployment in European countries, but it can show unemployment on any continent.
Focus: Choropleth map settings, how to use colors to best highlight differences between central/northern and southern European nations.
Also touches on: How to navigate the IMF Data Portal, how maps are great for showing patterns, how hard it is to “read” values out of maps, how to show multiple values in tooltips, how to write a chart title, share & embed settings after publishing.
How to get started with these training materials
Here are some ideas on how to make the most of these modules and exercises in the next Datawrapper training you’re giving.
1. Define a goal
Before you put together a presentation, be clear about the goal of your workshop. What should your attendees remember after your workshop? Do they just need an overview of the features, or should they be able to create Datawrapper charts on their own afterwards? Do they have knowledge gaps in certain areas like data preparation that need to be filled?
2. Pick modules & exercises
Now, go through our modules and exercises and see which ones could be helpful to your workshop attendees. We don’t recommend that you go through all the exercises in one workshop. There’s simply not enough time and too much repetition. Instead, stitch them together as you need. To copy the slides, go to File > Copy. Or make use of File > Download to download them as a PPTX or PDF.
For example, imagine you want to give three workshops to three audiences: “Overview of Datawrapper features”, “Creating data vis – from data to final chart/map” and “Building maps with Datawrapper”. Your slides could contain the following modules and exercises:
Missing embed: https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/EyDWr/5/
Consider combining these workshop modules with ones that you created yourself and that cover the questions and needs of your attendees even better. For example, the workshop that focuses on data preparation could include an introduction to spreadsheet & data analysis software, an extra explanation of data cleanup & analysis, and/or a walkthrough of the data resources your attendees might find useful.
3. Practice
Before you give a Datawrapper training, try to rebuild the charts and maps from the exercises and notice problems or questions that could come up. Keep in mind your audience: Which software are they already familiar with? How slow/quick can/must you explain certain parts?
4. Give the workshop
Finally, the day has come. Have fun giving the workshop! If you learn anything during the workshops that might be helpful to us to improve Datawrapper – like what most attendees had problems with – we’d be thrilled if you could let us know. Write to us at [email protected].
You can find more information on what to consider when preparing and giving a Datawrapper workshop, and what to keep in mind when helping individuals during these workshops on the first few slides of the training materials.
If you have any other ideas on how to support you best in teaching Datawrapper, please let us know! Please also get in touch if there’s any feature you miss being covered in the training slides. You can reach us at [email protected].
Like always, we’re looking forward to hearing from you.