Excellent class to learn R and basic data science
Spring 2025Overall Rating (5 / 5): ★★★★★
Professor Rating (5 / 5): ★★★★★
Lecture Rating (5 / 5): ★★★★★
Difficulty (2.1 / 5):
Workload: 6 hours/week
Pros: 1. Engaging instructor videos. Sometimes drops by Ed Discussion, although TAs are primarily in charge of that (TAs are engaging too). 2. Good intro to R and the R ecosystem. Updated content. 3. Excellent overview of basic data science principles as well Cons: 1. May not be the best course for you if you are a veteran practitioner in data science already. May feel like undergrad level. 2. Likewise, if you took Data Viz, and then take this one too, you may not necessarily be maximizing the benefits out of your MSDS program. 3. Detailed Review: Refer to list of pros and cons. In addition, Prof. Peng has a good textbook related to the field and course, though it's not necessarily needed for the entire course. The material is designed around the types of analysis and questions you can answer with data science. Afterwards, tasks like data viz, data wrangling are also covered (can be somewhat redundant with the data viz course). Workload is reasonable and straightforward, although at least 2 out of 4 projects may take a bit more time. In addition, there's also pretty up-to-date in terms of the R ecosystem, teaching Quarto and making you use it, instead of just R markdown, for example.