By Audra Young

Faculty Mentor: Cartland Berge

Abstract

In the Biostatistics and Research Design (BIOL 260) course offered at UMW, students learn how to use R, a programming language, and its interface, RStudio, to run statistical tests on biological data. For many students in the biological or life sciences, this course is the first time that they learn how to code. When I took BIOL 260, I found R and RStudio very challenging and time-consuming to work with, and I did not have any resources at my disposal besides my professor. The purpose of my capstone project is to provide instructional guides for R and RStudio for future students to use, primarily in video format. The goal of my guides is to present students with a clear understanding of coding with R in the context of BIOL 260 and to help them efficiently navigate the interface of RStudio. The guides will be in a Canvas module that students can access, and my hope is that my capstone project will aid future students in understanding and working with with R and RStudio.