For educators

Since November 2014, Storybench has provided an “under the hood” look at the most invigorating and inspiring projects in digital storytelling around the world, including but not limited to journalism as we’ve folded in lessons from the fields of information design, statistics, game design, documentary, user-centered design, digital humanities, and network science, to name a few.

Storybench is also a “living syllabus,” a utilitarian guide to the tools and methods used by innovators across digital storytelling. Below, a selection of the tutorials and takeaways that may be useful for educators in journalism and other fields.

Data analysis

Getting started with R

Getting started with R in RStudio Notebooks

How to create a simple line chart in R

How to geocode a csv of addresses in R

Getting Started with tidyverse in R

How to explore and manipulate a dataset from the fivethirtyeight package in R

Data visualization

Seven workshops to run in your classroom

How to map with Google My Maps

How to build a clustered bubble chart

How to organize your data into charts and graphs

How to build an embeddable line chart using Plotly

How to use StoryMap JS to build a map-based story

How to build a weather map using CartoDB

How to build an interactive county-level map just like the New York Times

Graphic design

A game to run in your classroom

A graphics department simulation using lighthearted news stories

Podcasting, radio reporting and audio storytelling

Tips for budding audio storytellers

A digital toolbox for bringing home the perfect interview

“Lead with your best tape” and other helpful tips for audio storytelling