Last week I gave a short presentation to a math class on advanced graphing in R with ggplot2. Click here to view the updated presentation: http://goo.gl/QNQjuV
I think the session went well overall. The students are masters and PhD candidates who are interested in learning more statistics and applied math. Their course textbook uses R for basic graphing and the professor thought it would be nice to introduce more advanced graphing. While I don’t know much about multilinear models, I do know a thing or two about advanced graphing in R.
One hitch: I’ve never taught R or ggplot2 before. I use it in my work at the library, but teaching it is a whole other animal. I spent a week pondering the best way to show how ggplot2 is superior to base graphics. Other constraints included time (50 minute class) and students bringing their own installations. Ultimately, I decided the best way is to show comparisons and then allow time for them to try it for themselves.
Post-session things I learned, including feedback received:
- Prepare a structured exercise. I let them loose and they needed more direction so the updated presentation has a couple slides.
- Post the slides ahead of time. This was actually not very easy to do since WP doesn’t host HTML files and Dropbox makes you download the file…
- Presentation only took about 20 minutes. So for future presentations, I threw in a couple more slides after the Exercise slide about even more advanced graphing.
This presentation would probably fit pretty well in a lunchtime tech series, much like Eccles Express from a few years ago. I can see making a series of short presentations around using R. Maybe a breakdown like this?
- Setting Up to Learn R
- Basics of Using R (this one might need to be split into two parts)
- Basic Graphing in R
- Advanced Graphing in R
- Writing in R Markdown
Shirley Zhao 