Introduction to R: Part II – Educational resources for teaching Open Research to novices

Introduction to R: Part II

---
title: "Introduction to R: Part II"
---

> Something nice here

[Click here to see the materials in full screen](r-part-II-slides.qmd)

```{=html}
<iframe class="slide-deck" src="r-part-II-slides.html" height="420" width="747" style="border: 1px solid #2e3846;"></iframe>
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## About these materials

::: {.callout-warning collapse="true"}
## Citation statement
Please cite these materials as: Rieger, D., Waterfield, E., Sanchez-Steinhagen, C. L., Middleton, S., & Von Grebmer Zu Wolfsthurn, S. (2026). *Introduction to R: Part II* [Quarto slides]. [LMU Open Science Center](https://www.osc.lmu.de/). [https://lmu-osc.github.io/teaching-material-for-novices/open-research-tools/r-part-II](https://lmu-osc.github.io/teaching-material-for-novices/open-research-tools/r-part-II)
:::

**Welcome!** This workshop is intended to provide learners with a **practical introduction** to working with R and RStudio for basic **data handling and  data visualization**. Learners practice how to **set a working directory**, **install and load packages**, **import and inspect data**, **subsetting** data, deriving **summary statistics**, and creating **histograms**. Through reflection, discussion, and a hands-on assignment using an R dataset, learners develop confidence in **applying** these more advanced **programming skills** to future data analysis tasks and their **own research work**.

### Who are these materials for?

- **Educators** in higher education with or without familiarity with open research planning to **teach open research** to **novices**
- **Self-learners** with no or limited familiarity with open research planning to **develop and build** up on their open research skills

### Prerequisites

<div style="font-size: 0.6em;"> 
| Prerequisite   |  Description  | Where to find it   |
|------------|------------|------------|
| R and RStudio installed | Latest versions of both R and RStudio | [Download RStudio](https://posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop/) |
| Accessibility sheet for computers | Fundamentals of computer literacy | [Download ](assets/computer-accessibility-sheet.pdf) |
| Basic R skills | Introduction to R - Part I | [Access here](https://lmu-osc.github.io/teaching-material-for-novices/open-research-tools/r-part-I/) |
</div>

### Learning objectives

At the end of this session, you or your learners will be able to ...

- **Identify** and **set** the correct working directory on your computer
- **Install** and **load** R packages to extend R's functionality
- **Import** external data into the R environment
- **Inspect** data structures and **extract** specific columns
- **Compute** basic statistical summaries on a dataset
- **Visualize** data distributions using simple histograms

## Download materials

### Export slides

You can export these slides as MS PowerPoint (.pptx - *in progress*) or pdf by clicking below. Note that basic formatting will be applied to the PowerPoint file.

<!-- download as pdf button -->
<a href="r-part-II-slides.pdf"
   download="r-part-II-slides.pdf"
   class="btn btn-primary">
  Download slides as PDF
</a>

### R dataset

Download the `characters`dataset:
<a href="assets/characters.rds"
   download="characters.rds"
   class="btn btn-primary">
  Download dataset
</a>

## Contributors and licence details

**Creator**: Rieger, David (![](images/ORCID-iD_icon_16x16.png){fig-alt="orcid logo"} [0009-0004-3701-3101](https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3701-3101))

**Creator**: Waterfield, Elizabeth (![](images/ORCID-iD_icon_16x16.png){fig-alt="orcid logo"} [0009-0006-3725-6730](https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3701-3101))

**Consultant**: Sanchez Steinhagen, Caterina Luz (![](images/ORCID-iD_icon_16x16.png){fig-alt="orcid logo"} [0009-0006-4783-1110](https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4783-1110))

**Reviewer**: Middleton, Sara (![](images/ORCID-iD_icon_16x16.png){fig-alt="orcid logo"} [0000-0001-5307-8029](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5307-8029))

**Reviewer**: von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn, Sarah (![](images/ORCID-iD_icon_16x16.png){fig-alt="orcid logo"}[0000-0002-6413-3895](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6413-3895))

<br>

<p style="text-align:center;">
  <img src="images/cc-by-sa.png" 
  alt="Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 SA"
  style="width:160px;" />
</p>

<div style="background-color: #f0f0f0; padding: 0.05em; border-radius: 2px; font-size: 0.6em;">
This work was originally created by [Nicklas Hafiz](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9035-4483). His work was subsequently adapted by [David Rieger](https://orcid.org/0009-0004-3701-3101), [Elizabeth Waterfield](https://orcid.org/0009-0006-3725-6730), [Caterina Luz Sanchez Steinhagen](https://orcid.org/0009-0006-4783-1110), [Sara Lil Middleton](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5307-8029) and [Sarah von Grebmer zu Wolfsthurn](https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6413-3895). The current work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 SA International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en) (CC-BY-SA 4.0). Code snippets are dedicated to the public domain and are licensed under a [Creative Commons Universal Licence](https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) (CC0 1.0).
</div>