arawles / teacher Goto Github PK

The variable assignment section should include a small section on basic naming convention (e.g. camel case vs. . vs. _)

In the intro, it's referenced that later on in the book we'll look at the shiny package but this has now been moved to opeRate

The functions section for the Teachers needs to include a reference to the idea of vectorised functions. At the very least, there needs to be an explicit reference to how passing a vector to a function goes.

Chapter/Section: All
Text to be corrected: References to packages
Correction: References to package names should be changed to be enclosed in curly braces to match the opeRate style

Why? (If applicable): It makes it easier at a glance to understand what's code and what's reference to a package

The line beginning:

dataframe1 <- data.frame(numeric_col…

clips off the right hand side of the page.

The data types chapter should include a brief explanation of the NA and NULL values and the differences.

Following the change to a "For Teachers" and "For Students" approach, the chapter numbers given in the introduction are no longer valid.

Topic title: Creating an object in S3
Why it should be added: Having a section called "Creating objects" and then only having a paragraph where you say "you can make them, but I'm not going to show you" is a bit of a cop out really. At least go through the simple process of building an S3 object.

With all the new information and text in the book, the chapters are going to need restructuring.

The only reason I'm hesitant is that this will mean that the presentations no longer align with the text in terms of order of content.

Currently, all slides render with R code already displayed.
To allow the slide (and the code) to be rendered incrementally, {.build} needs to be appended to each slide title.

In slide 28 of Module 1, the text from line starting:

dataframe_1 <- data.frame(numeric_col = c(1,2)…

extends off the right hand side of the page.

Topic title: Answers
Why it should be added: Questions without answers would be really annoying

I can't find where it's explicitly stated that [] returns the container and can therefore have more than one index

Topic title: Implicit Conversion
Why it should be added:
Understanding why, for example, "TRUE" == TRUE gives TRUE in R can be really useful for people starting out. It would also fit nicely in with the data types chapter.

Topic title: learnr exercises
Why it should be added: Adding learnr exercises for readers to do in their own time will likely improve retention

What to add: Questions and tasks for each topic
Why it should be added: Works well in R4DS, keeps the reader interested and enhances retention

"you're" should be "your".

Make it explicit (not just implicit from the examples) that indexing in R starts at 1.

As the book grows, as does the level of complexity and the topics that are discussed. For instance, I didn't envision chapters on objects or inheritance in a book for beginners.

To remedy this (and to align the content better with the title), could the book be split into two sections? A "For a student" and "For a teacher" section. To learn R, you don't need to know what an object is, or what inheritance or environments are. But if you're teaching R to someone, then the questions that they're going to ask will at least require an understanding of these concepts to avoid confusion. This way, those that are interested in the theory and underpinnings of R can access the information easily, whilst those who are not interested are not bombarded with "you don't have to read this bit" statements.

Due to the restructuring, the presentations and the chapters don't really align.

Inline code in Chapter 3.3.3 Integer is appearing at the bottom of the paragraph.

Topic title: Summary
Why it should be added: A conclusion/summary chapter would help bring everything together

The .Rmd file for side 1 of the cheat sheet is missing from GitHub... Not sure where that's gone...

Topic title: Programming
Why it should be added: Getting students comfortable with iteration and conditional loops is important so teachers should be comfortable with how they work.

Slide 17 of Module 1 clips off the bottom of the screen after the

variable_1

line.

The conflicted package is referred to as conflict in 4.2.3 Scope

Chapter/Section: "Super" assignment
Correction: The chapter talks about <<- assigning to the global environment but this isn't always the case, as is then demonstrated by the example. How <<- works; by searching through parent environments for an existing definition of the variable being assigned. If such a variable is found (and its binding is not locked) then its value is redefined, otherwise assignment takes place in the global environment.

Why? (If applicable): Current description is unclear.

"By default, when importing from Excel, the origin date is January 1st 1970, also known as the "epoch date"." Pretty sure that Excel doesn't use that as the epoch date: https://www.r-bloggers.com/date-formats-in-r/

The output of a code chunk in 3.3.4 Character is not what it's supposed to be.

The list of input parameters in 3.6.1.2.1 Explicit input parameters is incorrectly indented.

On slide 10 of Module 4, the R comment starting #we could...' extends off the right hand side of the page.

There is a missing closing bracket in 4.1.3 Functions as objects

Topic title: Vectors
Why it should be added: As vectors are so important, explaining concepts like recycling and coercion might be important from teaching perspective.

The output on slide 6 of the Tidyverse module (module 4) clips off the bottom of the page

Chapter/Section: 3.4.4
Text to be corrected: Unlike vectors, matrices are 2 dimensional. In fact, matrices resemble something a bit like a watered down version of a spreadsheet or table.
Correction: Something like "Matrices are two dimensional but all the values have to be of the same type. In fact, a matrix is basically just a vector with dimensions. etc etc

Why? (If applicable):

Given that there is no is.Date() function, and is(Date) returns the inheritance of the objects whereas class(Date) returns just date, is it better to recommend just using class() even if it goes against the is.x stuff?

Topic title: Expressions
Why it should be added: Although I don't want to get too much into metaprogramming, I think understanding expressions would be important from a teaching role

Move the exercises and cheat sheets and presentations to the teacheR-extras repository

Slide 26 in Module 1 clips off the bottom of the page from line:

vector1[c(1:5,7)]

Currently in Module 3, some of the examples of user-defined functions use print() statements, rather than relying on the returned value. I worry that this is not representative of how functions should be used and is misleading for the students.

Instead, there should be a clear delineation of the importance of the returned value, noting that the print() function can be useful interactively, but isn't really something to be relied upon for returning.

A description of the dplyr::filter() function is referenced but not present in Module 4