Universität Wien

300197 VU Introduction to R for Anthropologists (2021S)

3.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 30 - Biologie
Continuous assessment of course work
REMOTE
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 30 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

  • Thursday 04.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital (Kickoff Class)
  • Thursday 11.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 18.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 25.03. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 15.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 22.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 29.04. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 06.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 20.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 27.05. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 10.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 17.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital
  • Thursday 24.06. 10:00 - 12:00 Digital

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Aims: The aim of this course is to introduce students to the programming language R used in various areas of biological anthropology, such as DNA analysis or geometric morphometrics, without the requirement of previous knowledge of programming languages. The student needs to be comfortable with text file handling and computer software in general. At the end of the course the student is expected to be able to use R to handle biological data and transform it into graphical outputs.

Contents: The course will be taught in English and will start with a general introduction to the R programming language and its relevance, followed by the topics of data manipulation, statistical analysis, data plotting, functions, optimization, and others. A non-binding list of topics to be presented is shown below:
- Variables and operators
- Data types
- Loops, statements and logic
- Functions and packages
- Input, output, and file management
- Data plotting and graphical output
- Statistic tests
- Speed and optimization

Method of the course: Video lectures will be uploaded on Tuesday mornings (no online presence required from part of the student). Part of a monthly assignment is given at the end of that lecture video, where the student must apply the taught knowledge in more thorough and creative pieces of code. The students must work on these assignment parts until Thursday, where from 10-12am there will be a weekly online troubleshooting session that the students must attend. The teachers are available through email to answer any questions. Independent work and experimentation is therefore stimulated, which, as for any other spoken language, is a crucial part of the learning process.

Assessment and permitted materials

After each lecture, part of a monthly assignment is given where the student must apply the taught knowledge in more thorough and creative pieces of code. A final exam will take place during the last lecture of the semester, where the student will need to apply all knowledge acquired in the course to handle and interpret data, and produce graphical outputs. Since the students may bring or access any materials during the practical lectures and the final exam to help them complete their tasks, such as web search or discussion with colleagues (the latter except during the final exam), special attention will be paid to plagiarism of other people’s code pieces.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

This is a programming language module focused in R, therefore the students will need to be comfortable with computer software, file handling, and have a basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel.

Assignments and the final exam are weighted as 55% and 45%, respectively. A minimum final normalized score of 50% is required to complete the course.

Examination topics

Continuous assessment of the taught topics.

Reading list

Association in the course directory

BAN 5

Last modified: Fr 12.05.2023 00:23