STAT 184: Introduction to R
STAT 184: Introduction to R
Spring 2021
Contents
Course Information 1
Class Time & Location ................................................................................ 1
Teaching Team .......................................................................................... 1
Website ..................................................................................................... 2
Textbooks .................................................................................................. 2
Communication ........................................................................................... 2
Grading ...................................................................................................... 2
Course Goals and objectives ......................................................................... 4
Policies & Resources 4
Zoom Recordings ............................................................................................ 4
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) ................................................... 5
ECoS Code of Mutual Respect ........................................................................... 5
Academic Integrity Statement ........................................................................... 5
Disability Policy ................................................................................................ 6
Syllabus Changes 6
Course Information
Class Time & Location
• Sec 001: Wednesdays & Fridays at 10:10am - 11:00am (EST)
• Sec 002: Wednesdays & Fridays at 11:15am - 12:05pm (EST)
Teaching Team
Instructor Dr. Matthew Beckman
office: 323 Thomas Building
email: mdb268 [at] psu [dot] edu
Teaching Assistant Mr. Bianjie Ji
email id: bxj40 [at] psu [dot] edu
Office Hours
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Day
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When (US Eastern time)
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Zoom URL
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Who
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Mondays
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10:00 AM - Noon
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https://psu.zoom.us/j/5299014134
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Dr. Beckman
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Mondays
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1:00-2:00 PM
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https://psu.zoom.us/j/8148801021
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Bianjie Ji
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Thursdays
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1:00-2:00 PM
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https://psu.zoom.us/j/8148801021
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Bianjie Ji
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Fridays
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1:00-2:00 PM
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https://psu.zoom.us/j/8148801021
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Bianjie Ji
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Also by appointment (to schedule: send an email with 3-4 possible times)
Website
Canvas: https://psu.instructure.com
Textbooks
Data Computing (2nd edition) by Daniel Kaplan & Matthew Beckman (free ebook: https://dtkaplan.github.io/DataComputingEbook/)
(recommended): R for Data Science by Hadley Wickham & Garrett Grolemund (free ebook: https://r4ds.had.co.nz/)
(recommended): Happy Git and GitHub for the UseR by Jenny Bryan et al. (free ebook: https://happygitwithr.com)
(recommended): Advanced R by Hadley Wickham (free ebook: http://adv-r.had.co.nz/)
Other readings assigned as needed.
Communication
Piazza We will be using Piazza for nearly all class Q&A, to help you benefit from each other’s questions and the collective knowledge of your classmates, professor, TA. Questions should be posted to the entire class (for content-related questions). I encourage you to ask questions if you are struggling to understand a concept, and to answer your classmates’ questions when you can.
Do NOT use Piazza for personal/private matters (grades, accommodations, etc); email those questions or comments to the professor/TA directly or discuss them in person.
Email Most issues about classroom activities should be posted to Piazza, but you should use email (or a conversation in person) for all personal or private matters.
Grading
Learning outcomes will be assessed based on performance in each of the following categories accompanied by their impact on the overall grade:
30% Semester Project
25% Exam
15% Weekly Activities (e.g., synthesis projects)
15% Homework Exercises (e.g., end of chapter problem set)
10% Reading Quizzes
5% Participation/Engagement
Late Work Don’t be late, it’s an avoidable source of stress you’re better off without. Nearly all assignments are turned in electronically on Canvas, so the official time stamp on Canvas will generally be used to determine late work. Basically, there is no “on time” with Canvas, so even 8:00:00.001am is after 8am. In Canvas, as the cliche says: “If it’s not early, it’s late.”
Late work is not permitted at all for some assignments (e.g., exam, semester project, and a few special cases).
For other regular assignments (weekly reading quizzes, exercise sets, & activities), we determined whether the class would prefer to either drop a lowest score or penalize late work 25% per day (not both):
• 75% credit for the first 24 hours after the due time/date;
• 50% credit between 24 & 48 hours after the due time/date;
• 25% credit after 48 hours beyond the due date/time
Section 1 chose: Drop lowest score, no credit for late work (1/20/2021 vote)
Section 2 chose: TBD
Final grades Final grades will be awarded based on the following scale.
Weekly Activities Most weeks will include a synthesis project that is generally designed to integrate the main topic of the week with skills, concepts, or tools previously discussed in the class.
These will most often be assigned and begun during class, but often require additional work outside of class to complete. Students are encouraged to work together on these assignments, but each student must hand in their own work unless told otherwise.
Reading Quizzes Weekly reading quizzes will be due before class in order to assess comprehension of the reading assignment that will be discussed each week. This allows students to see new content and concepts for the first time at their own pace in order to more effectively use class time to emphasize main points, clear up confusion, etc. The goal of the reading quiz is to hold students accountable for completing the reading each week before class.
Participation/Engagement Participation is graded primarily based on Piazza activity. In order to earn full credit for the Piazza portion, each student should make 2 or more substantive posts per week related to the content of the course; at least one post each week should be a reply/answer to another student’s post. Grading will utilize usage statistics downloaded from Piazza by an instructor.
Homework Exercises Weekly homework assignments will be due before class in order to assess under-standing and content mastery. Students are encouraged to work together on homework assignments, but each student must hand in their own work.
Semester Project The project will be due by 5:00 PM (EST) on Monday, May 3 2021 (first day of Finals Week).
The project will consist of two parts: A well-written document including all R code used, and a 3-4 minute video presentation of your project. The assigned synthesis projects from the Data Computing book are good examples of the scale and scope of work expected for a successful project, with the differences that you are expected to do the work independently, the primary data will not be loaded from an R package, and you are responsible for producing the narrative explaining your investigation and conclusions as you work through the analysis.
Course Goals and objectives
Some goals and objectives may be reduced or expanded as time permits, but a tentative list follows:
• General Tools
– Become familiar with R programming language
– Become familiar with RStudio development environment
– Generate reports and reproducible work with RMarkdown
– Exposure to Git/GitHub source control
• Navigate basic syntax in R
– Adopt basic notions of consistent programming style
– Show proficiency using functions
– Install and use a variety of contributed R packages
• Read & write multiple data file types using R
– CSV
– web scraping
• Show proficiency with basic data wrangling operations using R
– Principles of “Tidy Data”
– tidyverse package
• Generate descriptive statistics using R
• Show proficiency with layered graphs & data visualization
– “Glyph-ready Data”
– ggplot2 graphics
• Additional topics
– Basic machine learning
– Regular expressions
• Possible extensions as time permits
– Web applications (i.e. Shiny)
– lattice graphics
– mosiac graphics interface
– Special topics
Policies & Resources
Zoom Recordings
All class meetings will (generally) be recorded, and available to students in Canvas.
Per PSU policy (AD 40; link)
“A student must not record activity in classrooms or other instructional settings without the express permission of the faculty member responsible for instruction in the course. Authorized student-initiated recordings must be used only for the education of the students enrolled in the initiating student’s class during the period in which the student is enrolled in the class. In addition to the requirements [previously stated in the policy], an authorized student-initiated recording must not be made available to anyone outside of the students enrolled in the class in any fashion, including posting online or through other media without the express written consent of the faculty member responsible for the course or the cognizant University administrator.”
Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS)
Many students at Penn State face personal challenges or have psychological needs that may interfere with interfere with their academic progress, social development, or emotional wellbeing. The university offers a variety of confidential services to help you through difficult times, including individual and group counseling, crisis intervention, consultations, online chats, and mental health screenings. These services are provided by staff who welcome all students and embrace a philosophy respectful of clients’ cultural and religious backgrounds, and sensitive to differences in race, ability, gender identity and sexual orientation.
Counseling and Psychological Services at University Park (CAPS):
• Phone: 814-863-0395
• Web: http://studentaffairs.psu.edu/counseling/
Penn State Crisis Line (24 hours/7 days/week): 877-229-6400
Crisis Text Line (24 hours/7 days/week): Text LIONS to 741741
ECoS Code of Mutual Respect
The Eberly College of Science Code of Mutual Respect and Cooperation embodies the values that we hope our faculty, staff, and students possess and will endorse to make the Eberly College of Science a place where every individual feels respected and valued, as well as challenged and rewarded.
Academic Integrity Statement
Academic dishonesty is not limited to simply cheating on an exam or assignment. The following is quoted directly from the “PSU Faculty Senate Policies for Students” regarding academic integrity and academic dishonesty:
Academic integrity is the pursuit of scholarly activity free from fraud and deception and is an educational objective of this institution. Academic dishonesty includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarizing, fabricating of information or citations, facilitating acts of academic dishonesty by others, having unauthorized possession of examinations, submitting work of another person or work previously used without informing the instructor, or tampering with the academic work of other students.
All University and Eberly College of Science policies regarding academic integrity/academic dishonesty apply to this course and the students enrolled in this course. Refer to the following URL for further details on the academic integrity policies of the Eberly College of Science: http://www.science.psu.edu/academic/Integrity/ index.html. Each student in this course is expected to work entirely on her/his own while taking any exam, to complete assignments on her/his own effort without the assistance of others unless directed otherwise by the instructor, and to abide by University and Eberly College of Science policies about academic integrity and academic dishonesty. Academic dishonesty can result in assignment of “F” by the course instructors or “XF” by Judicial Affairs as the final grade for the student.
Disability Policy
Penn State welcomes students with disabilities into the University’s educational programs. If you have a disability-related need for reasonable academic adjustments in this course, contact Student Disability Resources (SDR; formerly ODS) at 814-863-1807, 116 Boucke, http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources. In order to receive consideration for course accommodations, you must contact ODS and provide documentation (see the guidelines at http://equity.psu.edu/student-disability-resources/guidelines).
Syllabus Changes
This syllabus is subject to change as circumstances warrant; substantive changes will be distributed in writing (e.g., through Canvas) or announced in class.
2021-01-25