Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel
Duke University + RStudio
RStudio Cloud
Teaching and learning with
🔗 rstd.io/rscloud-whyR
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RStudio Cloud is a lightweight, cloud-based
solution that allows anyone to do, share, teach
and learn data science online, in the browser.
There is nothing to configure, no dedicated
hardware, no installation.
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Hello RStudio
Cloud
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Why? RStudio
in the cloud
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lots of
friction points
‣ Install R
‣ Install RStudio
‣ Install the following packages:
‣ rmarkdown
‣ tidyverse
‣ ...
‣ Load these packages
‣ Install git
much less
friction
‣ Go to rstudio.cloud
‣ Log in
‣ Start coding…
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How? RStudio
in the cloud
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RStudio
Workbench*
You have
‣ sysadmin experience / IT support
‣ hardware / local VM / cloud
computing credit
‣ RStudio experience
rstudio.com/pricing/academic-pricing
✓ Free licensing for teaching with RStudio’s
academic pricing
✓ Çetinkaya-Rundel, Mine, and Rundel, Colin.
"Infrastructure and tools for teaching
computing throughout the statistical
curriculum." The American Statistician (2018).
doi.org/10.1080/00031305.2017.1397549
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RStudio
Workbench*
You have
‣ sysadmin experience / IT support
‣ hardware / local VM / cloud
computing credit
‣ RStudio experience
RStudio
Cloud
You have
‣ RStudio experience
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Why? RStudio
Cloud
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RStudio Cloud in a nutshell
‣ Does not require IT experience to set up
‣ Features designed for teaching
‣ Organize class as workspace
‣ Leverage roles (instructor, teaching assistant, student)
‣ Turn projects into assignments
‣ Peek into student projects
‣ Ensure same setup with a base project
‣ System libraries work out of the box (e.g., Git)
‣ Knit to PDF and Word works out of the box
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Projects in
RStudio Cloud
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Teaching with
RStudio Cloud
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Shorter
engagement
Longer
Engagement
‣ Workshop, short course, etc.
‣ Content can be organized in one (or
few) project(s)
‣ Not keeping track of learners
share project
‣ Semester-long course, multi-day
workshop, etc.
‣ Content best organized in multiple
projects
‣ Keeping track of learners
invite to
workspace
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Share an
RStudio Cloud
project
1
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instructor view
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student view
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+
‣ Students land directly in a project
upon login
‣ Great for sharing code in general,
e.g. collaboration, reproducible
examples (reprexes), etc.
-
‣ Students need to remember to
make a permanent copy of the
project
‣ You can't keep track which
students started their assignment
‣ You need to be granted permission
to peek into student projects
‣ Permanent projects count towards students’ free hours
‣ Students control permissions
+ / -
Sharing an RStudio Cloud project
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Invite to an
RStudio Cloud
workspace
2
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instructor view
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instructor view
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instructor view
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instructor view
RStudio Cloud role permission course role
Admin
Manage users, view, edit and manage all
projects
Instructor
Moderator View, edit and manage all projects TA
Contributor Create, edit and manage their own projects Student
Viewer View projects shared with everyone Auditor, Guest
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instructor view
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instructor view
Base projects
‣ Anything you might want in all
projects:
‣ R version
‣ Installed packages
‣ Files (e.g., code of conduct,
submission instructions, etc.)
‣ Update as many times as you like!
‣ Changes are not retroactive
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+
‣ Various permission levels
‣ Base projects with desired packages
installed
‣ Assignments, which remove the need
to remind students to make a copy of
the project before starting work
‣ Ability to peek into students’ projects
-
‣ Students land in the workspace,
may need instructions for next
steps (e.g., start the assignment
titled Getting started)
‣ Student work counts towards (instructor/institution) workspace hours
‣ Instructor controls permissions
+ / -
Inviting to an RStudio Cloud workspace
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Tips for
teaching with
RStudio Cloud
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Tips for teaching with RStudio Cloud
‣ Changes to an assignment student has started won’t
propagate to student copies
‣ Packages in the base project are installed, but not loaded
‣ The latest information is always on the RStudio Cloud
Guide and the What’s New page
‣ If you encounter slowness/glitches, check the System
Status
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Tips for teaching with RStudio Cloud
‣ Create an additional account, log in as a student to see
what they see
‣ Test assignments to set sufficient computational
resources
‣ Use the “peek at your students’ project” feature sparingly
‣ Use the “assignment” feature for live coding starters
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Programming
with
📦 rscloud
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Learn more about
RStudio Cloud
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rstd.io/cloud-playlist
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Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel
Duke University + RStudio
RStudio Cloud
Teaching and learning with
🔗 rstd.io/rscloud-whyR