What Is R Programming? Use Cases and FAQ
January 13, 2025
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Instructors: Roger D. Peng, PhD
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Use R to clean, analyze, and visualize data.
Learn how to ask the right questions, obtain data, and perform reproducible research.
Use GitHub to manage data science projects.
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This Specialization covers foundational data science tools and techniques, including getting, cleaning, and exploring data, programming in R, and conducting reproducible research. Learners who complete this specialization will be prepared to take the Data Science: Statistics and Machine Learning specialization, in which they build a data product using real-world data.
The five courses in this specialization are the very same courses that make up the first half of the Data Science Specialization. This specialization is presented for learners who want to start and complete the foundational part of the curriculum first, before moving onto the more advanced topics in Data Science: Statistics and Machine Learning.
Applied Learning Project
In taking the Data Science: Foundations using R Specialization, learners will complete a project at the ending of each course in this specialization. Projects include, installing tools, programming in R, cleaning data, performing analyses, as well as peer review assignments.
Set up R, R-Studio, Github and other useful tools
Understand the data, problems, and tools that data analysts use
Explain essential study design concepts
Create a Github repository
Understand critical programming language concepts
Configure statistical programming software
Make use of R loop functions and debugging tools
Collect detailed information using R profiler
Understand common data storage systems
Apply data cleaning basics to make data "tidy"
Use R for text and date manipulation
Obtain usable data from the web, APIs, and databases
Understand analytic graphics and the base plotting system in R
Use advanced graphing systems such as the Lattice system
Make graphical displays of very high dimensional data
Apply cluster analysis techniques to locate patterns in data
Organize data analysis to help make it more reproducible
Write up a reproducible data analysis using knitr
Determine the reproducibility of analysis project
Publish reproducible web documents using Markdown
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Time to completion can vary based on your schedule, but most learners are able to complete the Specialization in 3-6 months.
Some programming experience (in any language) is recommended. We also suggest a working knowledge of mathematics up to algebra (neither calculus or linear algebra are required).
Begin by taking The Data Scientist's Toolbox and Introduction to R Programming, in order. The other courses may be taken in any order, and in parallel if desired.
Coursera courses and certificates don't carry university credit, though some universities may choose to accept Specialization Certificates for credit. Check with your institution to learn more.
You’ll have a foundational understanding of the field and be prepared to continue studying data science.
Yes, you can access the course for free via www.coursera.org/jhu. This will allow you to explore the course, watch lectures, and participate in discussions for free. To be eligible to earn a certificate, you must either pay for enrollment or qualify for financial aid.
This course is completely online, so there’s no need to show up to a classroom in person. You can access your lectures, readings and assignments anytime and anywhere via the web or your mobile device.
If you subscribed, you get a 7-day free trial during which you can cancel at no penalty. After that, we don’t give refunds, but you can cancel your subscription at any time. See our full refund policy.
Yes! To get started, click the course card that interests you and enroll. You can enroll and complete the course to earn a shareable certificate, or you can audit it to view the course materials for free. When you subscribe to a course that is part of a Specialization, you’re automatically subscribed to the full Specialization. Visit your learner dashboard to track your progress.
Yes. In select learning programs, you can apply for financial aid or a scholarship if you can’t afford the enrollment fee. If fin aid or scholarship is available for your learning program selection, you’ll find a link to apply on the description page.
When you enroll in the course, you get access to all of the courses in the Specialization, and you earn a certificate when you complete the work. If you only want to read and view the course content, you can audit the course for free. If you cannot afford the fee, you can apply for financial aid.