Data Visualization and Effective Communication (NUTR-ON393)

Spring 2026 · NUTR ON393 · Tufts University · 3 credits · Undergraduate

Nutrition and health research and practice rely more on data visualization and effective communication to understand, explain, predict, and influence key outcomes and processes. The existing and emerging information tools provide researchers and practitioners with valuable assistance, yet failure to use these tools effectively and in a well-thought-out manner processes can lead to confusions, misunderstanding, misleading conclusions and concerns surrounding ethics and bias. This course is intended to keep students informed and better prepared to enter the national workforce to convey messages to experts and general audiences. The course provides with tools and techniques to analyze and critique current forms of data visualizations in both public media and research literature. Students learn to construct high quality graphical displays with a keen understanding of the challenges of presenting complex information to various stakeholders. Students will build a portfolio of graphical displays and descriptions intended for both scientific journals and popular media. Using research data, students build a portfolio of structure-based, association-based, and process-based of graphical displays using standard software and write descriptions intended for both scientific journals and popular media. Course assignments and feedback will train students to communicate their findings clearly and concisely.

Course codes: NUTR-ON393

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