Decision Sciences Journal of Innovative Education Volume 14 Number 4 October 2016 Printed in the U.S.A. C  2016 Decision Sciences Institute TEACHING BRIEF Visualization of Twitter Data in the Classroom Betsy Page Sigman † McDonough School of Business, Georgetown University, 579 Hariri Building, Washington, DC 20057, e-mail: bps@georgetown.edu William Garr, Robert Pongsajapan, Marie Selvanadin, and Mindy McWilliams Georgetown University, 3520 Prospect St NW, Washington, DC 20057, e-mail: wjg8@georgetown.edu, rap42@georgetown.edu, mks49@georgetown.edu, mcwillie@georgetown.edu Kristin Bolling Georgetown University, 37th & O Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20057, e-mail: klb235@georgetown.edu ABSTRACT The expression “big data” is ubiquitous in the business world today, but few undergrad- uate business students have the opportunity to gain practical experience with how new business analytics tools can be used in decision making. This article describes a set of hands-on labs that prepare students to incorporate streaming data analysis into group research projects. Splunk is used to help students analyze and visualize streaming social media data. An evaluation of student projects and student survey results show that this practical approach of training students to manipulate and visualize big data was largely successful in achieving instructional goals. Subject Areas: Big Data, Business Intelligence, Data Analytics, Social Media, and Splunk. INTRODUCTION The expression “big data” is everywhere in the business world today, and there is a need for people who understand how to collect, analyze, and make decisions with it. Most businesses, governments, and other organizations understand that they need to use big data analytics to drive better decision making. However, companies often struggle to find employees with the analytical skills required to program algorithms and make sense of the vast amounts of data and information produced by today’s streams of big data from many sources (IBM, 2012, 2013). Students now commonly ask how they can acquire corresponding jobs, as they have heard † Corresponding author.