As a result of this fantastic course, I have experienced many positive changes in …
My learning mindset
Being a third year student, I didn’t expect that my learning mindset would change so deep into my undergrad studies. I felt like “oh okay, another term, another dreaded course” and I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was about to drown in the unfamiliar territory that is coding. I guess this stems from my previous experiences of courses being so theory based and robotic feeling at times, and not as hands on as would be expected in the real world of psychology. But, despite going into the term with this mindset, it quickly shifted when I realised that I was surrounded by students at the top of their game and eager to learn, and teachers that were so passionate about welcoming us into the R community. It felt like I had made the right decision despite my initial apprehensions, and that this course was a stepping stone to my honours year that would equip me with the basic skills to hit the ground running.
Attending tutorials and QnA’s actually became fun! They were so practical and tailored to our needs as novice coders. Interacting with my team members also helped me and never hindered me, as I was extremely happy to experience our triumphs knowing that we started with little knowledge about coding and could now mutate data at our own command and produce aesthetically pleasing plots/analyses like those published in highly regarded scientific journals!
I am happy to say that my motivation to learn has sparked once again, and I am extremely grateful to have been a part of an awesome and vibrant group of individuals.
My thinking about coding and R
I must admit that upon first starting this course I was quite apprehensive about my coding abilities lol. Looking at lines of code seemed like reading jibberish to me! But after a smooth start with Danielle’s engaging lectures and demos, Jenny and Kate’s workshops, and Jenny S’s QnA sessions, it became apparent to me that coding is just like giving instructions about a list of chores that need to be done, and R handles the rest!
In saying this, just like people’s writing styles are different, people’s code can look different too! I was quick to realise that there is more than one solution to the same problem in R, and utilising blog posts and cran manuals for packages are a perfect way to start troubleshooting (as well as asking our tutors and peers for help of course!). Gone are the days of dodgy SPSS (I hope), coding is much more efficient in R and I feel as though I have better command of the language when it comes to statistical analyses.
When working with published code, R scripts were also a godsend because they ideally utilised rubber duck debugging to explain their code (most of the time). My thinking about coding has definitely changed in this sense because I now know that it is not the expectation that we must know every format of code, function, and package in R, rather, it is perfectly suitable to jog our own memories and inform others of what our code is doing along the way. After all, we are not robots nor are we programmed to know code like the back of our hands! (yet ;).
My thinking about the value of group work
I’d like to preface this response by saying that this is the single most pleasant group experience I’ve had so far. I can’t say I’m surprised though, because I knew that the aptitude and drive of my classmates far exceeded the ordinary.
Let me take you back to the dark times. In previous group assignments I had little value of group work as nothing good ever came out of it! Peers were always lacking commitment to the task, work load was never even, and tasks were never finessed as they were extremely rushed to due a lack of time management.
A pleasantly stark contrast to this experience, this current assignment taught me many valuable lessons about group work, some of which include:
- Your peers will often come across the same problem together, and collaboratively troubleshooting means you can find the solution in a fraction of the time!
- There is something unique to be learned from each and every group member, as they all bring unique skills to the table
- Time management is only easy when you accept the fact that not everyone can be on top of their game all the time! Life happens, and lending support and understanding to those doing it tough means that they will offer the same respect to you if you experienced the same
My group (consisting of Torunn, Sam, Jia and Edward) was so supportive and always went above and beyond to make sure that we all progressed through coding as a team. If it wasn’t for them, there is no chance I would have been able to produce a successful verification report that explores so many facets of coding and troubleshooting. Thank you Torunn, Sam, Jia and Edward, you guys are fkn awesome. I know each of you will accomplish so many great things.