Online Course: Programming for Policy

Since 2018 the equivalent of five billion Libraries of Congress worth of data has been created. With the Economist declaring data to be the world’s most valuable resource. 

World Economic Forum and The Economist Magazine.

For policy makers this trend matters, both as being better armed with flexible and multidisciplinary tools makes us better equipped to take advantage of these new opportunities and as understanding frontier technologies is crucial for properly designing, implementing and evaluating public policy in the 21st century. Which is why I developed this course (and this website exists!), as there is a real need for a programming course designed to introduce policymakers to modern data tools such as R.

The first run of the online course delivered via a five week webinar series from the 20th of July to the 17th of August (2020).

The course included 80+ learners, across 12 countries from government, consulting, technology and academia. Real datasets, ‘real’ policy problems and an impressive level of commitment from the many participants that braved early mornings and late nights to join. Special thanks to those that shared their R Programming origin stories, including: Barbara Perry, Praveen Jayasuriya, Anya Cushnie Mills, Benjamin Osenius-eite and David Keyes.

Recordings and resources from the first version of the course are available here.

You can express interest here in future runs of the course and/or to encourage me to refine online videos.

If you’d like to get in touch with me you can do so via Linkedin here.