Improving R Training for NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region

NOAA Fisheries West Coast region (NOAA WCR) works to maintain healthy fish populations throughout the west coast. With offices in California, Oregon, and Washington, the team at NOAA WCR has a wide range of data needs. 

In the last few years, NOAA WCR has worked to get more team members using R. In past years, they put together internal R trainings. But, in 2024, they wanted to add additional structure to their training. They reached out to R for the Rest of Us about gaining access to course materials and obtaining pedagogical support to improve their training.

Over the course of several months, we worked with the team at NOAA WCR to develop a 6-week training program for their staff. Each week involved accessing R for the Rest of Us course materials, including Fundamentals of R, Going Deeper with R, and Using Git and GitHub with R, and collaborative work with NOAA WCR data. 

By the end of the training, NOAA WCR team members were able to produce technical memorandum using foundational R skills as well as Quarto, improving the efficiency of their workflow with R.