README

Ivaylo Petev and myself use this repository to teach an undergraduate introduction to data analysis. The course is here. The syllabus is here. It's all very experimental.

HOWTO

The course is built from a set of files formatted in R Markdown syntax. A few files are called from the code/ and data/ folders. Most datasets are downloaded on the fly, so you will need to be online to run this thing properly.

• knitr geeks: the course is meant to fly as HTML: compile the whole thing by running index.Rmd. This is how the routine goes on my end:
  • knitting syllabus.Rmd will first clean up the workspace and all files but .Rmd files
  • it will then run all .Rmd scripts, producing .R and .html files
  • these files are finally copied to my GitHub Pages folder, which I then commit and sync
• .Rprofile nerds: check the code. I have coded a few things to help students with packages and data exploration.
  • ida.load() is a function to load a set of packages after installing them if needed
  • ida.scan() is a function to find which packages are used in a set of scripts
  • ida.prep() is a function to download course scripts and run the functions above.
• Typography lovers: the course pages use Open Sans and Signika Negative from Google Web Fonts, where you can also download them.
  • CSS widths need to be adjusted to better fit the plots.
  • Flash embeds (Vimeo and Youtube videos) are 500px-wide.
  • Code chunks should show up nicely formatted by knitr.

Everything above got done on a MacBook Air running OS X 10.8 using Google Chrome, GitHub and Gist, R and RStudio, with some help from Terminal and TextMate. Most scripts have been tested on Windows, but the keyboard shortcuts are often guessed without being checked.

HISTORY

[Mar-2013] The course structure has been reviewed: less files, more code, tons of new examples and exercises. Let us know if you like it, or if anything breaks!

[Feb-2013] The .Rprofile functions are now much more efficient, and the knitr routine has been slightly improved. The code is getting tidier in the early sessions.

[Jan-2013] All files are now chained to each other via navigational links. The .Rprofile starter file contains a utility to install and load packages. First code release.

TODO

• Code:
  • use downloader package wherever possible
  • acknowledge authors in code/README for all additional functions
• Course:
  • tidy up code for all sessions
  • add setup instructions and homework (exercises, assignments, grading scheme)

First release: January 2013.
Last revised: March 2013.