Awesome Excel Chart Quick Tips for Web Display

Last week, my colleagues and I created 3 Excel spreadsheets in an effort to highlight some of VCU participants' responses to the EDUCAUSE ECAR Undergraduate Student and Faculty Technology Research Studies Surveys. This division of labor resulted in an unfortunate consequence. Different machines, different data, and different perspectives resulted in different data presentation styles. To standardize the look of the charts, I offered to be the general editor. One set of eyes working on one machine is likely the best way to make the look and language of the charts consistent. This is our first pass at presenting the data. We had wanted to present the data using a more interactive format. For now, we've created a blogpost for each chart and used WordPress's Facet plugin to facilitate a search-mix-and-connect possibility. At this point, our thinking is that, perhaps, once we see what the overall data findings show in this round, we could work on improving the data presentation style.

At first, we were limited by Microsoft's color palette of Chart Styles in Excel. All three of us had agreed on a blue-red-green style because the Student Survey I was working on had 3 columns of data to compare (VCU 2013, VCU 2014 and National Average 2014). Once we uploaded all the images from the 2 surveys, the colors looked pretty dismal on the web. Tom Woodward, my supervisor, suggested we google for some "awesome color palettes for websites" to replace the hideous-looking charts.

A google search led us to the Betterment site with a collection of web color palettes. The palette for us had to allow for high contrast and yet be aesthetically pleasing. #42 - Adam Hartwig's palette it is. Thank you, Mr. Hartwig! [Note: He has a pretty awesome website himself, check it out.]


Creating a Palette in Excel (Mac computer)

I had no idea how to insert Hartwig's palette into Excel's color charts. As far as I could recall, Excel had no option for a user to enter hexadecimal web color codes. Once again, Tom came to the rescue.

On an iMac, double-clicking on the chart area opens up a Format Plot Area window. From there, select Fill > click on the drop-down menu besides Automatic > select More Colors.

Format Chart Area Window

Make sure you are then on the Color wheel tab (see image below). See the Magnifier icon beside the white color box? Click on it and it turns into a color dropper.

Selecting the Correct Color

I had Hartwig's color palette open just beside the color wheel window. I clicked on all 5 colors and they showed up right away on the white little swatch boxes below the color wheel.

Hartwig's Color Palette Shows on My Color Swatch boxes!

Back to my Excel charts with this color palette. At first, I thought this arrangement looked okay, but after applying it to the existing charts, it began to look a bit too bubble-gummy and jaundiced-looking. Especially if I just had 2 columns of data - VCU 2014 and National Average 2014 to compare (yellow and green; yellow and green, ... yuk!). I couldn't tolerate it too long and didn't know how anyone else could.

Pink-Yellow-Green Color Selection

So after I had reformatted all the charts to the pink-yellow-green palette, I decided to switch it to another color arrangement - green, turquoise, black. It seemed to look more professional.

Green-Turquoise-Black Color Selection

Save Your Preferred Chart Style as a Template

How could I change all 70-something charts to the same color palette efficiently? The solution is to save my preferred Chart Style as a template. This option is available under the Chart > Other (Chart Type) menu. Click on the dropdown menu > Scroll to the bottom. See the Save as Template phrase?

Creating a Chart Template in Excel

Once your preferred template(s) is saved, you can click on your existing chart > click on Other > Select your XYZ template and apply it to the hideous chart, and voila! All the settings you had saved in your template apply to your existing chart -- including chart title, text, horizontal and vertical axes and colors. How amazing is this?! 

Even though I was a research assistant in grad school and processed much survey data, I had not once thought of how the chart colors might look set against an entire website. This perspective is new to me. I'm happy to learn time-saving ways to speed up the work process. Thanks Tom and Adam Hartwig!

HLM 7

HLM 7* - Hierarchical Linear Modeling statistics software is a little clunky but not too complicated. My chair had said before, qualitative researchers understand statistics too, you know? I am doing a qualitative research study for my dissertation, but I work with quantitative data everyday at work -- lots of Excel spreadsheets, Access data queries, and presenting the data using mainly descriptive statistics. Dr. Bellini had said that some journal editors think descriptive statistics are "inferior"/second-class and this sort of data presentation is not as publishable. However, every data analytic method has a place in research, depending on what we are investigating. Learning both paradigms of research methodologies rounds me out as a researcher.

I am going to try to use a type of multilevel modeling approach to explore some program evaluation questions using my work data. This should be fun.

*Available at SSI Scientific Software: http://www.ssicentral.com/hlm/index.html
Downloads available here: http://www.ssicentral.com/hlm/downloads.html

Designing Brain Training & Other Experiences

A web start-up, Lumosity, claims to provide brain exercises to train your brain become "brighter". Mhm. Read about it here at Mashable. I haven't found time to try it out yet. Let me know if you have and if it does what it claims. 

The other thing that I learned today is about design. As an instructional designer by training and practice, I was struck by what Sawyer wrote on his blog:

"A curator designs experiences, whether presentations, performances, or art spaces."

Basically, that's what I do too? Designing and developing learning experiences.

iStethoscope Pro: mLearning in Healthcare

"Experts are saying the software is a major advance in medical technology and enables doctors in remote areas to access specialist advice." Read more 

I read this with careful contemplation. I try to think how this device can be used to supplement other means to improve healthcare. It would be interesting to find out more about how it is used in practice.

I don't have an iPhone, yet, maybe, because I'm a poor doctoral student. This doesn't stop me from being curious about the possibilities of what mobile, and any other, technology can do to level the playing field. My friend is investigating the use of mobile technology in her home country (unpublished PhD in progress) because there is a higher adoption of and affordability for cellphones than computers. I recognize a social divide there that causes the digital divide. My question is, will this help them learn better? It will probably facilitate more access to learning content, so is this more about literacy/equity than the quality and effectiveness of learning and instructional design?

Automatic Captioning & Automatic Timing from Google

I had a pleasant surprise today as I was researching how social media technology supported d/D participation. As of November 2009, Google offers automatic captioning (uses the same voice recognition algorithms in Google Voice to automatically generate captions for video) and automatic timing service (attach a script without time codes and Google will do the rest for you!) in YouTube. So, if I watch a Spanish video on YouTube, I can simply click on the cc button and have Google transcribe it into English or any of the 51 language options that are offered on the menu. Here's the Google Announcement in 2009:

For Google's blogpost and announcement on this: http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-in-youtube.html

Google Software engineer Ken Harrenstien also talks about it here.

Note: Automatic captioning is NOT available for all uploaded videos yet because they are still perfecting the technology. As posted on their blog:

"It is available for now to educational partners for the initial launch: UC Berkeley, Stanford, MIT, Yale, UCLA, Duke, UCTV, Columbia, PBS, National Geographic, Demand Media, UNSW and most Google & YouTube channels."

Definitely check it out!

IDE 735#13: More reflection

So the course has ended, but I feel it's just begun for me. There's just so much to catch up on because of the course schedule and my own work schedule. I didn't get to really read and chew on what I've read. There's a lot of readings I want to delve into; I want to rewrite my final paper for a conference submission; it's just a first draft. I have so many things I want to clarify, so many concepts I still have not a firm grasp of yet: like, microworlds vs virtual worlds; are virtual worlds all microworlds? not all microworlds are virtual worlds? I don't know. How about VR? Are all virtual worlds VR? But not all VR are virtual worlds? Wish I could ask someone. I've tried to google and read some of the listed articles, but no resolution yet. Still seeking.

At the AACE conference, Second Life was on the lips of everyone. Glad I've done a paper on it, phew. Games in education continue to be big. A forum is going to be started and I'm going to join the SIG.

I feel like I haven't learned enough. The course seemed to be stunted by the short few weeks. I need more time to let it all sink it. I guess the rest is up to me to do independent informal learning. But it's definitely piqued my interest to go more indepth and read more on the topics.

IDE.735#12: SL for relaxation

With such limited time and so much to do, I often have all these thoughts I want to blog about but don't because I just don't get to a computer on time and those moments/thoughts are lost.

I posted 2 questions on Clark's blog after asking one of them during his guest speaker appearance on June 14.

I'm now trying to gather my thoughts and findings about SL to create my final paper. Started well but researching on SL is frustrating. Today I tried to attend a major event hosted by the University of Southern California Center of Public Diplomacy and was booted out several times. I reappeared at the gate so many times the greeter said, "You again Kollette, sheesh!" Hey, that was some courteous greeting! Anyway, won't write about this event here as I'm including it in my final paper. I have big dreams of submitting it for a conference, LOL.

Anyways, I also tried SL as a form of relaxation though my husband thinks I suffer from computer addiction and am wasting time, especially after what I told him about USC getting a $550,000 grant for studying about philanthropy in virtual worlds. He was like, whoa, that kind of money can be better spent in the real world. Hmmm... my husband doesn't get it that these avatars represent real people who by participating in the virtual world are using it to complement their real world philanthropy.

So anyways, here's what I did for relaxation after the stress recently of cramming for this course:

1. Swimming in a pool at Kanes Project (143, 42, 37) 6/19

No one was around, so it was a lonely dip. However, I miss swimming since I have hardly done any of it since coming over to the US.

2. Sunbathing at Kanes Project (174, 38, 39)

Here I'm all stretched out alone in the only clothes I have; no LindeX to buy any swimwear or anything.

IDE.735#11: The Fascination of SL

I'm beginning to find SL very addictive. There's just so much going on. It's a game, so it's fun and engaging, but it can also be educational. I'm also learning a whole new vocabulary. Do you know what a prim is? I didn't until I googled to check it out as Miss SL 2007 kept using it in her blog.

Personally, I think SL has great potential, setting aside all the pc crashes and motion sickness I get.

Here's a bit about what I've learned -- thanks to Natalia, Miss SL07:

1. There's really a lot of help for newbies contrary to the initial frustration we had. Once you get in, you can go to lots of places for help to customize your avatar and learn about SL.

2. Just like real life, there are places to visit, events to engage in, sports to play, relationships to form, shopping to be done, etc. What a life!

3. Educational - besides experiencing events and phenomena virtually, one can receive support for healing and engage in discussions with others too.

IDE.735#10: Miss SL 2007

This lady's blog is supercool. She has a Second Life guide, lists fascinating places to explore, produces tutorials on how to create nice avatars, and listen to this, she is.... ta-dah!!!! Miss Second Life 2007 - Natalia Zelmanov! Is this surreal or what? I have to try out the links she posted myself. Many many to explore.

IDE.735#9: Guest Speaker Clark

I visited Clark's site numerous times to read and prepare for the session on Thurs 6/14, so I was a bit disappointed not to get to ask all my questions. Still, I'll have a chance to post them.

I posed him a question about the lack of a standard lexicon or terminology in the field. Honestly, my head at this point is swimmingly full of jargon about sims. He said that his effort in creating the glossary blog was a start in the direction to standardization. Hmmm... I thought so but I wonder how this would take place.

Is there a national or international society of simulation experts? Like IBSTPI? Or PMI or ...?

Oh, I should record the glitch we had due to human error. The interesting thing is that technology did not fail us during the session, but the server controller forgot about the session and had to be reminded via an emergency call. Thankfully, I was able to call 2 other persons who finally got her number.

IDE.735#8: Roaming SL again

Well, today I explored SL again to see if I can find anything educational or informative. I teleported to this Angel Island Isle and met 2 persons who actually interacted and chatted with me. Whoa!

This lady, Sunshine Sparrow, is from a Florida state community college. She actually told me what this island was about - for Angel LMS to orientate potential clients to their software. Cool! So other competitors might be in SL too for this reason - like Blackboard, D2L, etc. She told me where I could go for information but the kiosks were all full. So I couldn't attend any classes and there wasn't much to do around there so I flew around and then quit.