A Tutorial in R and RStudio for Beginners
​(online course)

Overview
The statistical package R (www.r-project.org) is a freely available statistical software. R is part of an international collaboration and has become very popular; it is used for data analysis in many application areas and is extensively used in research and academia. In particular, it has flexible facilities for advanced modern statistical modelling and is equally well suited to more elementary statistics and graphics. 
In this hands-on tutorial we access R via RStudio which provides a user-friendly interface to R in an integrated development environment and is very popular among R users.  Participants will be supplied with a R script file containing R code which will be used for the entirety of the tutorial to demonstrate and illustrate the use of R.
The tutorial begins with a general overview of RStudio and the concepts involved in using R, such as object orientation.  It then moves onto importing data from Excel, utilising the extension of R’s capabilities through the installation of third party CRAN packages.  Next the calculation of summary statistics for numerical data are illustrated using functions in the base installation of R, along with the production of some common graphics. The tutorial will finish with a discussion of some sources of errors when using R.
The majority of the tutorial will make use of a small educational dataset and a larger health study example.  
The tutorial will use the freely available RStudio Desktop version on a Windows operating system. Note the R language is not based on using point-and-click mode, but a written command syntax.

Presenters
Sandro Leidi and James Gallagher
​
Delivery Mode
All training is online and will be delivered live between 09:00 and 12:30 (GMT).  The delivery platform is Zoom, which may be freely accessed.  Questions may be asked verbally or using Zoom's chat box.  Note our online courses are delivered by a team of two presenters, meaning at least one presenter is always available to provide additional support.  During presentations the team member who is not speaking can take questions in addition to the presenter.  We also use Zoom meetings rather than webinars to encourage further interaction during an online course.​

Who Should Attend?
Anyone involved in the analysis of data, either on a regular or irregular basis, who wants a practical introduction to R. No previous experience of the R software or RStudio is required.
The tutorial is also suitable for anyone wanting brief refresher training.

How You Will Benefit
You will be able to describe the essential concepts related to using R via RStudio and use R to import data and for basic statistical analysis including graphics.  In particular, you will also be able to:

• Write a script to (a) efficiently reproduce output and (b) have an auditable record of your analysis in your workflow
• Install CRAN packages for specific analyses
• Make effective use of the many resources which are freely available to prepare for a deep dive into the R software applied to your particular area of interest.

 What Do We Cover?

• Introductory concepts of R and the RStudio interface: windows/panes, objects, data frames, working directory, attributes of an object in particular class, functions, R as a calculator, scripts, workspaces and CRAN packages; help system
• Importing data from other applications: CSV, Excel into a data frame; the class of a data column and its importance; factors and their labelling. Missing values
• Exploratory data analysis: summary statistics, statistical graphics for numerical data. Labelling of graphics
• Common errors and remedies.

Software

• The tutorial will be conducted using the free version of RStudio Desktop on a Window operating system.
• Participants must download and install the R Gui and RStudio Desktop applications and install a number of CRAN packages prior to the start of the tutorial.​

Course teaching materials

• There are no formal slides for this tutorial. Presentations will be based around a pre-supplied R script file, containing code to be executed live by both the presenters and participants in parallel

• A pdf file containing the output generated during the course of the tutorial will be supplied for future use along with a small number of ad hoc files such as a reference list.

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Course Dates
11 June 2026

Venue: Online
Duration: 0.5 days
Price: £126

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