This assignment required our group to select data (from pretty much anywhere) and create insights from that data based on relationships between the variables. We were also required to create visualizations from these insights, and then put them into presentation form. Our group used a spreadsheet provided through our class by KU parking in order to get our insights. We found five primary insights from the data, created visualizations for all five, and put our story created from these insights into a slideshow presentation. We also summarized our insights into “takeaways,” that would be helpful for our primary audience, which included KU students, and KU parking.
For this assignment, we created a summary and reflection of our project, the process that we went through, and explained our key decisions. We started by describing our main goal, and the process of selecting the data spreadsheet that we did, and our reasoning behind it. We also described what we were looking for specifically when we had our dataset, and why. We also described our major insights that we found from the data, and the significance of those insights. Furthermore, we described how these insights can be used, and who they can assist. We also provided a link and screenshots to our original spreadsheet.
Why We Chose What We Chose, & Our Goal
For our Final Dataset Project we decided to look at the KU Parking Citation dataset with a goal to figure out the most common times and reasons for citations here at KU. To do this we first had to access the dataset and the citation dataset given to us by KU Parking. With this information we organized and transformed the spreadsheet to collect the data we needed for this project.
This large dataset was organized in a spreadsheet providing us with the structure needed to analyze the data. We faced challenges because having such a large dataset it was hard to pinpoint the exact data we needed to collect. To make sure we had accurate data we took this information into Excel and underwent a deep cleaning with the dataset.
Five Key Parts
After cleaning the data we realized we had to find five things, the day of the week the citations took place, the reason the citations took place, the parking lot in which the citation was issued, what citations were paid and unpaid, and lastly if class was in session or not.
In excel we broke down our five needs and collected the data we needed individually.
Five Needs
First off to find the days of the week the citations were issued we sorted and filtered the day of the week to into its own column to then count and see how many citations were given out each weekday.
When trying to collect data on the reasons the citations were issued we filtered the reason column in excel and found out there were two reasons for parking citations, the first reason was not having a valid permit, and the second reason was parking in unauthorized lots such as red staff lots.
We ran into some challenges when trying to collect data on what parking lot the citations were issued, we ended up using the dataset provided to break down the pivot charts and filtered the dataset only to show the last 3 weeks of August, that way we could simplify the dataset and find the information we needed. With that given information we sorted the specific variables we used for our insights.
After that we needed to find information on if these tickets were paid or unpaid, after looking at the dataset we realized a large sum of the citations were voided, so we ended up filtering all of the voided tickets and ended up sorting the paid and unpaid tickets into columns of their own and collected our data from their.
Lastly we had to figure out if this was during class hours or not, this process was simple to collect because we sorted out all of the days class were in session vs not in session and gathered our data from that filter.
Trends
After gathering that data we were able to observe trends with KU parking citations that allowed us to highlight the key findings that we sought out to find. Some of the major findings we found was: Monday was the most common day for citations. We think this is the case because many students have class on Mondays and the start of the week can be hectic for people. We also found that citations most commonly occur due to individuals parking in staff parking lots. Another key finding was that the majority of citations come from common parking zones at KU such as the Capital-Federal Hall Parking Lot, and the Ellsworth Hall parking lot. We believe this to be the case because it sees the most amount of students coming in and out daily. Another insight is that the vast majority of citations occur when class is in session. We think this is due to the fact that most students are on KU’s campus to attend class. The last key finding is that almost all of the citations that were handed out resulted in the tickets being fully paid. We think this is due to the enforcement of citations by KU Parking staff.
Major Insights
Our three major insights is that with the amount of citations given due to unauthorized parking KU should try to make those lots more clearly labeled as unauthorized so that way students can avoid the confusion and avoid ending up with a citation. KU should encourage its students to park in less populated lots, thus making lots like Cap-Fed and Ellsworth Hall less hectic. Because of the amount of tickets handed out during class we encourage KU to adjust parking regulations that would relax parking restrictions during the busiest times of the day.
Solutions that could be put in place:
KU could explore expanding parking facilities and adjust in class times to lower the parking demand during the busiest hours of the day
KU could redesign parking zones to allow more spaces for students
KU could increase its bus services to make less people have to use campus parking
KU could offer a digital daily parking pass that would lower non-permit violations
KU could also modernize its lots so you could be able to see how many spots are available before a student makes their commute
After creating our parking story in google docs, we created visuals on Adobe Illustrator and Flourish to convey our data in a clear and simple way for our audience to observe. We also included interviews with students to get a first hand understanding of these issues. We had two student stories, two bar charts, and three pie/donut charts to demonstrate our data.
The target audience for this Final Project is KU students and staff who park on campus, this is so we can see what the people who use this service think could be improved.
The tools we used for this project were Excel, Google Docs, Google Slides, Adobe Illustrator, and Flourish Studio.
Throughout this project, we all worked collectively. Harrison came up with the idea and helped guide Josh and JJ through the data collection. We would meet up every other Wednesday and talk about our project and new ideas. We each created our own visuals and worked to come up with clear understandable data that conveyed a message our audience would care about.
This was another feature of our final. This required a visual element for our written story that would tie into the content well. My visual element was a picture of Anschutz library busy on all three levels.
This is another feature of our final project. This required students to create a 60 second video script based on our written story. This follows the template of a previous assignment in which we wrote a video script based on a news story with information provided to use by the professor.
Harrison Triplett
“Finals Week at KU”
{ANCHOR}
{VO}
<video file=”Finals Week at KU“ time=”1:00”>
Harrison Triplett:
KU students battle through the longest and most stressful week of the school semester, finals week.
According to studies, some students will spend anywhere between 4 and 13 hours studying per day during finals week.
Students are juggling other stressful tasks, such as moving out their belongings from Lawrence residences and setting up their summer agendas.
There are several tips and techniques provided for students to manage their stress and important tasks.
Some of the top recommendations by the CDC include exercising, getting plenty of sleep, taking several breaks, and taking deep breaths.
This is also an incredibly busy time for professors, who have the tasks of grading students’ assignments and expanding office hours.
In addition, campus libraries are as busy as they get during finals week. As students spend more hours studying during finals week than usual.
Although it is a stressful and important week for students, no student is alone in the race to the semester’s finish line.
This is an assignment that I completed for an Information Exploration class. It included the research of several sources, including an NAICS database, a trade association’s Form 990, and Mintel for a consumer trends report all based on the same organization. Once these sources were searched, I then evaluated each one for credibility based on several cues, including the author, publisher, content, date and other factors. This was completed by creating a five slide deck featuring the most important insights about the organization I was researching based on the evaluated sources. The main takeaways from this assignment was learning how to evaluated the credibility of a source, and effectively use research databases in order to complete the most successful research possible.
This Assignment was part of a final project. This required a 700-900 word assignment that covered a major story or issue taking place in Lawrence. The issue I chose was Finals week, and all of the responsibilities students and professors have in the final weeks of the spring semester.
This assignment required us to put our understanding of social media’s impact to practice and attend two events, in which we would film and picture these events, and package the material into social media videos, and post these videos
This is my Creative Brief. This was an assignment in which we were given an organization to research the most important information and form into a strategic research document. We were then assigned to display the information onto a web page designed for our target audience.
Harrison Triplett 