Prework - For the LBJ Data Studio Sessions

# Prework - For the LBJ Data Studio Sessions
## For the Sep 10 Session
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### <span style="color:#005f86; font-weight:500">Ethan Tenison</span> | Project Manager for Data Initiatives, UT Austin - RGK Center
### <span style="color:#005f86; font-weight:500">Matt Worthington</span> | Sr. Project Manager for Data Initiatives, UT Austin - LBJ
### <span style="color:#bf5700; font-weight:300">September 10, 2021</span>

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# Prework

This is a resource to get prepared for the LBJ Data Studio workshops. For the duration of the course, we'll be using R and Rstudio. In order for the workshops to go smoothly and, more importantly, for you to get something out of it, you'll need to do a few things to get setup. If you have any questions during prework, please contact one of us at the following emails before class:

* Ethan Tenison: [tenison.ethan@austin.utexas.edu](tenison.ethan@austin.utexas.edu)
* Matt Worthington: [matthew.worthington@austin.utexas.edu](matthew.worthington@austin.utexas.edu)

#### LBJ Data Studio Workshop Dates:

Below are the dates and formats of the session. Our original plan was to eventually hold these in-person, but they will be held on zoom for the first few sessions.

* Zoom Session: Sep 10, 2021
* Zoom Session: Sep 24, 2021
* TBD: Oct 8, 2021
* TBD: Oct 22, 2021
* TBD: Nov 5, 2021
* TBD: Nov 19, 2021
* TBD: Dec 3, 2021

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Whether you're conducting a comprehensive program evaluation, making some clean charts and maps, or working to build a sophisticated statistical model, the tools inside [RStudio](https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download) and the [tidyverse](https://www.tidyverse.org) make policy work incredibly efficient *and* reproducible. While these workshops are designed to help you get started in R as a policy student, *getting good at R or any language takes practice*. The good news, we're giving you resources to make your learning easier and more beneficial over time (both at LBJ and after graduation).

![](https://github.com/allisonhorst/stats-illustrations/raw/master/rstats-artwork/monster_support.jpg)

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#### Session Topics

For the first few weeks, we'll start out with prescribed topics. After that, we'll tentatively follow other prescribed topics knowing that we may pivot the sessions based on the needs of everyone attending.

**Sample Topics:**

*	Creating Easy and Effective Charts
* Making Beautiful Maps
* Efficiently Getting The Data You Need
* Writing Reproducible Policy Analysis (this one is especially helpful for quant assignments and policy memos!)

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**Next: Prework** `-->`
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### Task 1: Setup RStudio

The next method to get started with RStudio is by setting up RStudio locally on your desktop. If you have any troubles getting setup, shoot us an email (see previous slides).

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**INSTRUCTIONS**

**Step 1:** Go to [this link](https://rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/#download).

**Step 2:** Follow the two-step instructions on that page.

**Step 3:** For visual assistance, use the video tutorial on the right.

**Step 4:** Congrats, you're ready!

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**Video Tutorial**

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### Task 2: Learning Markdown

If you're not familiar with Markdown, that's okay. If you're like me, you grew up using things like Microsoft Office and Google Docs to write, so you're probably not familiar with markdown, but Markdown is a lot easier. So... what is it?

Markdown is just an easy way to write formatted text.  Like anything else, it takes practice, but is used widely in popular writing apps like [Bear](https://bear.app), [iA Writer](https://ia.net/writer), [Ulysses](https://ulysses.app). For the purposes of this workshop, we'll use it in an RStudio document tool called "[Rmarkdown](https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com)". Here's a quick way to get familiar with writing in Markdown:

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*__Note__: If writing in Markdown still feels weird, don't worry. I'll also show you some tricks inside RStudio to make writing easier. Just make sure to do this tutorial.*
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![Doing the Markdown 10-min Tutorial](https://d33wubrfki0l68.cloudfront.net/59f29676ef5e4d74685e14f801bbc10c2dbd3cef/c0688/lesson-images/markdown-1-markup.png)

* **First, visit this link:** Go to [https://commonmark.org/help/tutorial/](https://commonmark.org/help/tutorial/)  
* **Then, do the 10-minute tutorial:** It's a bit of time, but goes quick and will help you have a better grasp on writing in markdown by the time we start the workshop.
* **Finally, bookmark this site**: [https://commonmark.org/help/](https://commonmark.org/help/)

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### Task 3: Install Workshop Packages

We'll need a few packages during the workshop, so try installing these. If you have trouble, shoot us an email (see previous slides).

* **Step one:** Open RStudio after you've installed it.
* **Step two:** Paste the code below in your console (see screenshot)
    - If it asks you about Updating, just hit "No" before hitting enter.
* **Step three:** Hit enter

```r
install.packages(c("rmarkdown", "tidyverse", "tidycensus", "distill", "devtools"))
install.packages(c("janitor", "readxl"))
```

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![Pasting Code in the Console](assets/images/install_packages.png)
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