Syllabus (PDF)

A MODERN DIVE into Data with R book

Getting Used to R, RStudio, and R Markdown book

RStudio Server

Slides and Class Content

Data Viz Mind Map

SOC 301 Grade Viewer

Problem Sets

Plicker Questions from Class

Tips for success:

  1. Spend 15 minutes every day (even on the weekend if possible) quizzing yourself on concepts from the course. I recommend you create flash cards as the course progresses and ask yourself to provide the definition when given a term or to explain what particular R code produces. The process of forcing yourself to think about the concept even if you can’t get the answer exactly right will help you learn.

  2. Don’t just read over your notes or the book multiple times. One of the most common things I hear from students that didn’t perform well on a quiz or assignment is that they studied the material a lot by reading over the book many times. This doesn’t help you learn the content. It creates a false sense of understanding by creating an association with the words. YOU HAVE TO QUIZ YOURSELF if you want to learn and succeed.

  3. Create your own quizzes. One of the best strategies you can do if you have had trouble with exams and quizzes in the past is to identify the key ideas from the class and create your own problems to solve in an environment similar to the one in which you take quizzes and exams.

  4. Make mind maps that relate all of the content throughout the course together. By creating a diagram that connects concepts together you’ll see how everything is related and that will help you create the story of the course instead of seeing concepts as disjoint pieces.

  5. Study with someone else especially with the R material. But DON’T divide the lab in half and not talk carefully about the questions together. You’ll need to practice with R nearly every day if you want to learn how to use it. It’s going to be like learning a foreign language at the beginning. You’ll need to learn the syntax and practice “speaking it” as much as possible.

  6. Ask questions of me and of your classmates. I’m always open to answering questions and you should never feel like your question isn’t appropriate. You should also look for opportunities to help others and teach them the content. This will help you as a learner as well.

  7. Enjoy the learning process! Failure to not understand everything all at once is to be expected. Our brains need to struggle to learn. You can’t build muscles by sitting on the couch and you can’t learn statistics by not struggling a little bit. Devote some time every day to thinking about a more difficult problem than what is given to you. How would you solve it? What’s more difficult about it? Evaluate your learning and find out what works best for you.