FAQ

This course is pretty complicated. There’s a lot asked of you and not a lot of time to do it in. As such, it’s easy to gloss over some details. Here is a collection of Frequently Asked Questions to help when you feel like you’re just not quite getting something.

This FAQ is not a substitute for reading the syllabus closely and in its entirety. This is just here for clarification.

General

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I clicked on a reading item but I’m being asked to request permission. What gives?

Some of the consumables are housed in Google Drive and require you to log in with your University NetID. They are set to be viewable by anyone at the university but not publicly or by personal Gmail accounts. Make sure you’re logged into your UA account and not with your personal Gmail. I always suggest having a separate browser profile that’s just for school. Makes these kinds of things much, much easier.

Is attendance required?

Not required, no. That said, it’s a virtual certainty that if you neither a) come to the live class sessions that are held, nor b) watch the recording later, you will be missing absolutely vital information and your grade will suffer. If you come to class you will have a vastly superior experience. Besides that, at least watching the recording is required!

I missed a deadline. Can I still submit the assignment?

Yes. But you may not get full credit

I forgot to submit something a few weeks ago. Can I submit it now?

Still Yes. But you may not get full credit

Is there a particular way I should name my files I submit?

Yes, there is! Generally speaking, your files (and this should be helpful in other classes, too) should be labeled as such: MATH_101_Assignment_LastnameFI.pdf, where MATH is the course code, 101 is the course number, Lastname is your last name, and Assignment is the title of the assignment (and pdf is whatever file extension you’re required to submit; this could also be HTML). This helps you keep the files organized and it helps your instructor know, just by looking at the filename, exactly what it is. So, if I were submitting Activity A, I’d call the file APCV_302_ActivityA_StraightR.pdf. You’ll notice this is built into the Posit Cloud templates!

So, this whole grading declaration thing… you really won’t grade unless it’s there?

I really won’t. In fact, I can’t. The grading declaration serves as both a verification for you to make sure you’ve got everything required in the submission and as a means of critical self-reflection. I don’t just want you to show me what you’ve done; I want you to tell me how you did it. No declaration? No grade. Remember: you can’t even submit the assignment until the declaration quiz is done! (And don’t worry, we’ll go over it in class.)

I see you’re set to Online in Teams. Are you really online?

Probably! Only one way to check!

I missed class. Where’s the recording?

Recordings via Teams will show up automatically in the #meetings channel after class is over. I will pin each weekly recording link to the channel for easy access.

How do you make these websites?

I use RStudio (yes, the class site is made entirley using the same software you’re using in the class, itself) to create a Quarto website. This is hosted via GitHub Pages. It’s plain text, super simple to use, and it lets me use R code right in the site, like this:

```{r}
#| label: example
#| message: false
#| warning: false
# example from https://www.r-graph-gallery.com/277-marginal-histogram-for-ggplot2.html
# load the necessary libraries
library(ggplot2)
library(ggExtra)

# create classic plot :
p <- ggplot(mtcars, aes(x=wt, y=mpg, color=cyl, size=cyl)) +
      geom_point() +
      theme(legend.position="none")
 
# add marginal histogram
p1 <- ggMarginal(p, type="histogram")
```

```{r}
#| label: examplepart2
# Show the graph!
p1
```

After that, it’s a lot of trial and error! It’s also how I do the calculations for all the effort and reading times.

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Class Specific

So we’re learning R?

To the extent that it helps us reach our goals in terms of understanding the statistics and running the tests, yes. You’re free to explore R, Quarto, and the near endless variety of packages and applications of the software you like. In some assignments I will require you submit your R code in addition to the final product. This will be apparent in each assignment.

What is Posit Cloud?

Posit Cloud is essentially RStudio but… in the cloud. (Imagine that, right? Though, it can be a tad confusing, since the software is called RStudio and the company is called Posit, but the software in the cloud is Posit Cloud.) Instead of having the RStudio software installed on your computer and being confined by your hardware and permissions, everything is done via your browser. You should have no issues with creating PDFs, libraries that don’t work, and so on. You can read more about Posit Cloud and how we’re using it on the Posit Cloud info page.

We’re using GitHub for this?

Kind of, yeah! If you’re not familiar with GitHub, you can read a brief guide to getting up and running on the same Cloud info page. We’re using GitHub to sign into Posit Cloud but, since the files live within Posit Cloud, we won’t be using GitHub for those assignments (ie, you’re not initializing or forking any repositories). That said, it’s good to get the Pro account now and get that out of the way! Also, you’re welcome to use GitHub for your assignments as versioning practice.

I know (insert coding language here). Can I use that, instead?

RStudio is flexible in terms of what code you run with it (you can include Python, for example) but for the purposes of this class, no, you’ll need to be writing in R. It’s pretty easy to pick up if you’re familiar with other languages and, really, rather easy even if you’re a coding novice.

What’s the policy on using generative AI like Copilot or ChatGPT?

Great question. Insofar as you are using those tools to assist in your learning and not replacing your work with their outputs, it’s acceptable. You absolutely are required to state in every occasion if you used a generative AI. Basically: if you used it, say so, and to what extent. The full policy on AI is in the syllabus.

So, how do the Teams channels work, again?

As you can see in the menu on the left, this class is broken down into modules that organize multiple weeks’ worth of content. The Teams channels are organized to support your experience throughout:

General - the general channel for non-module-specific content, general question, so on
activities - for all things related to activities A-E
final - for all things related to the final project
meetings - our weekly live class meetings will pop up in this channel, as will the recording links
r-code - for everything R-related like software troubleshooting, code snippets, debugging, et cetera
social - other than the introduction you share, for chat unrelated to class; is your band playing somewhere this weekend? Tell us here!