To maximize how much you learn and how much you will retain, you as a group will take what you learn in the course and apply it to create a reproducible report (as an HTML file) based on a data analysis of a dataset of your choice. At the end of the course, you will give a (short) presentation of your report and analysis. During the presentation, we expect you as the presenters to discuss and show:
- The reasons for choosing what you did and why
- Your overall workflow and processes
- Describe and show your graphs and tables
- Show a very small section of your analysis code
As the audience, you will give anonymous feedback and comments on the presenters analysis, graphs, and anything else that may come to mind. Specifically, try to focus on:
- Clarity of reasons, figures, and tables
- Improvements to workflow
- Suggestions for future analyses
Following the presentations we’ll discuss what challenges and barriers you as a group faced, why you decided on your workflow, what took most of your time, and any other points that may come up.
Tasks to complete the report
As a group, you are to:
- Choose an open dataset
- Download and save that dataset
- Do simple analyses on the data (e.g. summary statistics)
- Create publication quality figures and tables
- Have then entire report be reproducible in an R Markdown document
- Use version control on the analyses and files
Expectations
- From the report, analysis code, and project folders, we expect to see examples that you used what you learned in class to achieve your analysis goals.
- Spend approximately 2-3 hours individually in the 2 weeks between sessions.
- Meet at least once (virtually or in person) with your group to coordinate tasks, roles, and make decisions on the assignment.
- We don’t expect complicated analyses or coding. The point is to use what you learned on a real-world dataset and problem.
Tips
When working as a group try to focus on determining roles, who does what tasks, what the exact workflow will be, and how you’ll collaborate together on the assignment.
Tasks after first forming group
- Introduce yourself. Say your name, program, one thing you are excited or most interested to learn about R and/or data analysis.
- Discuss what you as a group have for expectations of tasks, roles, and behaviour.
- When to meet before next session (March 18-19).
- How to resolve potential disagreements or differences in opinion.
- Who does what tasks for the assignment (e.g. are there specific tasks someone is interested in or wants to do).
- Potential skills of each member that can be used.