Programming in R

Practicals:

• Practical 0: introduction to R
• Practical 1: regular expressions
• Practical 2: functions and for loops
• Practical 3: practice exercises

Notes to demonstrators

Our role here is to empower the students so they:

• feel confident messing around in the commandline
• can be confident that what they did is correct.

So we do not just want to give them answers. When you’re talking to a student, force them to think. For example, if they ask a question, answer with a simpler question that helps to decompose the problem. Iterate as necessary. And/or check their skills - have they completely understood how to do the simple stuff? Encourage them to try things that will fail. Encourage them to decipher R’s cryptic error messages - there is actually real information in them. Have them type; not you (and have them figure out what to type - avoid dictating).

When we are in the room we should be constantly talking to students. Don’t wait for questions - many students are too shy/embarrassed to ask them and will be grateful if you come up to them.

If you see a student doing things badly (e.g. copying R-code from Word; not using the built-in R text editor; not indenting things; not using human-friendly variable names), make it clear that there are better ways that will make it easier for you & them to write/read/understand/learn/be productive.

Work through the relevant material in preparation for a team meeting 1 week before the practical. Please edit the document to improve it! If you’d like to discuss a point or give a suggestion, you can email the group. The meeting will be an additional opportunity to clarify if/what needs to be revised/improved, or what the different possible approaches are for a given exercise (and their advantages/disadvantages).

Additionally:

• ensure that you know how to do this stuff.
• undergraduates should have done http://tryr.codeschool.com/ and the introductory practical0 before the first practical - you should be on top of all basic R handling too. If you have any doubts, ask questions BEFORE you are with students.
• The practicals are not necessarily easy/intuitive.
  • you should have worked through your practical at least 1 week beforehand. Where you struggled is likely where students will also struggle.
  • you guys can help each other out
• We are using the Hadley Wickham style guide
• For many exercises there are multiple possible solutions. That’s cool. Some may be easier, some may suck.
• You are welcome (but not obliged!) to attend the lectures where we’ll be going over the basics.
• The practicals as we have them are imperfect. Don’t hesitate to suggest changes (as github issues or pull requests or in person).

Contributors

Yannick Wurm, Rodrigo Pracana, Bruno Vieira, Bob Verity, You and probably some others too.