Day 0 Before the start of the course

These are optional lectures to introduce topics that may not be familiar to some students. If you are unfamiliar or a novice with R or the Unix/Linux command line then please go through these lessons prior to the start of the Workshop. R and the command line will be used during the practical sessions (but mostly R). There is no need to go through the tutorials for familiar topics.

Introduction to R
Presented by Elizabeth Prom-Wormley

If you are not familiar with R, then you should go through these or other introductions before starting the Workshop course.

The first video explains how to download and install R and RStudio. This step is not necessary for the Workshop, because during the course you will use the Workshop's RStudio installed in the Workshop cloud, however you will need to install R on your own computer for use after the course. Participants are welcome to use the Workshop's RStudio to follow these tutorials by using your Workshop credentials to login at .

These videos refer to several sample scripts. The scripts are installed on the Workshop cluster in /faculty/elizabeth/2021. If you do not have access to the Workshop cluster, then the files can be downloaded from the .

If you are familiar with R, but have never used it with twin data, then the video will be useful.

A Very Brief Introduction to R practical exercises
Presented by Matthew Keller

This is taken from the first lecture of an "Using R" course, and along with the homework files can be used as a self paced introductory tutorial.

The slides are available as a PDF file.

Thumbnail for the slideshow

The homework files are available in two places:

  • If you are a Workshop student, and are using RStudio in the Workshop computing cloud to work through the tutorials, then the files can be found in /faculty/matt/R_Introduction
  • If you are not a Workshop student, or want to run the tutorials outside of the Workshop computing cloud, then the files can be downloaded from the .

There are five homework files, and are all arranged so that (for example) contains detailed explanations, and brief assignments; contains the answers to the assignments.

RStudio thumbnail