Dear R-Users,
given you have been teaching R to students (grad level, mainly social
science background, no previous programming experience, 80% know SPSS),
what are your experiences concerning the style of teaching? Do you
prefer to stand in front of the class like in "normal" lectures and
you
show them slides? Or do you you explain some concept (for example things
like mydata[order(var1, var2),]) and show it directly on the computer
via beamer/projector and also the students have to enter it on the
computers in front of them.
Any experiences you can share are highly appreciated.
Thanks,
Roland
+++++
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Hi
the only way I have ever made this work is to have an R
session projected on the screen, and each student to
have their own machine on which they can try out
what I type.
You can then set the students questions to force them
to play around with R syntax. A good one is to put
up a graph that you have prepared beforehand, and
say "reproduce this".
Just be careful with ad-hoc playing around, in a live public
session. I got badly bitten by this:
f <- function(x){(x*x -1) - (x-1)*(x+1) }
f(100000:100010)
[everything behaving as documented, but embarrassingly
unexpected!]
best
Robin
On 19 Sep 2005, at 14:25, Rau, Roland wrote:
> Dear R-Users,
>
> given you have been teaching R to students (grad level, mainly social
> science background, no previous programming experience, 80% know
> SPSS),
> what are your experiences concerning the style of teaching? Do you
> prefer to stand in front of the class like in "normal" lectures
and
> you
> show them slides? Or do you you explain some concept (for example
> things
> like mydata[order(var1, var2),]) and show it directly on the computer
> via beamer/projector and also the students have to enter it on the
> computers in front of them.
>
> Any experiences you can share are highly appreciated.
>
> Thanks,
> Roland
>
> +++++
> This mail has been sent through the MPI for Demographic Rese...
> {{dropped}}
>
> ______________________________________________
> R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list
> https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help
> PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-
> guide.html
>
--
Robin Hankin
Uncertainty Analyst
National Oceanography Centre, Southampton
European Way, Southampton SO14 3ZH, UK
tel 023-8059-7743
Rau, Roland wrote:> Dear R-Users, > > given you have been teaching R to students (grad level, mainly social > science background, no previous programming experience, 80% know SPSS), > what are your experiences concerning the style of teaching? Do you > prefer to stand in front of the class like in "normal" lectures and you > show them slides? Or do you you explain some concept (for example things > like mydata[order(var1, var2),]) and show it directly on the computer > via beamer/projector and also the students have to enter it on the > computers in front of them. > > Any experiences you can share are highly appreciated.I like to teach using a projector and people sitting in front of other machines beeing able to try out some of the nonsense I am telling. Of course, they need more exercises than just the few minutes in between my sentences. I am always noth using slides and showing the examples in R directly. For all other stuff, it is the same as with other courses and lectures. If this is a one-week course, I'd like to propose 1.5 hours course + 1.5 hours exercise in the morning and the same again in the afternoon. If this is a whole-term course, you may be able to let people do homework, but always talk about their "results" and show them hoe to do it in a good fashion. Unfortunately, for courses with lots of poeple (say 90, for the first-years' R course I am teaching) it is impossible that people are sitting in front of a computer for some reasons: not enough machines, no big rooms, and too much noise caused by both machines and people. The really important fact from my point of view: Give people many *exercises* and the *time* to work on these exercises. Expect that people without any programming experience will be much slower than you imagine in your worst nightmares. ;-) Uwe Ligges> Thanks, > Roland > > +++++ > This mail has been sent through the MPI for Demographic Rese...{{dropped}} > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
On 19-Sep-05 Rau, Roland wrote:> Dear R-Users, > > given you have been teaching R to students (grad level, mainly > social science background, no previous programming experience, > 80% know SPSS),what are your experiences concerning the style > of teaching? Do you prefer to stand in front of the class like > in "normal" lectures and you show them slides? Or do you you > explain some concept (for example things like mydata[order(var1, > var2),]) and show it directly on the computer via beamer/projector > and also the students have to enter it on the computers in front > of them. > > Any experiences you can share are highly appreciated. > > Thanks, > RolandI'd like to suggest (perhaps more for discussion than for implementation) thinking of the use of 'xmx' ("X MultipleXer"). See http://www.cs.brown.edu/software/xmx/ This work in X Windows on Unix/Linux. The essence of it is that the software is installed on each of a group of networked computers. One of these is the "master", who starts it up in "Floor" mode and nominates any or all of the others to be in "Floor", "Seat" or "View" mode (terminilogy apparently inspired by what happens at meetings). This causes an W window to appear on all nominated computers, within which is running a virutal X session. Anyone with "Floor" rights can do anything in that session, and it will be mirrored to all others. This includes keyboard input and mouse movements. Anyone in "View" mode an only see what is going on, but cannot make any input. In "Seat" mode, a user can virtually "raise their hand" and be granted "Floor" privileges. Anything anybody does outside the XMX window is private to them, and will not be seen by others, nor have any effect on the XMX session. This software seems not to have undergone further development in its public form for some time (apparently June 1999). I don't know if there have been further developments in a private or proprietary form. Its creator, John Bazik at Brown University, states that "Xmx provides reasonable real-time performance on a local 10 Mb/sec ethernet on 52 UltraSparc-class machines." It might well provide a good vehicle for expository teaching in a class that large, since each student can see on their own screen what the instructor is displaying (and this could include a "slide-show" presentation alongside code files, commands being run in an R window, graphics plots, etc.). However, you would not want a class that size to all be in "Floor" mode! "Seat" mode could be OK, though, since anyone who wants to ask a question can go into "Floor" and then thsy can input things into the XMX session, or even just move their mouse around to indicate what they are talking about -- something which in a normal class could only be done by coming out to the front. I have used it for teaching on a much smaller scale -- tutorial sessions with 1 or 2 others, where everyone can be in "Floor" mode and can make their own spontaneous changes to what's ging on without any bureaucracy. This can include having everyone participate in editing a file of R commands, so that everyone can see what the effect of doing this or that is. I have found it to work well, and to be appreciated by students. This mode could work with more than 1 or 2 students. The main snag with using XMX is that the X display must be the same on all machines. This was a deliberate design implementation, since it cuts down enormously on network traffic. However, it does mean that all machines must have a sufficiently large overlap in X resouces (i.e. as reported by 'xdpyinfo'). The resources don't have to be absolutely identical, but certainly colour-depths must be the same all round, and in my experience you had better have the same display geometry (e.g. 1280x1024), and there are various other things. One way to find out is to start it up nominating all the participating machines at once. If there's a compatible sufficient overlap, it will work. However, in a teaching Lab with all the machines the same, it should be straightforward to get it going. One nice thing about doing things this way is that a student could be running a private R session alongside the public XMX one, and copy&paste from the public one into the private one (or vice versa). They could also be running an editor session to write their own course notes. Anyway, there it is if you hadn't heard of it. Best wishes to all, Ted. -------------------------------------------------------------------- E-Mail: (Ted Harding) <Ted.Harding at nessie.mcc.ac.uk> Fax-to-email: +44 (0)870 094 0861 Date: 19-Sep-05 Time: 18:36:32 ------------------------------ XFMail ------------------------------
Dear Roland, I've taught the use of R to this kind of audience many times. Take a look at <http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Courses/UCLA/index.html> for materials used in such a workshop, and at <http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Teaching-with-R.pdf> for a paper on teaching social statistics with R. As others have suggested, using static slides is not a good idea, and having at least a live display for the presenter is essential. It also helps to have the students sitting at computers and able to try things out for themselves. If this is a workshop devoted to R, I'd strongly recommend this format. On the other hand, if you're teaching R in the context of a more general statistics course, you can cover the basics in a hands-on workshop and then use the LCD projector to introduce new commands, etc., during the course as they're needed. I find that once they've acquired the basics, students are able to work more independently. I hope this helps, John On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 15:25:14 +0200 "Rau, Roland" <Rau at demogr.mpg.de> wrote:> Dear R-Users, > > given you have been teaching R to students (grad level, mainly social > science background, no previous programming experience, 80% know > SPSS), > what are your experiences concerning the style of teaching? Do you > prefer to stand in front of the class like in "normal" lectures and > you > show them slides? Or do you you explain some concept (for example > things > like mydata[order(var1, var2),]) and show it directly on the computer > via beamer/projector and also the students have to enter it on the > computers in front of them. > > Any experiences you can share are highly appreciated. > > Thanks, > Roland > > +++++ > This mail has been sent through the MPI for Demographic > Rese...{{dropped}} > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html-------------------------------- John Fox Department of Sociology McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/
>From the prospective of a student, I highly recommend the hands on approach. I had the best outcomes when I was provided with examples, and then encouraged to make my own modifications in a lab / class environment, with help available. This approach allows students to build the skills required to program independently, without becoming overwhelmed at the start.Murray Murray Pung | Research Analyst AIM Research & HR Consulting PO Box 328, Nth Sydney NSW 2060 P +61 (02) 9956 3951 F +61 (02) 9922 2210 www.aimsurveys.com.au -----Original Message----- From: John Fox [mailto:jfox at mcmaster.ca] Sent: Tuesday, 20 September 2005 4:25 AM To: Rau, Roland Cc: r-help at stat.math.ethz.ch Subject: Re: [R] Teaching R - In front of the computer? Dear Roland, I've taught the use of R to this kind of audience many times. Take a look at <http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Courses/UCLA/index.html> for materials used in such a workshop, and at <http://socserv.socsci.mcmaster.ca/jfox/Teaching-with-R.pdf> for a paper on teaching social statistics with R. As others have suggested, using static slides is not a good idea, and having at least a live display for the presenter is essential. It also helps to have the students sitting at computers and able to try things out for themselves. If this is a workshop devoted to R, I'd strongly recommend this format. On the other hand, if you're teaching R in the context of a more general statistics course, you can cover the basics in a hands-on workshop and then use the LCD projector to introduce new commands, etc., during the course as they're needed. I find that once they've acquired the basics, students are able to work more independently. I hope this helps, John On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 15:25:14 +0200 "Rau, Roland" <Rau at demogr.mpg.de> wrote:> Dear R-Users, > > given you have been teaching R to students (grad level, mainly social > science background, no previous programming experience, 80% know > SPSS), > what are your experiences concerning the style of teaching? Do you > prefer to stand in front of the class like in "normal" lectures and > you > show them slides? Or do you you explain some concept (for example > things > like mydata[order(var1, var2),]) and show it directly on the computer > via beamer/projector and also the students have to enter it on the > computers in front of them. > > Any experiences you can share are highly appreciated. > > Thanks, > Roland > > +++++ > This mail has been sent through the MPI for Demographic > Rese...{{dropped}} > > ______________________________________________ > R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help > PLEASE do read the posting guide! > http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html-------------------------------- John Fox Department of Sociology McMaster University Hamilton, Ontario, Canada http://socserv.mcmaster.ca/jfox/ ______________________________________________ R-help at stat.math.ethz.ch mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide! http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html
Dear all,
thanks for telling me your experiences how you proceed teaching R. I am
currently giving a five week course teaching R to 16 graduate-level students
consisting of 12 sessions ?? 1.5 hours. Two weeks have passed during that course
and I was just questioning myself whether my "style" of teaching in
front of the students with a running R session (+editor) is the best way of
teaching. [1]
But thanks to the replies I got here, I believe this is a better approach than
teaching in front of the class like in a normal lecture without any "live
display" of R.
I especially liked the idea on John Fox Homepage to give code and the students
have to debug it.
Thanks again for all your replies.
Best,
Roland
[1] What I usually do is to describe what we want to do. Occasionally I remind
them of the statistical background on the blackboard. Then I show them how to
translate it into R. They should enter it as well into R. Then, I am explaining
to them all the details how the code works and what one has to keep in mind. I
distribute a script with all the examples and explanations and additional
exercises (which can be easily done thanks to Friedrich Leisch's
Sweave/Stangle/... function).
+++++
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