R Workshop Series @ WVU Libraries

Overview

West Virginia University (WVU) Libraries present a series of hands-on workshops aimed at helping graduate students and faculty develop programming skills using R. These workshops cater to absolute beginners or those looking for a refresher in R programming, data cleaning, and data visualization.

Our goal is to provide participants with a practical foundation in R, enabling them to manage, analyze, and visualize data effectively in their academic or professional projects.

Hosts

• Yiheng Wu - Research Engagement Librarian
  Yiheng offers data services and analytics consultation at WVU Libraries.

• Jeff Werst - Student Success Librarian
  Jeff focuses on student success and science-based instructional support at WVU Libraries.

Workshop Series

Part 1: First Steps with R and RStudio

Participants will be introduced to:

• Key R functions and syntax.
• How to load, enter, and manage data within R.
• Navigating RStudio’s interface and core components.

Part 2: Data Cleaning and Analysis with R and RStudio

Participants will be introduced to:

• Data cleaning methods using Base R and the Tidyverse package.
• Performing data analysis using essential functions to manipulate and summarize data.

Part 3: Data Visualization and Presentation with R and RStudio

Participants will be introduced to:

• Create informative visualizations using the ggplot2 package.
• Present data and findings in professional reports using RMarkdown.

Learning Objectives

By the end of the workshop series, participants will be able to:

1. Understand the use cases for R and compare it with alternative programming languages.
2. Navigate and utilize the RStudio environment, including the console, editor, and help tools.
3. Write and run basic R scripts and understand R syntax (operators, functions, packages, data types, and structures).
4. Import, clean, and transform datasets using R.
5. Visualize and present data insights with graphs and reports.

Upcoming Workshops

• View the WVU Libraries' upcoming workshops: WVU Research Commons Calendar
• Data services workshops: WVU Data Services Calendar

Software Requirements

Before attending the workshops, participants must install the following software:

1. R - The R programming language.
2. RStudio - The integrated development environment for R. Optionally: GitHub Desktop - A graphical interface for managing Git and GitHub repositories.

Course Materials

All workshop lesson plans, slides, and supplemental materials are available in the Presentation_files folder of this repository.

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For further assistance or questions, please reach out to Yiheng Wu or Jeff Werst via the links provided above.