Statistics with R and RStudio

We are exposed to statistical data on a daily basis in the form of opinion polls, economic forecasts, reports on the effect of diet and lifestyle on life expectancy and disease risk, debates over the evidence for climate change, among others. This module introduces statistics and the free software R/RStudio to students with no previous knowledge of mathematics beyond high school level. The module also assesses the uses, misuses and limitations of statistical methods. Topics range from basic descriptive statistics to more advanced topics including multivariate analysis, logistic regression, and model optimisation. As additional skills, students are introduced to professional-standard plotting resources, basic programming functions in R, and the user-friendly RStudio interface.

Successful completion of this module meets the pre-requisite for the Session Two module Data Science and Big Data Analytics.

Upon successful completion of this module, students will:

• Be able to run statistical analyses ranging from simple descriptive statistics to logistic regression models
• Have acquired in-depth knowledge of R software and its RStudio interface
• Be able to evaluate the meaning, uses and limitations of statistical techniques
• Have produced publication-standard statistical plots
• Exhibit basic knowledge of R programming functions