Almost all the R documentation seems to me to be written for statistician/programmers and is way over the heads of most students. For that reason I made my own materials for my online classes and they are at
http://statland.org/Software_Help/R/Rhome.htm For the teacher, the book by John Verzani gives detailed coverage relevant to the topics in a first course. There is a free, older and shorter version at CRAN last I knew which might be a useful reference for students. I have found these the most readable for beginners though they tend to tell you every possible thing you can do and every way you can do it which can be overwhelming. You might also look at some of the alternative interfaces to R. R Commander is a GUI interface that might make life easier, but last time I tried it the installation was a nightmare taking hours as dependencies of dependencies of dependencies downlaoded. I made (but did not get to test before I retired) a bootable Linux distribution with R and all the depnedencies I wanted preinstalled. I don't know if it is possible to copy an entire Windows R installation to a CD and hand out copies. Does R get entangled with the Windows registry or put files in the Windows directory? It's not that the install is all that bad but I find it way too bad to be a student's first experience with R. It may end with R having 2.99999 strikes against it;-( It's a far cry from most Windows installs. Forwarded message: > From [email protected] Sun Nov 18 21:10:26 2012 > From: Nguyen Chanh Tu <[email protected]> > > Dear all, > I am going to teach Probability and Statistics for engineering students. I > probably use the book "Probability and Statistics for engineeriing and the > sciences" by J. L. Devore. And I am going to use R for the course. > This is the first time for me to try to use R. (Before I just use Excel). > Could you please be so kind to help me for anything concerning to a > beginner, especially: > 1) Which packages should I install with the standard R? > 2) Can I find some where demo files of teaching or script files concerning > to the course. > 3) If there is any help already had in the forum about these starting > steps, please point out to me such that I can read more. > 4) Is there anyone using the same textbook or similar one of mine such that > we can exchange teaching experients on the course. > > Thank you very much in advances. Looking forward to hearing from you. > Sincerely, > Nguyen > > [[alternative HTML version deleted]] > > _______________________________________________ > [email protected] mailing list > https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching > > Sent from my nine-year-old Dell GX-260 running Mepis Linux 8.0 -------> First-time AP Stats. teacher? Help is on the way! See http://courses.ncssm.edu/math/Stat_Inst/Stats2007/Bob%20Hayden/Relief.html _ | | Robert W. Hayden | | 142 Main Street / | Apartment 104 | | Jaffrey, New Hampshire 03452 USA | | email: bob@ the site below / | website: http://statland.org | x / phone: (603) 532-7224 (home) '''''' _______________________________________________ [email protected] mailing list https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-sig-teaching
