Hello all, I am going to be running a small statistics workshop using R sometime in November. I am restricted to R because of the specific libraries I will be using - a good thing in my book - however the attendees are unfamiliar with R. I plan on giving as little R information as possible - just what is absolute necessary to run the statistics (the workshop is short, no time to spend hours teaching R). Has anyone done anything like this? Are there any public powerpoint/pdfs/etc. available for this type of application? Any advice / what works / what doesn't work is appreciated for those that have tried this before me. Sincerely, -Michael -- Michael A. Nestrud Cornell U. Sensory Science PhD Student mike at ataraxis.org "All that you taste... all that you eat."
On Wed, Aug 26, 2009 at 2:08 PM, Michael Nestrud<mike at ataraxis.org> wrote:> Hello all, > > I am going to be running a small statistics workshop using R sometime > in November. ?I am restricted to R because of the specific libraries I > will be using - a good thing in my book - however the attendees are > unfamiliar with R. ?I plan on giving as little R information as > possible - just what is absolute necessary to run the statistics (the > workshop is short, no time to spend hours teaching R). ?Has anyone > done anything like this? ?Are there any public powerpoint/pdfs/etc. > available for this type of application? > > Any advice / what works / what doesn't work is appreciated for those > that have tried this before me. >You could try my 'R in one page' document (which will be two pages if you use a non-double-sided printer). Side 1 is a very simple introduction, and side 2 has some more examples for people to cut and paste. OpenOffice source and PDF here: http://www.maths.lancs.ac.uk/~rowlings/R/Simple/ Feel free to take these and edit to your needs. There's more user-contributed docs here: http://cran.r-project.org/other-docs.html although a 360 page PDF called "An Introduction to R" is probably a bit verbose for your needs. Barry
Hello On 8/26/09, Michael Nestrud <mike at ataraxis.org> wrote:> Any advice / what works / what doesn't work is appreciated for those > that have tried this before me. >It could prove helpful to forward similar questions to r-sig-teaching. Also, there was a recent discussion on the topic [1]. Liviu [1] https://stat.ethz.ch/pipermail/r-sig-teaching/2009q2/000157.html
> Hello all, > > I am going to be running a small statistics workshop using R sometime > in November. I am restricted to R because of the specific libraries I > will be using - a good thing in my book - however the attendees are > unfamiliar with R. I plan on giving as little R information as > possible - just what is absolute necessary to run the statistics (the > workshop is short, no time to spend hours teaching R). Has anyone > done anything like this? Are there any public powerpoint/pdfs/etc. > available for this type of application? > > Any advice / what works / what doesn't work is appreciated for those > that have tried this before me.R can be very intimidating to an audience that has very little experience with command line interfaces. Unlike a menu driven system there are no "reminder clues", and it takes a little time to learn how to find help productively if you haven't lived in a command line world before. If your goal is to focus on the "task at hand", my recommendation is to prepare a short 1-2 page handout that summarizes 1) how to get datasets from a standard format into a usable form for you application; 2) how to do each of the manipulations you will talk about; and 3) how to print/save the output (graphical and data) that you produce. An optional 4th section, if appropriate, might summarize how to learn more if they pursue the application on their own (i.e., use of appropriate help facilities). Your audience can then focus on the big picture of what you are talking about with a security blanket of being able to reproduce it later just as if they had a menu to help remind them of what you said. It may still be a little bit of an up hill battle with an inexperienced audience.> > Sincerely, > > -Michael > > -- > Michael A. Nestrud > Cornell U. Sensory Science PhD Student > mike at ataraxis.org > "All that you taste... all that you eat." > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at r-project.org mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html > and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code. >
I'd suggest looking at Rcmdr by John Fox (http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Misc/Rcmdr/). I use it to introduce anthropology students to R for statistical analyses. It is a graphical user interface that lets students quickly begin using R to run statistical analyses. It includes a command window so you can access functions that are not included in the menu structure. Think of it as training wheels (and more) for beginners. ---------------------------------------------- David L Carlson Associate Professor of Anthropology Texas A&M University College Station, TX 77843-4352 [[alternative HTML version deleted]]