Our tutors offered some useful refresher tips before the projects were started:
Area Top tips
Check documentation is good
if not good, then check if it’s being used regularly and look for any helpful comments
See if there is a package in R that can do the heavy lifting to access the API
Try mocking up the APIs at Insomnia, copy the URL middle east rcs data of the documentation into your browser; you don’t need to register. Save as a single request to use
Check data types and column formats which can be as issue when downloading from APIs
You cannot convert a data type/format (e.g. alpha-numeric to character) using TidyVerse; convert existing data formats to a Tibble dataframe, then change or ‘mutate’ a column
Using GitHub for code sharing
Use Desktop Github to upload changes
Comment your changes and push to live
Try to make small commits, instead of just one larger one, as less room for error
The ‘Collaborator’ function is useful for when working in groups and for project work
Make a ‘request’ for changes to be added, so that your collaborator can approve your changes
Using Slack for help · Use different Slack channels for different purposes to avoid too many messages.
Private and public channels are available
Users can create their own new channels e.g. for their projects
For private channels to be set up, the instigator will need to ‘invite’ others
This year, the group projects worked a little less well than previous face-to-face courses. Groups usually self-select, made up of 2-3 people, and then anyone left can join a group who has a concrete idea.
For this year’s course, around half of the 14 decided to work through the earlier days materials themselves, wishing to reinforce the learning, rather than going it alone. This suggest that learning proceeds at a slower pace online, and it may be preferable to cover less material in more depth.
Participants went on to complete a mini project; a great variety of topics were pursued, but most opted for mapping results, perhaps as it is always a very satisfying endpoint for analysis.