ASA R beginner bootcamp workshop

Hi there!

This is the welcome page for the 2021 ASA R beginner bootcamp workshop!

This page is intended as the main hub for the workshop, where I will share instructions, links, and resources.

Workshop details

🌎 Salt Palace Convention Center - 250 AB
📆 Sunday, November \(7^{th}\)
đź•ź 9 am to 5 pm

  • Use the East Entrance to the Salt Palace Convention Center on Temple

  • Conference registration opens at 8 am on Sunday, however you do not need to pick up your badge before attending the workshop

  • We will NOT offer beverages/snacks/lunch as part of the workshop

  • There will be water fountain and restrooms nearby

  • There will be multiple breaks throughout the day so you can stretch, grab a snack/coffee/water

  • The coffee kiosk near the exhibit hall is open 8 am - 6 pm, serving breakfast until 10am on Sunday

  • Attendee Wi-Fi network name is ACS2021, password is SLC2021

Please browse the tabs below to explore

  • Before the workshop: getting ready
  • During the workshop: help and agenda
  • After the workshop: resources and network

Before

Before the workshop, you will need to:

  1. Join our Slack workspace
  2. Install R
  3. Install RStudio
  4. Install packages
  5. Download workshop material from GitHub

1. Join our Slack workspace

All communications about the workshop will happen in our Slack workspace.

Slack is an application that is used for teams and projects communication, and can be used both on your browser and phone.

For more information about Slack, check their website.

If you have registered for the workshop, you will receive an invitation to join our Slack workspace by email.

Warning

In case you have not received the invitation, send me an email at lmbastos@ksu.edu with your full name, and I will add you once I confirm you are registered.

Make sure to use our Slack workspace to meet fellow attendees, seek help, and exchange ideas!

2. Install R

Follow this link, and download it for your appropriate operating system (Linux, MacOS, or Windows).

Once downloaded, install R on your laptop.

3. Install RStudio

Once you have already installed R, follow this link, and download RStudio for your appropriate operating system.

If multiple download options appear, select “Free RStudio Desktop”.

Once downloaded, install RStudio on your laptop.

Note

You can run R without RStudio, but you cannot run RStudio without R.

R is the main software, RStudio is an extra software that makes our lives easier when working with R by providing an integrated development environment.

4. Install packages

If you are not familiar with R lingo, you can think of a package as an app on your phone: a package will extend R functionality by making available to you extra software options that do not come pre-installed with R.

We will be using multiple packages that need to be installed, and doing so before the workshop will ensure that no one gets behind.

After installing R and RStudio, follow these steps:

  • Download this R script
  • Double-click the R script (this will open it in RStudio)
  • On the same RStudio window that just opened, install each package at a time by placing your cursor on the first script line and hitting Ctrl + return (Windows) or Command + return (Mac)
  • Some text will start appearing on the console as the packages get installed
  • Keep running each line as described above until you reach the last package installation (script line 14)

To ensure that each package was installed, run the code starting with library("ggplot2"), line by line (from script lines 18 to 29).

If after running the library() function you get an error message like

Error in library(“packagename”) :
there is no package called `packagename

This means the package was not properly installed and you may need help.

5. Download material from GitHub

This will be a live coding workshop, meaning that we will develop the scripts together.

To download the initial partially-filled scripts and the data set, click here and follow the instructions.

At the end of the workshop, I will provide the completed scripts for your reference.

Once you have

  • Joined the Slack workspace
  • Downloaded and installed R
  • Downloaded and installed RStudio
  • Installed needed R packages
  • Downloaded material from GitHub

Then you are ready for the workshop!

Warning

If you run into issues at any of the steps above, let us know, preferably before Sunday, via Slack.

We need to make sure everyone is ready to go at 9 am, we will have very limited time for troubleshooting technical issues during the workshop!

I’m excited to be seeing you all soon!

Leo.

During

In this page, we are covering:

  1. Seeking help prior to Sunday - Slack
  2. Seeking help during workshop - TAs
  3. Agenda

1. Seeking help prior to Sunday - Slack

The workshop will start at 9 am.

I will arrive at the room 30 min earlier to help with any last minute issues.

During the workshop, we will not have much time to troubleshoot technical issues like software and package installation.

Warning

Please use the Slack workspace prior to Sunday to seek help and address any issues you may have.

2. Seeking help during workshop - TAs

During the workshop, we will have 3 to 4 teaching assistants (TAs) that volunteered to help (much appreciated!).

Note

TA team:

  • Adrian Correndo
  • Dwarika Bhattarai
  • Pawan Basnet
  • Pratishtha Poudel

The TA team will assist with individual-specific questions like software not working properly, packages not loading, code not running, etc.

3. Agenda

During the day, we have scheduled 5 content sessions intertwined with 4 break sessions including lunch.

Here’s the agenda with times and activities:

Time Activity
9 to 10:20
(Session 1)		 Welcome
Agenda & housekeeping
R & Rstudio intro
Rstudio projects
Rmarkdown
10:20 to 10:30 Break
10:30 to noon
(Session 2)		 Data wrangling
noon to 1 Lunch break
1 to 2:20
(Session 3)		 EDA
RCBD ANOVA
Model assumptions
Model means
2:20 to 2:30 Break
2:30 to 3:50
(Session 4)		 Pairwise comparison
Pub-ready plot
3:50 to 4 Break (tentative)
4 to 5 pm
(Session 5)		 Iteration (tentative)
Resources
Survey

After

In this page, we are covering:

  1. Post-completion survey
  2. Resources
  3. Slack network

1. Post-completion survey

Once the workshop is finalized, I will share a post-completion Google Forms survey, and ask for your feedback on it.

This will be a quick, anonymous survey, and your answers will be very important to guide improvements in my future R teaching endeavors.

The survey can be found here, thank you for helping me to improve!

2. Resources

3. Slack network

Our Slack workspace has over 40 people, all interested in agronomic statistics programming. What a great network!

Feel free to use our workspace after the workshop to continue communication and collaboration!

  • Have an R question that you just can’t figure out?
  • Have an exciting programming project and are looking for collaborators?
  • Have a position you’re trying to fill that requires agronomic statistical programming knowledge?

Feel free to share any of those and anything else in our workspace!