R for the IR professional
The purpose of this site is to provide a home for those institutional research (IR) professionals who want to have greater impact on their institution and improve their analytic abilities. We think the most direct way to do this is for you to learn how to use R…and that’s why we created this site.
You can find all the information you need on this page.
We have three introductory R workshops (offered through Furman’s Center for Innovative Leadership) scheduled for 2025:
- Data Analysis for IR 101: R Scripting
- Data Analysis for IR 102: Data Visualization
- Data Analysis for IR 103: Reporting
You can find out more information on this page and go to the course information and registration page here.
1 Differentiation
The intent is more specialized than general R instruction. The site:
- Is built by IR practitioners for IR practitioners
- Uses large realistic examples throughout the site that are mostly focused on the world of IR so that the learner will feel at home and be more able to instantly transfer learning back to his/her job
- Goes in detail through large, messy case studies so that the learner can get a feel for the detailed thinking required of a professional
- Builds powerful tools and defines approaches that will be immediately useful to the IR professional while building up the user’s knowledge of R and the tidyverse
- Focuses on (re-)defining the IR professional’s job as a data analyst who can be proactive in supporting the success of his/her institution by escaping the reporting grind
- The dynamic graph construction gallery is unlike anything we’ve seen anywhere. Go to that page, look for a graph that you’re interested in, and then you can follow its creation from beginning to end. The gallery contains about 50 graphs and shows the step-by-step construction steps for each one.
2 Who should be interested
If you are an IR professional who has been using Excel to answer questions, analyze data, create graphs, and create tables for inclusion in a report, then this site is for you. It provides all the resources that you need to start your learning journey. At all times we focus on problems and reports that are important to IR professionals. You are not assumed to understand R before working through this site.
3 Use of R and the tidyverse
Throughout this site, we use R’s tidyverse (as hinted at by the site’s logo) as it provides a simplifying, unifying, and empowering framework for R. We guide the new analyst through the process of creating R scripts and R markdown containing based on the tidyverse so that he/she is able to create quick analyses and long, well-formatted reports.
4 Layout of the site
The resources listed to the left are basically listed in the order that you will need them. You need not read them all in order, but we have tried to include helpful nuggets throughout for users of all abilities.