377_swirl

This is a swirl course for 377. Swirl is a free package for R that helps us learn R, in R. The course that we will use is the R programming course developed for swirl by a number of authors: get more information and view the original course here.

Installing and using

First, make sure that you have the free RStudio IDE installed on your computer. This part is pretty self explanatory, but we'll go over it in class. Then, follow these steps:

1. To install this course, first make sure that you have the latest version of the swirl package installed. In the R console, type:

install.packages("swirl")

You will only need to do this once.

2. Then, load the swirl package by entering:

library(swirl)

You will need to do this every time you start a new R session and intend to use the swirl package.

3. Install this course from GitHub using swirl by typing:

install_course_github("ikebf", "377_swirl")

into your R console (you only have to do this once).

4. To access the course and begin a lesson, type

swirl()

R will prompt you to enter your name by asking What should I call you?. Please enter your last name and first initial like this: lohi.

5. Follow the swirl prompts to navigate to the 377 swirl course. You can select your lesson from the provided menu.

Submitting results

Part of the grade for our class will be assessed based on the completion of the swirl lessons. To submit your results at the completion of a lesson, follow these easy steps:

1. Once you reach the last question of the lesson, R will ask you if you want to submit a log of the lesson to Google Forms. Select Yes (this may be option 1 or 2).
2. Your internet browser should open up to a Google form. Click submit---and you're done!

Uninstalling and reinstalling

Sometimes, I may have to make an edit to the swirl course---sorry in advance! In that case, to get the latest version of the course, you can uninstall it and reinstall it from GitHub:

library(swirl)
uninstall_course("377_swirl")
install_course_github("ikebf", "377_swirl")