How to use these tutorials:

Download R and RStudio (free desktop version). See the "Getting started with R and RStudio" video below to help get going.

Download data and script files to go with all the tutorials from my github repo

The remaining tutorials and videos are set up to gradually increase your knowledge, while also giving you a chance to practice the basics you learned in previous lessons. The numbered tutorials all have script files with them where most of the code is already written for you, plus spots where you will add some of your own code. Midway through are a series of DIY lessons that come with instructions but you will have to create a project, a script file and write all the code yourself. There is a separate file with the answers that you can check when you're done. (Don't cheat!)

For the Tidycensus class, you will need to get a Census API key from here.

Not all the tutorials have matching videos.

Use the how-to videos to troubleshoot specific things, like importing or using dplyr or joining tables.

4) Death data analysis with Tidyverse: This is a continuation of the previous exercise, but this time using more complex data from the Minnesota death certificates database. Brief introduction to making plots with ggplot2. Use the link at the top of the page to download the data and script from my github repo.

DIY/ Police Shootings exercise: Download the files from the github repo and follow the instructions. This is designed for you to practice launching a project, creating a script file and getting it all up and running on your own. Then refer to the answer file to check your work.

5) Cleaning data: This walks you through some basic cleanup, recoding and rearranging techniques such as pivot_wider and pivot_longer. Use the link at the top of the page to download the data and script from my github repo.

DIY/ Salaries exercise: Download the files from the github repo and follow the instructions. This is designed for you to practice launching a project, creating a script file and getting it all up and running on your own. Then refer to the answer file to check your work.

6) Importing, joining and appending data: This focuses on how to import csv and Excel files, as well as joining and appending data, but also offers additional practice in some data recoding, a basic plot and basic analysis. Use the link at the top of the page to download the data and script from my github repo.

DIY/ student diversity exercise: Download the files from the github repo and follow the instructions. This includes practice joining data and adding some new variables. This includes an answer file to check your work.

9) Using RMarkdown

This tutorial shows you how to write your code in an RMarkdown file and then "knit" it into a pretty HTML page (with the option of hiding your code). This is a great way to make a beautiful presentation of your findings to share with others. It also shows you some other formatting tools such as the formattable package and the DT package for making a searchable, sortable table. Use the link at the top of the page to download the data and script from my github repo.

10) COVID exercise

This is a way to put many of your new skills to practice on a full data analysis. It also shows you how to download data from a live URL (in this case, the New York Times COVID cases and deaths data by county). Use the link at the top of the page to download the data and script from my github repo.

11) Building permits exercise

This series of 3 videos walks you through an analysis of building permit data. You'll get to practice importing, basic analysis, data cleaning and data visualization with ggplot. It also includes detailed instructions for using pivot_wider and pivot_longer.

Use the link at the top of the page to download the data and script from my github repo.