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Introduction to IPEDS Data

1. Chapter 2 Overview

It's great to see you in Chapter 2. We'll build on the leaflet map that we created in the first chapter to make an interactive web map of every four-year college in California. After plotting hundreds of points on an interactive map, we will learn how to customize and color our markers.

2. Where We Left Off

At the end of Chapter 1, we created a leaflet map using the CartoDB provider tile and plotted DataCamp's offices by adding markers with pop-ups to our map. If we store our leaflet maps in objects, there will come a time when we need to remove markers or reset the map view.

3. Cleaning up the Base Map

If we want to restore the default view without recreating the entire map, we can use the clearBounds() function to remove the bounds we have applied to a leaflet map. For example, in the map on the right, you'll notice that the map has been automatically zoomed out to a level that displays all of the markers.

4. Cleaning up the Base Map

If we want to go a step further and remove the markers, we can use the clearMarkers() function. Since leaflet maps are built in layers, we cannot simply add more markers to replace the existing markers. This would add another layer on top of our existing markers rather than replacing them.

5. IPEDS

The Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System or IPEDS is a system of interrelated surveys conducted by the US Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics. IPEDS gathers information from every institution of higher education that participates in federal financial aid programs.

6. Our IPEDS Dataset

We will be using a subset of data from IPEDS that focuses on four-year colleges and universities. Our data has five variables, the name of each institution, the longitude and latitude that we'll use to plot the institutions, the state that each college is in, and the sector of each college. In our data, the sector indicates whether a college is public, private, or for-profit.

7. Our IPEDS Dataset

We'll start to explore the IPEDS data to answer questions like: “Which state has the most colleges?” Using the tidyverse we can quickly see that in our data California has the most colleges followed by New York.

8. Where We are Going in Chapter 2

In Chapter 2, we'll create a subset of the IPEDS data to focus on the nearly 300 colleges in California. Then we will plot every college in California on a leaflet map while learning how to use different types of markers. Finally, Chapter 2 will conclude with us adding some color to our gray base map when we color code colleges by sector.

9. Let's practice!

Let's get back to work making some maps!