Introductory R Course – Online
- Start Date: September 15, 2021
- End Date: September 17, 2021
- Time: 9am-4pm Pacific Standard Time
- City: ONLINE - this course takes place over Zoom
- Venue: You choose!
- Instructor: Dr. Isabella Ghement
- If you have interest in taking this course let us know. We are currently taking a wait list to fill the next course
Course Description
Are you ready to learn R in a supportive online environment and use it to streamline your data analyses? This 3-day course will teach you how to use R and its user-friendly R Studio interface to create appealing data visualizations and perform basic statistical analyses. After learning how to find your way around R and how to use R to import and export data, you will become skilled at using the ggplot2 package of R to create, customize, annotate, combine and save data visualizations. This package allows you to build a plot layer by layer from the ground up, so that each layer adds more details to your plot. You will also learn how to perform basic statistical analyses in R, including computing summary statistics (e.g., means, standard deviations), comparing two groups using a t-test, comparing three or more groups using a one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and investigating the linear relationship between two continuous variables using a simple linear regression. To help you consolidate your understanding of the R concepts and commands discussed, the course will conclude with a hands-on review where you will get to see how everything you learned comes together.
You can take this course on its own or in conjunction with the proceeding Intermediate R Course.
The Student Dashboard is HERE. If you are registered in this course, a password is provided to access this page.
Prerequisites:
This course is aimed at biologists, ecologists and resource managers working with data who have a basic working knowledge of statistics. Upon registration we will send you a pre-screening questionnaire to ensure this course is the right fit for you.
Course Structure:
Day 1 – will cover the R Philosophy and Workflow, Data Import and Export in R, and Data Visualization in R.
Day 2 – will cover Summary Statistics, Comparing Two Groups Using T-Tests and Comparing More Than Two Groups Using One-Way Anova.
Day 3 – will cover Investigating Linear Relationships via Simple Linear Regression and a Review of R Concepts and Commands Discussed in the Course.
Benefits to Participants
Participants attending this course will learn a variety of R skills, including how to:
Find their way around R with confidence:
- Understand the philosophy behind R
- Develop a consistent R workflow
Perform data import/export:
- Import tabular data files (e.g., Excel, csv, txt) into R
- Export tabular datasets from R
Generate elegant and modern data visualizations with ggplot2:
- Create data visualizations
- Customize data visualizations
- Annotate data visualizations
- Combine data visualizations
- Save data visualizations
Perform basic statistical analyses and be able to interpret and report their results:
- Compute summary statistics
- Conduct t-tests
- Conduct One-Way ANOVAs
- Perform simple linear regressions
Who should attend?
This course is designed for biologists, ecologists and resource managers who would like to switch to using R for their statistical analyses.
Instructor
Your course instructor will be Dr. Isabella Ghement. Isabella graduated with a PhD in Statistics from the University of British Columbia in 2005 and has since worked as an independent statistical consultant and R trainer. She has taught numerous R courses to researchers, graduate students, government agencies and corporations in Canada, always with the goal to help the course participants build confidence in their R skills and feel encouraged to learn even more about R, and also lectured part-time on advanced statistics at the Sauder School of Business, UBC between 2005 and 2012. Isabella is actively engaged in statistical consulting through her company Ghement Statistical Consulting Company Ltd. Her statistical consulting clients include federal and provincial government agencies, contract research organizations and academic researchers.
Required software
- R and Rstudio
- Microsoft Excel
- Microsoft Word
- Adobe Reader
Preparation for the course
If you have a small laptop, consider using an external keyboard and a mouse during the course as this will facilitate typing R commands. An additional monitor is also highly recommended, especially for the online version of this course.
You will also need to ensure that you have a working microphone and camera to participate in the videoconferencing system.
This course will take place via Zoom. You do not need to purchase a Zoom account for yourself, you just need to ensure you have the free application downloaded to your computer. Here are some instructions to get you set up.
Course Materials:
Approximately one week prior to the course, you will receive an email that will provide you with access to:
- Instructions on how to load the required software (i.e., R and R Studio). Both R and R Studio are available for Mac, Linux and Windows systems. During the course, you will need to use your own laptop or PC pre-loaded with the required software and course materials.
- PowerPoint course notes
- Data sets and R script files
- Handouts
- The associated Zoom links and passwords you’ll need to join the “meeting.”
Registration
Course registration includes 30 days of free course-related technical support from the course instructor via e-mail. A maximum of 15 students may register. Register early to secure your seat.
Registration for the proceeding Intermediate R Course with Isabella Ghement may be done at the same time as you register for this course (see link below).
CMI Member: $675.00*
Non-member: $720.00
*You can purchase your $40 membership at the same time as you register. See more about membership here.
Registration now full. To be placed on a waitlist please email office@cmiae.org. If we get enough interest we’ll open an additional course for registration.
