The Digital Sandbox workshop series offers hands-on opportunities to explore new methods and technologies that are useful across a wide range of fields. For Fall 2022, this includes sessions on data wrangling, text analysis, data visualization, and more!
All sessions are taught at an introductory level and are intended for those who have little to no knowledge of the subject. These workshops are open to anyone at EIU (students, faculty, and staff). Come learn and experiment with something new!
Thursday, September 29 - Introduction to Text Analysis with Voyant Tools
Wednesday, October 12 - Introduction to Data Wrangling with OpenRefine
Friday, October 28 - Introduction to Data Visualization with Datawrapper
Thursday, November 10 - Brown Bag: Using Social Media Data in Your Research
Wednesday, November 30 - Introduction to Visualizing Timelines with TimelineJS
Thursday, September 29, 3:45 - 5 pm.
Text mining and analysis offer ways of using computers to help process and “read” large amounts of text. In this workshop, we’ll learn how to perform a number of basic operations related to text analysis, such as calculating word frequencies and building concordances, using the free and cloud-based Voyant Tools. This workshop will also survey some of the potential benefits and challenges of incorporating text mining and analysis into different types of projects.
Wednesday, October 12, 3:45 - 5 pm.
Preparing data for analysis in any given project often requires more time and labor than the analysis itself. OpenRefine is a free application that can help you clean and normalize your data, transform it from one format to another, and even automate complicated tasks like data validation. In this workshop, we’ll explore some of the basic operations used in OpenRefine to help us work with “messy” data.
Friday, October 28, 1 - 2:15 pm.
Effective data visualization can help you discover new insights in your projects and share those insights with others. In this workshop, we’ll explore data visualization using Datawrapper, a free cloud-based application that helps you build interesting visualizations easily.
Thursday, November 10, 12 pm - 1:15 pm.
Although social media data has many potential applications in research and learning across the disciplines, the data that is available and means of accessing that data is always changing. This brown bag presents an overview of common sources of social media data, ways to access that data, and important considerations to keep in mind if you are incorporating it into your work. Feel free to bring your lunch or a snack to enjoy during this informal, informative session.
Wednesday, November 30, 10 am - 11:15 am.
Visual timelines can be useful in teaching and research alike. In this workshop, we’ll explore TimelineJS, a free tool for building simple but effective timelines using your own data and images.
600 Lincoln Avenue,
Charleston, IL 61920
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(217) 581-6073
