There are hundreds of great sites out there that students can use to turn facts and figures into fantastic visuals for assignments or project work. Guide them towards one of these brilliant online tools to help them improve the presentation of their statistics and really boost their grades!
1. Many Eyes
Without doubt one of the best sites of its kind, Many Eyes from IBM allows students to upload their own data set and then use the pre-formed tools to shape it into fantastic eye-catching visualizations. From simple bar charts and graphs to exciting, cutting-edge infographics, the site is useful for students with a wide range of abilities and ages. In addition, for students interested in statistics and data analysis, there is the opportunity to share visualizations with others and analyse the data and findings of fellow site users, plus the chance to participate in online topic centres.
2. Visual.ly
Visual.ly has long been the place to go to find user submitted Infographics. Last year the team added great functionality to the site, creating a set of tools so that anyone can begin creating. This is particularly exciting for students without the time, knowledge or equipment to visualize their data beautifully and professionally. A fun place to explore how data can be visualized as well as a great starting point for creating engaging graphics from complex data. Take a look at our past article ‘Create Infographics In Seconds With New Tools From Visual.ly‘ and see just what can be done.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCmO8YKzv9U
3. Tableizer
Great for beginners and incredibly simple to use, students simply have to copy cells from an Excel spreadsheet and drop them into the prepared field – then the website does the rest. The options are pretty restricted, with only font and colour being adjustable, but this is the perfect tool for students looking to create a simple, smart-looking table from their data for inclusion in a project or final report.
4. Chart Gizmo
The great all-rounder, Chart Gizmo is elegant, user-friendly and produces a wide variety of professional-looking finished products. Accounts are free and students can choose to display their data as a pie or bar chart, a line or ring graph, a scatter plot or many more, including some snazzy 3D options!
5. Lovely Charts
More appropriate for those with awkward data sets or less traditional scientific stats, this website creates professional diagrams including flow charts and wireframes, allowing students with more specific needs to adapt the final product to suit the way in which they wish to present their data.
6. Chartle
Another winner on the simplicity scale, Chartle was designed specifically to be the answer to the complex problem of creating and publishing online charts. Instead, it offers “simplicity, ubiquity and interactivity!” Charts look professional, with different colours to show different sections and each individual graph capable of accommodating a range of different data sets.
Do you have a favourite site or tool when it comes to student graphs and charts? Do you prefer an online or offline solution? Let us know in the comments below.
Image courtesy of Flickr: lumaxart