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Professional Certificate · Master's level · CPP-38
Open Data and Visualisation for News
For: Journalists, sub-editors, communication officers and research officers who use public figures in their output.
Learning outcomes
- Identify and evaluate public data sources.
- Clean, structure and analyse an imperfect dataset, documenting each transformation.
- Build an accurate visualisation that is readable on a phone.
Programme over 4 weeks
| Week | Content |
|---|---|
| Week 1 | Public data: budgets, statistics, reports from government departments and regional organisations; critical reading of methodologies. |
| Week 2 | Cleaning and structuring: tables extracted from PDF documents, inconsistent classifications, duplicates and outliers; transformation log, in a virtual lab. |
| Week 3 | Visualisation: choosing the chart, simple maps, readability on mobile, open-source tools. |
| Week 4 | Professional simulation: short journalistic piece based on the analysis of a public dataset, with its processing notebook. |
Assessment
Marked professional simulation in a virtual lab, assessed against a rubric (70%): short piece based on a public dataset, with its processing notebook; online knowledge-check quiz (30%). The datasets are public or fictitious and implicate no private individual.
The certificate is awarded with a mark of at least 10 out of 20.
Optional: Journalistic Use of Statistics
An additional 1-credit module over 2 weeks (CPP-38C), awarded as a separate certificate; together with this certificate, it makes up the full course component of the original programme.
- Orders of magnitude, rates and trends, comparisons between areas, margins of error in polls, correlation and causation.
- Personal data: principles of loi n°2008-12 (Personal Data Protection Act) applied to datasets.
At your own pace: the self-paced pathway
In a class, this certificate takes 4 weeks, on the cohort's dates. On the self-paced pathway, you start whenever you like, online, and progress at your own pace. The price is the same.
Estimate how long my pathway will take
- Duration
- about 4 weeks
- Estimated end
- 4 weeks after you start
- Examination
- Online, subject to available slots, no earlier than 4 weeks after you start
- Payment
- In a single payment
An indicative estimate, for a start today and 40 hours of work. You can change your pace along the way; the pathway must be completed within 12 weeks (about 3 months) of your start. Your e-Campus access opens with your first payment.
Admission
Professional experience in news and everyday use of a spreadsheet, assessed on application. Admission based on application; detailed requirements set by the school.
The credits you earn are recognised without further assessment if you later join the programme they come from, Professional Master's degree in Journalism, within a period set by the certificate regulations.