Course Description

In this introductory course, you will learn about R and its ecosystem. You will learn about the evolution of R, its current capabilities & the organizations working for the development of R. You will be introduced to RStudio, a very popular IDE, the R community, and Tidyverse, a collection of R packages designed for data science.

What will I learn?

After completing this course, you should be able to:

  • Install and navigate R and RStudio 
  • Know how and from where to get help when you get stuck in R
  • Install, load, update and remove R packages
  • create simple variables
  • use different data types

Why learn R?

With over 2 million users worldwide R is rapidly becoming the leading programming language in statistics and data science. Every year, the number of R users grows by 40% and an increasing number of organizations are using it in their day-to-day activities. Leverage the power of R by completing this free R online course today!

Self Paced Online Courses


Our online self paced courses are designed to allow participants to learn at their convenience. Learning outcomes are clearly defined and enhanced by the use of byte sized videos, PPTs, assignments, quizzes, suggested reading and case studies. Participants can take advantage of the discussion forum to discuss with their peers and the instructors to enhance their learning experience.


Course Features


Course Requirements

  • Access to a computer with an internet connection

  • Ability and permissions to download files & install software

  • Basic knowledge of English (Course is delivered in English language)


Who is this course for?


We expect the students to have some prior experience with R and RStudio. If you have never used R before, our Introduction to R course will help you prepare for this course.

If I do not meet the requirements to enroll, what should I do?

We have a number of free courses that can help you prepare including:

  • Introduction to R

  • Import Data into R

  • Data Wrangling with dplyr


How will I execute the practical's?


You will use RStudio for the practical's. All the R scripts used in the examples, assignments and case study are available for download from the Learning Management System. For those of you who face issues installing RStudio on your system, we have created a RStudio cloud project where you can practice without installing any software or downloading files.

Do I need to apply? What are the admission criteria?

No. This course is open to enrolment for all and accepts students regardless of experience and background.

Course curriculum

  • 1

    Introduction

    • Brief History of R

    • R Ecosystem

    • Slides
  • 2

    Install R & RStudio

    • Learn to install R

    • Learn to install RStudio
  • 3

    Quick Tour of RStudio IDE

    • RStudio Tour - Part 1

    • RStudio Tour - Part 2

    • RStudio Cloud
  • 4

    Introduction to Variables

    • What is a variable?

    • Learn to create variables in R

    • Learn to use variables in R

    • Advantages of using variables

    • Variable components & naming conventions

    • Slides

    • R Script

    • Blog Post
  • 5

    Data Types in R

    • Learn the different data types in R

    • Learn to check data type

    • Learn to convert from one data type to another

    • Slides

    • R Script

    • Blog Post
  • 6

    Getting Help in R

    • Built in help system and online resources

    • Online resources

    • Getting help for a topic or function

    • Using built in demo and examples

    • Creating reproducible examples

    • Slides

    • R Script

    • Blog Post
  • 7

    R Packages

    • Learn to install and load R packages

    • Learn to update installed packages

    • Slides

    • R Script

    • Blog Post
  • 8

    Further Readings

    • Blog Posts

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