Course Details:
The online version of the course taught the basics of the R programming language with a focus on applying its key tools to everyday scenarios faced in government, consulting and academia.
What Was Covered:
The course will run for six weeks, be project based and invite participants to work with buddies on projects that teach concepts such as:
- The fundamentals of programming and R – which will cover just enough of the theory to get you doing cool stuff with R.
- Exploratory analysis – how to quickly understand the basics of a dataset and use programming to explore policy questions.
- Data cleaning – which will show how we can work with, and clean messy, data to make it useful for analysis.
- Data visualization and presenting results – how to communicate your analysis through modern data visualization, graphics and statistical summaries.
- Automation and reproducibility – practical tips to use R programming to automate repetitive tasks and enhance reproducibility.
What Was Needed to Participate:
- A willingness to learn and give us honest and open feedback (so we learn too!).
- At least one other person to work with to complete group activities in the course.
- A basic understanding of data analysis and computers (eg can use a formula in excel to calculate the average of something).
- A computer with R and R studio installed (Mac, Windows or Linux).
What Wasn’t Needed to Participate:
- Any programming experience: We’re going to start from the basics and go from there 🙂
- A phd in applied mathematics: We don’t have one, so why should you?