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R in 3 Months
R in 3 Months
Looking for even more? R in 3 Months is a cohort-based program to help you finally learn R.
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With R in 3 Months, you’ll get high-quality instruction that will guide you from R newbie to R expert.
Personalized Feedback
You'll work on your own code every week and get in-depth feedback.
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You'll be on this journey alongside a supportive community that will help you learn and keep you accountable to yourself.
Testimonials
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“Awesome course! It helped me understand the nitty-gritty parts of coding with R that I had struggled with so far. David is an awesome instructor who explains everything in an easily understandable manner. And if you still struggle, there's always the repeat button. :)
“Very easy to understand and a great introduction to R! It even was fun! Really recommend it.
“I've been working with R for several years, but looked at this intro just for the heck of it because I keep hearing about R for the Rest of Us. To my shock, I learned a few new very useful tricks. David is a clear and thoughtful teacher. Don't let the short videos or his calm presence trick you into thinking this is too simplistic. It is easy because David is clear. But he's also gently (subtly) telling you some REALLY important stuff. He's laying down an excellent foundation for your future work with R. Don't skip this. Build your good foundation with David's guidance. I'm so glad I finally decided to give R for the Rest of Us a look; now I need to go look at more of it.
“This is the best R lesson for all beginners. Best Tutor :)
“At first, I thought R was only for stats-minded people and was outside of my wheelhouse as a person who deals more with data extraction, transformation and reporting. However, after going through the R for the Rest of Us courses and learning from David about the vast capabilities of R, I quickly discovered R IS EXACTLY for people like me! Its strength in creating efficient data processing and reporting workflows is beyond amazing, and David – with his deep knowledge and genuine desire to teach and build capacity – is the perfect R guide!
“If an 84-year-old complete coding novice can get something out of this course, anyone can. The ability to ask questions and get answers was especially helpful.
“I loved your teaching skills. I had some doubt before, now most of the things are clear after watching your videos.
“Very easy to work with. loved all the lecture videos. each one making you to want more. The lessons are all easily grasped and understood. Looking forward to the next courses
“I loved it. I absolutely loved it. The notepad can be very disheartening. You know immediately that there will be a lot of coding involved, but once you start the journey, you just want to go on. By the time I got to the Objects and Functions phase, I was saying goodbye to Excel. I also loved the quote about the coder. I confirmed this with my coder friends and they agreed with it 100%. I can now feel confident getting into R and coding without fear. This has been mind-opening. I would definitely recommend this course!
“I was overwhelmed with the prospect of starting to use R, especially given all the many websites and resources available online. This course was exactly what I needed - clear and organized ideas, step-by-step instructions, and the use of real examples and practice strategies. Such a wonderful resource!
Topics Courses
Ready to Up Your R Game?
For when you've got the foundations down and you're ready to learn more.
Consulting
Let Us Handle the R
High-quality data visualization, workflow improvements, and custom packages to enable organizations to communicate more effectively and more efficiently.
Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model Reports
Judi’s House/JAG Institute, a nonprofit in Colorado, provides support regarding childhood bereavement. In 2018, they created the Childhood Bereavement Estimation Model® (CBEM) to estimate rates of children losing a parent or sibling before adulthood. Annual CBEM reports were produced, but racial and ethnic data breakdowns were lacking until 2021. Partnering with R for the Rest of Us, they generated high-quality, easy-to-understand reports on bereavement disparities by race and ethnicity. These national and state-level reports, created using parameterized reporting and RMarkdown, help advance their vision that no child should be alone in grief.
Immunization Agenda 2030 Reports
The World Health Organization's Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030) aims to improve global vaccine access. To better report progress, the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University partnered with R for the Rest of Us in 2023. They produced 72 user-friendly country-level reports in English and French, using parameterized reporting. These reports highlight individual country progress, use less technical language than previous online scorecards, and are in a printable PDF format for review.
Improving R Training for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region
NOAA Fisheries West Coast region (NOAA WCR) aims to maintain healthy fish populations along the west coast, with offices in California, Oregon, and Washington. Recently, they have increased their use of R, arranging internal trainings and seeking additional support in 2024 from R for the Rest of Us. They created a 6-week training program focusing on R fundamentals, advanced R topics, and GitHub integration. By the end, NOAA WCR staff efficiently produced technical memoranda and improved their workflows using R and Quarto.
Blog
Blog
Learn to use the most powerful tool for working with data.
Even if you've never coded before.
How to make heatmaps in ggplot
May 1, 2025
Heatmaps are a common way of representing data. In this blog post, I'll show you how to make your own heatmaps using ggplot. In the process, you'll learn a bit about working with the {sf} package, specifically the st_make_grid() function to make a grid, the st_intersection() function to clip the boundaries of your geography to the grid you create, and st_join() to do spatial joins. This blog post is adapted from a lesson in the Mapping with R course . If you want to learn to make heatmaps...
Use shadows in ggplot to highlight findings
April 24, 2025
In our consulting work, we make a lot of the data visualization for parameterized reporting . It’s something I spoke about in my 2024 Cascadia R Conf talk, How to Make a Thousand Plots Look Good: Data Viz Tips for Parameterized Reporting . One example I gave in this talk came from our work with the Johns Hopkins International Vaccine Access Center and the World Health Organization . In this project, we made reports for the Immunization Agenda 2030 project, which tracks the progress countries...
Create your own custom {ggplot2} theme
April 3, 2025
Creating custom themes in {ggplot2} lets you elevate your data visualizations from standard to standout. Whether you’re aiming for a polished, brand-consistent look for your organization or a unique aesthetic that reflects your personal style, a custom theme function makes it easy to apply your design to all figures with a single line of code. In this tutorial, we’ll cover: the essentials of the powerful ggplot2::theme() function, including how to adjust fonts, colors, sizing, and spacing;...