This document outlines concepts and skills for teaching computer-assisted reporting, including working with spreadsheets and databases, data cleaning, visualization, and skills like researching datasets, interviewing sources, and identifying stories. It recommends knowing students' existing skills, showing simple examples they can achieve, going slowly, and using relevant data and stories. Teaching involves coordination, new interfaces, and concepts, and good syllabi can be found through organizations like IJEC and IRE.

1. Teaching Computer-Assisted Reporting
2015
Brant Houston
University of Illinois
brant.houston@gmail.com
houstonb@illinois.edu

2. Concepts
• Columns and rows
• Just counting
• Bad data, accuracy checks and data cleaning
• Importance of visualization
• Keeping it simple

3. Data Skills
• Principles of searching: From Boolean logic
to file type
• Spreadsheets
• Database managers
• Charts and maps

4. Data Skills
• Building a database
• Cleaning data – start with replace and find and
then update
• Social network analysis
• Statistics
• Scraping as entry to coding

5. Other reporting skills
• Requesting data including freedom of
information
• Researching the dataset – reading files about
it, reading tip sheets, seeing how it has been
used by journalists and others
• How to do interviews about the data with
those who create it and maintain it

6. Other reporting skills
• How to do interviews with researchers and
officials to test credibility of the data
• Using observation to augment and test data
analysis – getting out into the field
• How to identify basic stories – change over
time, comparisons, outliers, clusters

7. Teaching Skills
• Know your class – survey and test hands-on
skills before teaching
• Difference between professional students and
college students
• Show good examples including ones that can
be achieved by students in short time
• Keep it simple - start small – two columns and
five rows

8. Teaching Skills
• Know your class – survey and test hands-on
skills before teaching
• Show good examples including ones that can
be achieved by students in short time
• Keep it simple - start small – two columns and
five rows
• Go slow – If you think you are going slow, go
slower

9. Teaching Skills
• Remember that learning software involves
three parts: Small motor coordination, seeing
new windows and icons, and the concepts
• Use relevant data but also use for relevant
stories

10. Syllabi
• IJEC.org
• IRE.org