Data Visualization with R
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advice (5)
FAQs (4)
getting started (4)

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February 3, 2026 at 4:28 PM Week 3 FAQs
  • What’s the difference between the |> and %>% pipes?
  • Why can we sometimes do ggplot(dataset) and sometimes dataset |> ggplot()?
  • Why do we sometimes combine code with + and sometimes with |>?
  • Why doesn’t group_by(species) work but group_by(Species) does?
  • Why does aes() sometimes appear in ggplot() and sometimes in geom_WHATEVER()?
  • Installing vs. using packages
  • Why are my axis labels all crowded and on top of each other? How do I fix that?
  • Why isn’t the example code using data = whatever and mapping = aes() in ggplot() anymore? Do we not have to use argument names?
  • What’s the difference between geom_bar() and geom_col()?
  • What’s the difference between read_csv() vs. read.csv()?
  • What’s the difference between facet_grid() and facet_wrap()?
  • Why do I sometimes see facet_wrap(vars(blah)) and sometimes facet_wrap(~ blah)?
  • What’s the difference between the fill and color aesthetics?
  • Why did we need to group and summarize before making the Lord of the Rings plots? I didn’t and the plot still worked
  • How do I know if/when I should put variables as x or fill or as facets, etc?
  • Why doesn’t R work with wide data? When would wide data be useful?
FAQs
January 27, 2026 at 4:07 PM Week 2 FAQs
  • Why do you use ✓s for grades?
  • Why does # mean both headings and code comments?
  • I will never do anything with graphic design—why did we have to learn these principles?
  • What does all this graphic design stuff have to do with R and ggplot?
  • How does CRAP relate to other things like the Gestalt Principles?
  • Does something need to have all four elements to be well designed? Or can it have contrast and not alignment?
  • Are the CRAP principles hard-and-fast rules? Will following CRAP lead to the same final designs?
  • Does CRAP only work for single-page things like graphs and posters? Or does it work for reports and books?
  • I wanted to try other fonts, but I can only see a few in Microsoft Word? Where can I find fonts to use?
  • Are there resources for knowing which fonts pair well together?
  • Are there other color palettes we can use in R beyond the defaults?
  • Is there a way to check that my color palettes are accessible if I’m not using a premade one?
  • I noticed Illustrator isn’t free for GSU students anymore. Are there other graphics editors?
  • How do hex codes work? How do they create colors?
FAQs
January 27, 2026 at 11:35 AM FAQs about LLMs, R, and this class
  • Will R ever be fully replaced by AI?
  • Will you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course in the future?
  • Why won’t you incorporate LLMs and AI prompting into the course?
FAQs
January 27, 2026 at 11:27 AM LLMs are bad and dangerous for learning how to code in this class
  • LLMs are only useful if you know what you’re doing already
  • Possible ways to use LLMs to help with learning, kind of
  • Even if you use them to help you learn, they can teach you the wrong things
advice
January 26, 2026 at 11:21 PM Making cleaner, nicer Quarto documents
  • Render often
  • Check for broken code chunks
  • Check that your text looks okay
  • Don’t install packages in your document
  • Clean up warnings and messages
  • Global chunk options
  • Fancy document settings
  • Chunk names
advice
January 26, 2026 at 11:06 PM Copy, paste, and tweak
advice
January 26, 2026 at 11:03 PM Week 1 tips and FAQs
  • What’s the difference between Source and Visual mode in the editor window?
  • What’s the difference between R Markdown and Quarto?
  • Why don’t I have options to render to PDF (or Word or HTML)?
  • Rendered document format for iCollege
  • What is this thing that we can render to?
  • How does group_by() work? Why did we have to group by island and not body_mass and island?
  • How do we know which type of graph to use for different types of data?
  • Do you have any tips for remembering all the different functions we’re learning? There are so many!
  • My histogram bars are too wide / too narrow / not visible. How do I fix that?
FAQs
January 12, 2026 at 9:02 AM How to ask for help
  • The 30-minute rule
  • Don’t suffer in silence!
  • Use Discord in public
  • Help us help you
  • High resolution questions
  • Unanswered questions
  • Discord question etiquette
  • Student appointments
advice
January 12, 2026 at 8:52 AM First day of class!
getting started
January 5, 2026 at 12:35 PM Building community on Discord
  • Class community
  • Online community
advice
January 5, 2026 at 12:13 PM Important R stuff
getting started
January 5, 2026 at 11:55 AM Announcements and updates
getting started
January 5, 2026 at 11:26 AM Welcome to class!
getting started
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Content 2026 by Andrew Heiss
All content licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0)

 
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