MDL Tutorials
This tutorial shows you how to build a dataset in Constellate. We recommend reading our general information on Constellate first. Please also see this access tutorial in order to log in with institutional privileges.
This guide gives users an introduction to SAS. The topics covered are importing, exploring, modifying, and managing data. It has been created using SAS 9.4. The main dataset used is the flights dataset. It contains the US domestic flights in January 2020[1]. For additional support, fill out the support request form.
This tutorial will teach you the basic features in Gephi that will allow you to visualize network data. This tutorial is part of a longer workshop, “An Introduction to Network Visualization and Analysis.” You can download the workshop materials and watch the recording (1:44:18) to learn more about network theory and see video demonstrations of working with Gephi.
This tutorial describes how to request a license for NVivo 12 Plus, download it, and license it.
Created by Marcel Fortin, GIS and Map Librarian, in January 2021, this 4-part video tutorial will teach you how to format, edit, and map spatial data using ArcGIS Online.
ESRI ArcGIS StoryMaps online workshop videos, January 2021
National Resources Canada (NRCAN) produced a portal called GeoGratis for allowing access to, and downloads of, their high-quality, free, and publicly available maps and geospatial data. This tutorial guides you in navigating their Product Index to find data on a specific location, and it is easily adaptable for other locations or desired data products.
This tutorial will use 7 modules to teach you the basics of ArcGIS Pro. These modules will cover topics such as adding, manipulating, analyzing, and mapping vector and raster data.
This tutorial walks you through the steps of downloading, installing, and licensing ArcGIS Desktop 10.x, which includes ArcMap, using a Single Use License.
Please be advised that ArcGIS Desktop (including ArcMap) and ArcGIS Pro are also available on library computers on the St George campus.
Return to the main Gale Digital Scholar Lab tutorial
This short guide provides instructions on how to log into the Gale Digital Scholar Lab via the University of Toronto institutional access.
This guide helps you get started with the R and RStudio software and R code. You can install R from the R homepage. And you can install RStudio from the RStudio homepage. A more thorough introduction to the R language is covered here.
This guide helps users get started with writing a SAS program/code for RTRA purposes.
This tutorial introduces Gale's Digital Scholar Lab (DSL), a digital humanities tool. In this tutorial, you will learn how to:
- Build a collection of texts, including uploading your own materials
- Create collaborative workspaces
- Clean texts
- Run analytical tools on texts and visualize the results
- Download the data, graphs, and other visualizations produced through this tool
- Download the scanned texts in your collection, so that you can use them in other programs
- Find additional training and resources
Note: Gale periodically updates the Digital Scholar Lab, so some features of this tutorial might not always match the latest interface. This tutorial was last updated in March 2023.
This tutorial goes over how to download, install, and license ArcGIS Pro with your UTORid.
Please be advised that ArcGIS Pro and ArcGIS Desktop (including ArcMap) are also available on library computers on the St George campus.
This tutorial provides an opportunity to learn data visualization skills using a common data visualization tool, Tableau Desktop. People often say that they learn better when using data that resonates with them, so we are using COVID-19 data in this tutorial, as this topic is touching many people’s lives right now.
This is a beginner-to-intermediate level tutorial for Tableau Desktop version 2020.2. To acquire a free student, researcher, or instructor license for Tableau Desktop, please follow these licensing and installation instructions. If you want to learn this material in an online, self-paced course, with video instructions, you can self-enroll in our Practice with Tableau course.
This is a guide to installing and running Tableau Desktop on your personal computer. Please note that all computers in the Map and Data Library (on the fifth floor of Robarts) and in the computer labs on the fourth and fifth floors of Robarts Library already have Tableau Desktop installed.
This tutorial is an introduction to Piktochart, a popular online tool used to create infographics. This exercise will illustrate some infographic design principles and specific features of Piktochart to create an infographic about comparing housing in Vancouver vs Toronto. To complement this tutorial, you may want to explore the online self-paced course on Infographic Design.
In this tutorial, we will begin work on augmenting datasets.
Note: This is an advanced tutorial. If you are new to OpenRefine, please begin with OpenRefine tutorial 1.This tutorial has been developed for OpenRefine version 3.3.
This tutorial will teach you how to use OpenRefine's reconciliation service to connect data in your dataset with Wikidata.
Note 1: Complete Augmenting activity 1 first before attempting this activity.
Note 2: In order to complete this activity, you need to be running the latest version of OpenRefine.
This tutorial has been developed for OpenRefine version 3.3.
Update: please note that as of March 18, 2020, Open Data Toronto has suspended service and so their service is not available for API calls. Until service resumes, please skip step 3, and during step 5, please chose to Get Data From: This Computer and select the 311.json file in the packaged workshop files. This represents a snapshot of the data that will work with the exercises. Please feel free to email mdl@library.utoronto.ca if you run into difficulties.
Sometimes you don't have your data in a file. Instead you want to use an API call to pull data from elsewhere. OpenRefine can help you make these calls and parse the data you receive.
The goal of this activity is to create a new project by pulling in 311 call data from the City of Toronto into OpenRefine using an API call and then work with the data. You will construct an API call to download a subset of 311 call data in JSON format, and then use OpenRefine to parse that data and put it into a tabular format. You will then use GREL to further manipulate the data (especially working with date formats) and make some discoveries.
Note: This assumes that you have learned the basics of OpenRefine already through the Survey of Household Spending activity and the Citizen Science activity. This also assumes that you have a basic understanding of APIs and JSON. The 311 JSON dataset can be found in the sample data in case the API call does not work.
This tutorial has been developed for OpenRefine version 3.3.
You were introduced to GREL in the previous activity, so you know that GREL is a powerful tool for cleaning/editing your data. You can make GREL even more powerful by learning how to use regular expressions (aka regex). A regular expression is a sequence of characters that define a search pattern – it is used to search for matches within text. In OpenRefine, you can use it in your GREL expressions to create sophisticated patterns describing what type of information you want to find within your dataset, then do something with the matching text (edit it, delete it, put it in a new column, etc.).
This activity assumes you have already completed the Survey of Household Spending and Citizen Science activities, have a familiarity with OpenRefine and know how to create simple GREL expressions. Before you begin, please download the OpenRefine workshop sample datasets, if you have not already.