All course stories
Dr. Kylene Wesner
MGMT 421 · Mays Business School, Texas A&M

How MGMT 421 moved data visualization beyond the chart

240+
students per semester
91%
average completion rate
3
course-aligned simulations
+34 pts
pre → post confidence jump
Background

Data analytics is more than making charts

Dr. Kylene Wesner used Cartedo in MGMT 421, Data Analytics and Visualization, at Texas A&M’s Mays Business School.

The course was not just about making charts. Students needed to decide which data mattered, what story the data told, and how different stakeholders would use the insight.

Traditional visualization assignments can show whether students can create a chart. They do not always show whether students understand the decision behind the chart.

The challenge

A chart alone did not show the thinking.

Students could build visualizations, but the deeper learning question was whether they understood what the visualization was supposed to do.

Who was the audience? Which data mattered most? What should be emphasized? What decision should the visualization support?

Hard to assess
Did students choose the right data to highlight?
Did they understand the stakeholder’s need?
Did the chart support a decision?
Could they explain what the data meant?
Could they defend what they included or left out?
Could they turn analysis into a recommendation?
The shift

Data visualization became stakeholder decision-making.

Cartedo helped MGMT 421 turn visualization assignments into applied analytics simulations. Students worked through realistic scenarios where they had to evaluate data, prioritize stakeholder needs, communicate insights, and explain why their visualization supported a decision.

The course moved beyond “make a chart.”

Students had to decide what the chart should make possible.

Before Cartedo
A chart, handed in

Students built a visualization from a clean dataset and submitted it. The output looked polished, but the reasoning behind it stayed invisible.

Which decision was the chart even for?
Did they choose the right thing to show?
Could they defend it to a stakeholder?
With Cartedo
A decision, defended

Students entered a realistic scenario, chose what a stakeholder needed to see, justified the visualization, and revised it after feedback — making their analytical judgment assessable.

Every chart tied to a specific decision
Reasoning made visible and gradable
Feedback and revision built into the task
The analytics decision loop
1
Read the data

Students face a realistic dataset and business question.

2
Prioritize

They decide what the stakeholder actually needs to see.

3
Visualize & justify

They build the chart and explain why it supports the decision.

4
Get feedback

Cartedo gives targeted, rubric-aligned feedback.

5
Improve

They sharpen analytical judgment across scenarios.

Simulation examples

From analytics lessons to workplace decisions

Framing Questions to Explain Turnover simulation preview
Framing Questions to Explain Turnover

Students frame the right analytical questions to explain rising employee turnover.

Prioritizing KPIs to Reduce Churn simulation preview
Prioritizing KPIs to Reduce Churn

Students select and prioritize the KPIs that best target customer churn.

Tailoring Data Stories for Stakeholders simulation preview
Tailoring Data Stories for Stakeholders

Students adapt a data story so different stakeholders can act on it.

Explore ready-to-use simulations created by professors
The outcome

Students showed the thinking behind the visualization.

Cartedo helped MGMT 421 assess the skills that matter when analytics is used at work: judgment, prioritization, evidence use, communication, and decision-making.

The strongest value was not only that students produced better visuals. It was that they could explain why the visual mattered.

Beyond charts. Students learned to decide.
Student responses

Anonymized student reflection themes.

“I stopped thinking of the chart as the assignment and started thinking about the decision it was supposed to help.”

“Choosing what not to show was harder than making the graph.”

“The simulation made me think about the audience first.”

“I had to explain why the data mattered, not just display it.”

The takeaway

Students weren't just making charts.
They were making the call.

MGMT 421 used Cartedo to turn visualization assignments into repeated, decision-driven practice. Students evaluated messy data, chose what a stakeholder actually needed to see, defended their reasoning, and revised based on feedback — at a scale where personalized review would otherwise be impossible to deliver by hand. The breakthrough was that analytical judgment became assessable, not just chart output.

And the results held up beyond a single term.

Across the cohort, students consistently produced visuals tied to a clear decision — and could explain why. When work is defended in the student's own reasoning, a familiar question gets easier to answer:

Did students actually learn analytics, or just produce a nice-looking chart?

88%
could defend each chart by the decision it was built to inform
+34 pts
jump in student confidence, pre- vs. post-simulation poll (58% → 92%)
Continued
adopted across later MGMT 421 terms

The strongest signal wasn't a single score. It was that students could stand behind their analysis — and that the model kept being used after the pilot.

Disclaimer: Independent course-use example

This Cartedo-authored story is a factual example of course use—not a testimonial or endorsement. The featured instructor and institution did not write, review, approve, or sponsor it, and no affiliation or recommendation should be inferred.

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