Discussing how this seminar could be better built is tough, as I feel the way which it was taught this semester was extremely productive and successful. This being said, I feel redesigning it to be taught the final way suggested in this prompt, with half a semester of coding, and half a semester of working with community partners, could be a positive change.
In the way this seminar was taught, it had its students learning tools as they went along, and not always having the skills to utilize every tool to the fullest extent. I feel this could be easily remedied by giving some basics on javascript code, html code, and the wide variety of options to visualize data, prior to actually working on application of these skills. Additionally, once this first task is completed, the second half of the seminar would be solely work-based, which I think would allow for strong relationships with community partners, and better emulate a highly-focused work environment.
I believe the seminar worked extremely well with the way which it was taught this past semester, however, I feel getting deeper into the code the first quarter, and working solely on implementing it the second quarter, could be a better option.