[R] R training courses

[Luís Torgo]

On Thursday 02 February 2006 18:05, Walker, Russell wrote:
> I am interested in learning about people's experience with R training or
> courses. What worked, what didn't? What do you recommend?
In the last few years I have been doing several short (around 10 hours) 
courses on Data Mining using R. I've prepared them around the same ideas that 
guide the unfinished book I'm writing on the same topic 
(http://www.liacc.up.pt/~ltorgo/DataMiningWithR/) , that is learning by case 
studies. I think that for a tool like R, with a learning curve that people 
tend to think as kind of steep, and for short courses, the hands on approach 
is a good means to motivate students. This obviously requires properly 
equipped classrooms but that is not difficult to get nowadays, particularly 
when using free software as R. The feedback I got from these courses was 
quite good and several students came back to me later on with further 
questions which is a good indication that they continued their involvement 
with R. 

These courses were usually organized by proving short, non-demanding 
introductions to the key concepts, and then followed by longer hands on 
sessions where students try by themselves with real case studies. Because of 
this I tend to prefer a short number of students (15-25) to increase the 
interaction during the hands on parts. Still, I gave this course at last year 
ACAI summer school (http://www.ktschool.org/) and eventhough there where 
about 50 students the course was successful.

Regarding topics I tend to start by simple case studies where I can illustrate 
basic concepts of data analysis using R together with the language itself, 
and then select larger cases studies depending on the interests of the 
audience.

Luis 

-- 
Luis Torgo
    FEP/LIACC, University of Porto   Phone : (+351) 22 339 20 93
    Machine Learning Group           Fax   : (+351) 22 339 20 99
    R. de Ceuta, 118, 6o             email : ltorgo at liacc.up.pt
    4050-190 PORTO - PORTUGAL        WWW   : http://www.liacc.up.pt/~ltorgo