Testimonials

Here are some testimonials from students that have completed the R workshops in previous years

2024

“Using data and importing and working on the code in the classroom with help from others worked really well. Extra help was on hand if I needed it.”

“The course was well outlined and explained. It looked like it was very useful for beginners, and the functions explanation was fantastic.”

“I enjoyed the space that the workshop was held and the open discussions that were able to be had. I have to highlight Christina’s teaching style - she was fantastic at communicating the expectations and reasoning behind why we were doing the analysis, and also helped to provide a ”real-world” context situation that I could relate too. Thank you!”

“The notes were excellent and easy to follow”

“The banter between Ant and Dave is great. Makes something that is usually dry pretty entertaining. The detailed notes were fantastic. Having the extra hands walking around to help with individual questions and issues was awesome. Very helpful.”

“Nicely paced, the instructors were very down to earth, funny, and good at explaining real world applications.”

“The in-person hands on exercises on R were really helpful. This worked better in registering the concepts, different functions and packages.”

“The notes were superb”

“It was great to focus on the theory and applications with less emphasis on getting the code right.”

“The more general discussion on the foundational theory behind the different models (e.g. understanding the difference between random and fixed effects), as well as subsequent examples on model selection and how to specify the model was incredibly useful for me.”

“In my opinion, all days were great. It was intense; however, the speakers were ready to stop, if something is not clear, and explain it with more clarity. ”

“The coding was easy to follow along with, and the explanations were detailed”

2020

“I thought the series of 3 workshops was really great. A general comment is that in the Intermediate one it would be great if there is a 30 min intro to programming in R related to loops and commonly used data manipulation tricks.”

2018

“I am massively pleased with how much R analysis I have managed to do in just a few days. Given that I knew nothing of R before your courses, and this is my first attempt to use it since, I think this is a great testimony to how helpful the courses are!! Attached is where I am up to for what will soon be (I hope) a paper.”

“The mapping sections were excellent”

“The content was explained well and the notes were comprehensive.”

“The notes that go with the workshop, clarity of explanation and assistance provided were great”

“Fluidity and time was maximised - amazing how much a 2 day workshop fit in. Presenters were very thorough and provided clear explanations to questions.”

“Generally the workshop worked well in all facets. The coverage of a broad area provided evidence of the wide application possible with the software.”

“The general method of having three presenters, one standing out the front and two roving works well. Dave’s method of annotating everything with # comments is very helpful. Apart from anything else, it slows him down and allows people to keep up.”

“Notes are very clear and easy to follow. Presenters very good, enthusiastic, kept us interested and focused and generally gave clear explanations and answers. Pace of the workshop was good. Topics covered are relevant and useful.”

“The working examples! They were great.”

“Most of it”

“Great teachers”

“Great clear notes, easy to follow, opportunity for working examples at the same time.”

“It was well organized and the parts that were included were well explained”

“The notes were very comprehensive and allowed me to cut and paste to save time when I couldn’t get my own script to work.”

“All of the components of the workshop were great, thanks.”

“The notes in the presentation were always handy to refer back to, presenters available for any questions.”

“The workshop was very well organised. I particularly enjoyed the mapping sections”

“examples were clear, notes are excellent!”

“The notes provided were excellent and will certainly help me in the future. Anthony and Dave were excellent at explaining what they were doing and why they were doing it at a great pace - not too rushed. Tips on how to interpret the results were also very beneficial.”

“Some superb teaching and clear explanations. I liked the technique of typing code along with the teacher.”

“I liked the explanations provided. The notes were excellent. Dave was excellent - good speed, good presentation of logic on R, easy to follow.”

“I found the workshop really well organized.”

“The pace and materials (website, and live presentation) made it easy to follow along and stay up to date”

“It all went well - was a very useful refresher for me.”

“Working through examples on screen and simultaneously on my computer was very good. The course hand-out is extremely good, thanks for that.”

“To be honest, I really liked everything. It all worked really well and having one of you roving around to answer questions without holding the whole thing up was great. Thanks so much. I didn’t really have a standout favourite part as it all built on the previous sections so well.”

“Great workshop!”

“The notes are great. The teaching standard is high. The format of having one person presenting while two are available to help is also good.”

“The notes provided for this course were very detailed and useful. The course was structured very well, I liked how each section was organised and mostly ran on time.”

“Having a ‘floating’ person to help individuals with issues while not holding up the class.”

“The pace of the workshop was good, very clear notes that we could all follow, easy to catch up using the notes with cut and paste ability into the R script. I love the way you do not assume that we are all overly-intelligent and can remember everything at fast-pace. A comfortable pace but able to take everything in and still have time to experiment with the data and the program along the way. Love your bits of humour too to keep us interested.”

“It was well paced with clear explanations and the roaming helped”

“I came to the workshop with zero prior knowledge of R. I was able to follow all the contents really well. I find your notes extremely easy to follow.”

“It would be good to add the little tips and explanations talked about in the class to add in the Notes as part of Tips. They are actually very valuable”

“Going through a number of examples in the class was very helpful.”

“The material covered was relevant and was explained thoroughly. The examples and the materials used for the workshop were easy to understand. The notes provided were well prepared and organised.”

“I found the workshop extremely well structured.”

“The format was good and Anthony and Dave’s enthusiasm was really helpful. Having the notes was really helpful. Really liked Dave’s way of adding notes to everything - I know it will be useful in future when I look back and try to figure out what we did!”

“Well organised and went really well for such a large group.”

“The pace and ability to adapt the content due to time restrictions was good for those of us new to R. Having one person providing individual help was excellent.”

“In general, the clear explanations of logic behind the package and the well-constructed flow of concepts to build base knowledge.”

“I think providing a sound introductory workshop on a program like ‘R’ is quite a big challenge and I think the whole workshop including topic selection, ‘how to’ and explanations/examples were all handled particularly well.”

“All good”

2017

“The introduction, clear and concise outline of R”

“I thought the whole workshop was excellent - all parts worked well”

“I found it very easy to follow Dave and Ant as they fully explained their code (in terms of # in the scripts), and their pace was manageable in terms of following along with what they were doing and trying it myself.”

“I only did the first day (Intro). Most of the information presented was at a pace that was easy to keep up with. I got lost only once or twice.”

“The presenters all knew the subject very well and were honest when they didn’t know and could debate the question openly.”

“Multiple speakers, regular breaks, and regular ‘refreshers’ of previously learned material I thought the notes were excellent”

“Examples were relevant and the notes were comprehensive”

“The organisation of the intermediate workshop was really good: beginning with some foundational statistical theory and simple linear models, then building up bit-by-bit. Notes were brilliant, explanation and very thorough walkthrough for most of the material was really good. Frequent coffee breaks allowed to digest and refresh the brain before the next session.”

“The workshop provided a very thorough introduction and intermediate level of learning. Help was at hand if you were stuck on something.”

“As a complete newbie to R, and having just had a panic attack last week about needing to run CART and Random Forest with little know-how, this was a phenomenal workshop. I thought all three of you were excellent teachers that were engaging and relatable. I feel like I have a much better grasp of the program and its coding language, and am much more confident that I’ll be able to adeptly run my analyses and understand the outputs. Thanks for all of your hard work in putting this together! It was an amazing resource for a beginner like me, and brought me back from the brink of quitting my PhD! ;) Cheers.”

“Running to time is important and this was acheived. Having multiple presenters to pick up errors in lead speaker’s code worked well. So did having multiple presenters to phrase theory another way, if first explanation wasn’t quite clear.”

“The introduction was really informative in terms of introducing coding and basic statistics.”

“The examples were great. All teachers were excellent at explaining all the different codes and models”

“Fantastic workshop, all sections work well.”

“Everything was very good, especially spending some extra time talking about the statistics and what things actually mean. It’s of little use giving us this great weaponry without showing us how you shoot with it!”

“I felt that when we had a chance to follow along with the example and then apply the idea as well were the best opportunities to learn, having the html file to go alongside was useful. Explaining the language and some of the idiosyncrasies was also great.”

“I truly enjoyed the whole workshop. Great teachers, really nice real data examples and good notes and background. Everything was very well thought out and explained.”

“I was really impressed with everything covered and how it was presented. I am feeling a lot better about using stats now than I was previously. I think it should be a compulsory course for all PhDs, particularly in biol/sees/gpem (now School of the Environment).”

2016

“The manual is a fantastic resource and very well written.”

“Only attended day 1 but this day was excellent. As a new user it was stimulating and a good prep to attend more in the future (when I have my head around what i now know)”

“It was nice being taught by two people and the conversational style teaching which developed from it was approachable and pleasant.”

“Excellent pace, really great. I also really liked that you explained what the code meant - other workshops I’ve been to (not R focused) glossed over this coding information and was confusing.”

“Nice to have two people to ask questions and give opposing opinions. Good explanations.”

“It was very useful to have more or less the exact code available in the course notes. There were several spots where a glitch caused me to fall behind, but the notes allowed me to catch up.”

“I think this is one of the best workshops I have been to in terms of achieving the set goals. I now have the ability to start chasing stats in r. I think both researchers have a great passion and knowledge for their subject but also a highly developed skill at being able to explain complex (or things that seem hard) ideas in a logical and understandable manner. Finally very refreshing to hear researchers with such a high degree of emphasis on integrity, repeatably and ethics. Great job will recommend to all my staff.”

“I only attended Day 1. Throughout the workshop, it was most helpful when both presenters chipped in to explain the concepts, because each could paraphrase the other or put an alternative accentuation on important aspects.”

“I was very impressed in the delivery of information and the pace at which the class was conducted. I only did the intro day one class. was very happy and will recommend to others.”

“Thanks guys, really good mix of theory and coding. Can’t remember if it was, but I think the course should be specifically advertised to ecologists. Technology worked well generally, the screen was great, but the text needed to be much bigger!”

“Thank you, it was really, really helpful!”

“Very well organised and all notes and code provided”

“Second person to help with questions while not interrupting the session. Excellent keeping on time.”

“This workshop provides an overview of the basic functions and main applications of R.”

“Most of the workshop worked well. It was good to go through the notes and have things explained verbally. Also good to have different ways of doing the same thing illustrated.”

“Open discussion and person to person assistance.”

2014

“It was an excellent workshop for the beginners as well as for those having some knowledge about R. In addition, it was applied with practicals to ecology and all those involved in data analysis of their scientific research”

“The interactive dialogue between the lecturers was really novel and made the presentation interesting - well done.”

“I am very happy to share this one. All the parts of R Introduction workshop worked well.. Really I enjoyed it a lot with R graphic stuff.”

“I’m fairly new to R so I think it was an excellent program, rather than getting bogged down in computer science theory you just get in there and start playing with code and outputs. Now I need to combine what I have learnt, with other online learning resources to try and get better. All in all it was a great workshop!”

“There was a great level of interaction between the presenters and students. It was great that one of you could be presenting while the other one or two people were on the floor helping us. It meant that we could catch up if we were falling behind.”

“All parts were good ! Would recommend to anyone”

“The teaching style of the instructors was great - really appreciated it”

“The delivery of the content was excellent in terms of coverage and clarity.”

“Great workshop - extremely helpful!”