[R] Best settings for RStudio video recording?

[Martin Morgan]

Excellent question! I think most R courses use RStudio, so it is completely appropriate to ask about how to help people learn R using RStudio.

I don't have a lot experience with virtual teaching, and very limited experience with anything other than short-term workshops.

I think that there is tremendous value, during the 'in person' portion of a course, in doing interactive and even 'ad hoc' analysis, perhaps especially handling the off-the-wall questions that participants might raise (when I have to struggle to figure out what the R answer is, and then convey to the attendees my thinking process), and making all kinds of mistakes, including simple typos (requiring me to explain what the error message means, and how I diagnosed the problem and arrived at a solution that was other than a pull-it-out-of-the-hat miracle).

With this in mind, I try to increase the prominence of the console portion of the RStudio interface. I place it at the top left of the screen (this might be a remnant of in-person presentations, where the heads of people in front often block the view of the lines where code is being enter; this is obviously not relevant in a virtual context). Usually I keep the script portion of the display visible at the bottom left, with only a few lines showing, as a kind of cheat sheet for me, rather than for the students to 'follow along').

I use a large font, which I think helps in both virtual and physical sessions in part because it limits the amount of information on the screen, causing me to slow my presentation enough that the students can absorb what I am saying. Perhaps as a consequence of the limited screen real-estate, students often ask 'to see the last command' so I now include in the right panel the 'History' tab. The division is asymmetric, so the console continues to take up the majority of screen real estate.

The end result of a sequence of operations is often a pretty picture, but since this is only the end result and not the meat of the learning experience I tend to keep the plot window (lower right) relatively small, and try to remember to expand things at the time when the end result is in sight (so to speak;)).

I hope others with more direct experience are not dissuaded by Bert's opinions, and offer up their own experiences or resource recommendations.

Martin Morgan

On 8/13/20, 6:05 PM, "R-help on behalf of Jonathan Greenberg" <r-help-bounces using r-project.org on behalf of jgreenberg using unr.edu> wrote:

    Folks:

    I was wondering if you all would suggest some helpful RStudio
    configurations that make recording a session via e.g. zoom the most useful
    for students doing remote learning.  Thoughts?

    --j

    -- 
    Jonathan A. Greenberg, PhD
    Randall Endowed Professor and Associate Professor of Remote Sensing
    Global Environmental Analysis and Remote Sensing (GEARS) Laboratory
    Natural Resources & Environmental Science
    University of Nevada, Reno
    1664 N Virginia St MS/0186
    Reno, NV 89557
    Phone: 415-763-5476
    https://www.gearslab.org/

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