There is a noticeable difference in grade distribution amongst the different colleges at CSUN. This figure plots a single dot for each course taken by more than 100 freshman during a five year period, with the color representing the college. The x-value gives the average grade given in the class over five years. The size of the dot is proportional to the number of students who took the course.The grading pattern also varies by departmental course designation (the three to six letter code that precedes the name of the course). All courses with the same designation are grouped together, e.g., all MATH or all ECON courses. This heat map displays the grading patterns of the most popular courses at CSUN. Courses are ranked according to average grade given over a ten year period and then sorted from most difficult (top) to easiest (bottom). The vertical height each bar corresponds to the number of students affected. Green indicates larger numbers of grades given, and red indicates fewer numbers of grades given. Thus course groups that are green on the left and red on the right tend to have many A’s and very few F’s, and so forth.
This sunburst chart, also known as a multilevel pie chart, visualizes the student progression through math classes at CSUN. The inner circle depicts the first math course attempted by a student. The color denotes a particular course. Hovering over a region shows the percentage of students who attempted that the course or sequence of courses; the numbers appear in the upper left-hand corner of the page. Gray is used to show when the percent of students who terminated their studies in mathematics. Less than a quarter of all math courses are attempted by STEM majors.
Sunburst charts are an efficient way of representing hierarchical data using concentric circles. The sequence of courses attempted to finish any major is hierarchical data (freshmen, sophomore, junior, senior).
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