Case Study: Swarthmore achieves accessible, searchable National Census of Writing data with Last Call Media

SwarthMore launches National Census of Writing explorer in time for 2015 conference with Last Call Media

The Swarthmore College English Department, led by Jill Gladstein, faced the challenge of making vast and complex data from the National Census of Writing accessible and usable for both the general public and qualified researchers. They engaged Last Call Media to design and develop a web data explorer to visualize and disseminate survey information from over 900 higher education institutions.

Last Call Media worked closely with Swarthmore staff to identify key user needs, creating an intuitive site with optimized data visualizations and search functionality. The solution launched successfully at a major 2015 conference and was subsequently featured in Inside Higher Ed. The Last Call Media-built platform achieved widespread adoption, is used nationwide, and is fully 508 compliant, allowing the census data to be utilized in unexpected and valuable ways.

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