Technology

To use the course tools, you will need to have access to:

• A laptop or tablet device.
• A modern web browser. Google Chrome or Microsoft Edge are preferred, though Mozilla Firefox should also work.
• Reliable access to high-speed internet.
• Use a webcam during Blackboard meetings. In order to increase active participation and engagement in this class, students are expected to turn on their webcam during Blackboard meetings. There will be times where you Students that do not wish to be on camera or are unable to use a camera (e.g., due to technical difficulty or lack of access to a device with a camera) should communicate with their instructor.

If you have any issue with accessing the above for whatever reason, let me know as soon as possible. I may know of resources that can help you for your particular case.

Additionally, we will use Blackboard and R via RStudio.

Blackboard

All assignments, documents, and grades will be posted on the Blackboard course site. You will also use this for submitting assignments.

Course Calendar

A Google Calendar with all due dates and other important time-sensitive information will be available on Blackboard. This calendar will be kept up-to-date to the best of my ability. If you notice any conflicts in times or dates, please let me know so I can correct them.

R/R Studio

Modern statistics and data science uses tools to analyze datasets that may contain millions of observations and thousands of variables. To do even the simplest calculations by hand (e.g., the sum) is impractical. Therefore, to learn statistics, you must learn the basics of a statistical software program. In this section of STA 215, we will use the statistical programming language R to automate calculations and create graphs. I will not ask you to do anything that we have not seen an example of and I will provide you with a document on Blackboard that includes instructions on how to use R for the tasks that we perform. You will also use R or interpret output from R on activities, Applications, Exercises, and Projects.

We will access R/RStudio through GVSU’s RStudio Server. Directions for how to log in to this server will be provided in an early activity. R and RStudio are freely available applications. Whlie you can download them onto your personal machine, I encourage you to use the cloud-based environment that we will cover in class.