
Learn what data science is and how it is used by organizations large and small

Learn how to use R to transform, format, and clean gigabytes of data in seconds

Create expressive visualizations with R combining many variables in detailed charts
Estimated Course Duration: | 1 hour 10 min |
Syllabus: Introduction to R and Visualization
This course teaches students a new skill set in under 3 hours of instructional video. It’s designed for individuals without a math or programming background and walks them step-by-step through basic data analysis techniques and visualization skills.
By the end of this course, students will be able to:
- Think about data and manipulate it
- Code and format data in R
- Create dynamic and appealing visualizations with R
Assessment:
- Concept reviews: these are comprised of short five question quizzes that cover the most important concepts and ideas in each lesson. They encourage holistic understanding and are multi-faceted ques=on types (i.e. drag and drop, fill-in-the-blanks, matching, etc).
- Exercises: these are additional videos that cover the coding functions in the instructional video in more depth. They are project-based and include coding templates for students to strengthen their skills outside of the course.
Materials provided:
- Accompanying PDFs to use as reference materials
- R code templates from the instructional videos and exercises
- Data sets used in the instructional videos and exercises
Course Outline
1. Getting started with R (6 min) – Free trial!
Installing R and RStudio
Introduction to RStudio
2. Overview of data science and R (31 min) – Free trial!
What is data science?
A data scientist’s approach
Introduction to R
Getting started in R
3. Working with data in R (37 min)
Understanding data types
Manipulating data
Subsetting data
Summarizing data
4. Basic visualizations (38 min)
Basic plotting in R
Basic plotting in ggplot2
Building a graph
Customizing graphs
Creating a heatmap
5. Advanced visualizations (27 min)
Advanced plotting in ggplot2
Advanced plotting, part 2
3D plotting
6. Visualizing data with the Google API (21 min)
Mapping DC crime
Creating reusable functions
Tips and additional resources
Total instruction time: 2 hrs, 40 min

Dr. Harlan Harris
Harlan Harris is the Director of Data Science at the Education Advisory Board, and the co-founder of the Data Science DC Meetup and Data Community DC, Inc. Dr. Harris has many years in the data science industry and co-authored “Analyzing the Analyzers” through O’Reilly Media.