Morning Session:  A Refreshing Intro to R

Instructor:  Todd D. O'Brien

October 25, 2015

The purpose of the morning workshop session is to give users a hands-on, interactive introduction (or refresher) to the R analysis platform.  This session will prepare them to better navigate the afternoon session, and it will likewise provide them with the basic R skills and/or pointers to resources needed to continue their R journey after the workshops.

Materials: Workshop2015_morning.zip

8:30am    Last-minute Software Set-Up Help

Participants should already have "R" and "RStudio" installed on their personal laptop.  (Installation instructions for R and RStudio are available here.)  If the installation does not go smoothly, help will be available during this pre-workshop time slot.

The software installation will require Admin Rights on your computer.  If you do not have these rights, or do not know the password to allow these rights, your computer IT department/person will need to install this software BEFORE you come to the workshop.

9:00am    The Basics:  An Intro to R and RStudio

- Trips and Tricks to make your R experience easier and less painful

- Basic Concepts of the R working environment and how to effectively use RStudio

- Basic Concepts of R's variables, math, recursion, and scripts

- How to read an "R" subroutine help page and deciper it

10:30am    Break (15 minutes)

- Get Coffee.  Get a snack.  Look at something other than a laptop screen.  Get some fresh air. 

10:45am    Next steps, useful tools, and additional resources

- The basics of reading data from files (loading data into your R workspace)

- The basics of manipulating and/or translating between different data structures

- The basics of debugging and understanding error messages

- Useful tools, books, and online resources to continue your journey with R

12:00pm    Adjourn

- Eat lunch.  Take a short walk.  Look forward to learning about SWMPr and doing some really REALLY cool stuff in the afternoon session.