Computing for Data Analysis
Roger D. Peng
This course is about learning the fundamental computing skills necessary for effective data analysis. You will learn to program in R and to use R for reading data, writing functions, making informative graphs, and applying modern statistical methods.
Dear FIX,
In one week we will be launching the class Computing for Data Analysis and we’re happy to report that we have over 30,000 people enrolled in the class. I am delighted that so many people have taken an interest in learning statistical computing and R and am looking forward to working with everyone in the class. Before we officially start the class I’d like to mention a few housekeeping items and clarify some questions you may have.
Before beginning the course, it would be great if you could fill out this pre-course survey: http://goo.gl/KSV77. The only purpose of the survey is to give me an idea of what the audience for Computing for Data Analysis is. Later, I’ll share the results of the survey with everyone.
As you know, this course is going to be about the statistical programming language R. If you want to get a jump on things, you can go to the main R web page (http://www.r-project.org) and see what it is about. If you want to download R and install it on your computer, you can get it at the Comprehensive R Archive Network (http://cran.r-project.org). One option that you may want to explore is RStudio (http://rstudio.org) which is a very nice front-end to R and works on all platforms (however it is not required). There’s no need to do all this now--we will cover it in the lectures. But I wanted to mention it for those of you who may be chomping at the bit. In addition, you will need a text editor to edit R code and write your programming assignments. The Windows and Mac versions of R come with a text editor as does RStudio. They will be sufficient for the course. However, if you have a favorite text editor, such as Emacs, you are welcome to use that too. If you've never heard of Emacs, that's really too bad, but it's okay.
As far as hardware is concerned, you will of course need a computer that can access the Internet. Any major platform--Windows, Mac, or Linux--will suffice as R runs on all major platforms. For the Mac, you will need OS X 10.5 (Leopard) or above. For Windows, you will need Windows XP or later. Standard base models for most laptops/desktops purchased in the last 2-3 years should be sufficient for the class. The assignments will not require substantial computing resources.
This class is a 4-week class and the lectures will consist of roughly 2 hours of video per week. The videos for each week will all be posted at the beginning of the week so you are free to view them at your convenience. You will be required to complete a short quiz at the end of each week to evaluate your comprehension of the previous week’s material. There will also be two programming assignments, the details of which you will find once the course has begun.
Finally, e-mailed statements of completion will be available to those who successfully complete the course. We expect to also offer successful students the opportunity to purchase a more formal certificate version of the same statement, but the details of this option are not yet settled.
I'm looking forward to interacting with you in Computing for Data Analysis. I'll be sending out more information once the class starts next week.
Good luck!
Roger Peng
No comments:
Post a Comment