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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Probability and Data with R by Duke University

4.7
stars
5,696 ratings

About the Course

This course introduces you to sampling and exploring data, as well as basic probability theory and Bayes' rule. You will examine various types of sampling methods, and discuss how such methods can impact the scope of inference. A variety of exploratory data analysis techniques will be covered, including numeric summary statistics and basic data visualization. You will be guided through installing and using R and RStudio (free statistical software), and will use this software for lab exercises and a final project. The concepts and techniques in this course will serve as building blocks for the inference and modeling courses in the Specialization....

Top reviews

AA

Feb 24, 2021

I always wanted to learn statistics from scratch, but I never had a good university teacher. Here I found a good teacher and also the opportunity to learn whenever I want ( and skipping parts I knew!)

AM

Feb 7, 2021

After trying several courses to get me started with R programming, this one came to the rescue and had all the info I wanted. It also provides a great way to practice through labs and a final project!

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1276 - 1300 of 1,330 Reviews for Introduction to Probability and Data with R

By Rahul K G

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Jun 22, 2017

Good for a beginner.

By Janice H

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Jun 20, 2020

The course instructor is EXCELLENT! She does a fabulous job of explaining everything thoroughly and uses good examples to do so. She makes understanding probability and data easy.

I rated the course low because of the instruction in R and required use of R. I wanted to learn R's basic commands but this was almost impossible. The instruction we received in the course with respect to coding in R was entirely insufficient to be able to complete the extremely long final project (the supposed two-hour project took me 13 hours). The coding no longer works (R code changed since the videos were made). Also the final project data set was too large to be used in the workspace provided by Coursera, and crashed my computer every time I tried to use it. Filtering and selecting did not work to limit the data set either, as both those functions caused R to shut itself down. I planned to continue on for more of this series because the instructor is so great, but I cannot deal with R so will not be continuing.

By Leif B

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May 12, 2020

I honestly can't recommend this course. The coverage of statistics was fine, and the labs were sufficiently clear, but the final project suffers exactly the same critical flaw as so many other online courses: after a limited exposure to a tool, the student is expected to use that tool in a context that is so different that the original classes are all but useless. In this case, where RStudio worked flawlessly and effortlessly on clean data, the final project doesn't use clean data.

If your goal is to learn statistics without a particular software package, look elsewhere.

If your goal is to learn R & RStudio, I'd have to suggest a more rigorous, step-by-step approach.

By Amir G B S

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May 24, 2020

I reviewed many concept which I am grateful for, but several thing need to get better. First, all over the course I was waiting to hear about p-values more, as was promised first time but got nothing more on the videos. Second, many question were asked on exam about the material in the book that were supposed to be optional. Third, final projects includes a huge data file which my laptop suffered loading in RStudio every time. If the it is meant to evaluate the students knowledge, a much smaller data would be enough as well. by the way, I appreciate your endeavor.

By Jamison T

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Jun 21, 2018

Content is not bad. However, peer review system for final project is not great. I had to wait for other students to review mine and wait for other students to submit theirs. How long this is takes is largely dependent on how many students are currently taking the course (which was not enough and so I had to wait). This kind of system for marking should not be done for online courses where you cannot guarantee there are enough users always taking it at the same time. Especially when there are paying users that may have to pay an extra month whilst waiting.

By Munir A

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Jun 3, 2020

It is a basic level course and I was expecting I will be taught how to use R studio or basic R functions. But instead , difficult R exercises were assigned without prior knowledge/teachings of R. I had to struggle a lot in completing the assignments.

By Laura L M

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Jun 7, 2019

regular course content was fine for a refresher. what I really wanted was the intro to R. the lab, however, was the WORST. I ended up going to YouTube to figure out half the stuff I needed to do. Why am I paying for that? I was really poorly done.

By Hsueh-han W

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Sep 14, 2019

Statistics part is fair enough, but R part is absolutely not.

Giving the document of R does not mean teach you. You even have to make a difficult R project in the end of the course, but without any tutorial or example to make so.

By Deanna K

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May 7, 2020

The course materials (book & lectures) are clear enough, but the introduction to and support for using R/RStudio is completely lacking. Unless you already know R/RStudio, steer clear of this course and find another.

By Jaycee L

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Dec 10, 2021

The Statistics lecture part is great, but the R Lab part is not for beginners. I thought I could survive but I eventually gave up. Please don't take this course if you have zero knowledge of R!

By Saishwar T S

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Mar 28, 2018

Suffered a lot of difficulties with the various material provided as they contain a lot of problems. Data does not load properly for labs, errors in code etc.

By Deleted A

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Jan 1, 2021

Problem is the OpenIntro Statistics 3Rd edition is not available. So Learning Objectives are not possible to follow since 4th edition is not same as 3rd.

By Gabriel C

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Oct 11, 2020

The book is very good at explaining the concepts clearly, the videos are too confusing, therefore, we must focus on the content of the book.

By Sailaja M

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Aug 27, 2017

I think that the teaching and tutorials in R should have been included instead of letting the student figure out all the R coding.

By Michele N

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May 11, 2021

Learning the R part in lab is too confusing and frustrating to learn everything on my own without any guidance

By Reem W

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Dec 9, 2023

The course is not beginner friendly especially the labs and it contains a lot of calculations.

By Saumya Arya

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Jul 31, 2020

The teachers dont focus on teaching R , but rather on only the basics statistics.

By Aaron D

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Jul 16, 2017

Mediocre. Not much in the way of help for using R

By Lucinda S

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Apr 29, 2024

very confusing use of the laboratories

By Arunav C

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Jul 22, 2020

Very poor explanation skills

By Darrell W

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Nov 21, 2017

banana

By Shawn

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Aug 2, 2021

First off, how do you get off teaching a class with an R specialization without even explaining some of the most basic operators and functions of R first? Or barely teaching R at all when the name implies you will learn a lot of R. Well they've managed to do it here. As a result, I had to dig around the internet for several days to learn some of the core functions of R that should have been taught by this class. While we are on that subject, I wasn't taught anything that I actually wanted to learn R for...things like the t-test, ANOVA, CFA, etc. Instead you just learn how to do random stuff like pnorm functions and how to filter variables (or how to run dplr without explaining why the piping function '%>%' matters). As much as its good to brush up on the basics like histograms and boxplots, the core tests that are extremely common and useful to learn are to my great amazement missing. Idk how you can run a stats course without even a single explanation of a t-test. During the various times I was confused by the teaching, I would normally refer to my book, but the book chapters they give you literally never align with what you're learning that week, which is astounding given the whole point of a book is for reference. I checked to make sure I had the most recent book, and even with having the most up to date text, its completely disconnected from the video content. You're better off just Googling and YouTubing whatever you wanna learn (which is basically what I did since it was free and much easier to understand).

By Paul A

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Aug 12, 2020

Avoid, this is a crash grab. The instructors don't seem to know a whole lot of R, or are unwilling to teach what they know. Making the labs work is a hassle on itself, not to mention the final assignment outrageous demands come out of nowhere and blindside you.

The introduction of R to the statistics and probability subjects is shallow at best. To learn the same amount of statistics and R on this course; a good textbook, some videos and a tutorial on R will give you better results on a fraction of the time.

The language used on the quizzes and labs is obscure to say the least. You have to navigate through what feels like booby traps in the hopes of figuring out what you're supposed to answer, not to mention the multiple choices are trap them selves. On the quiz feedback it actually said several times, things like: "Although this is partially correct, this other answer is more correct."

The quizzes took me back to my dreaded time in university where the teachers were out to fail you. Allegedly the instructor has a PhD and focused on pedagogy, to be honest I didn't feel this pedagogy approach anywhere and more like a padded resume.

By Jim

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Oct 22, 2021

The labs are terribly written. The instructions don't work in many cases. Even if they did, they assume a fair amount of prerequisite understanding of RStudio. Also, several quiz questions are written incorrectly. There were cases where I had to assume what I thought the question meant, even though the opposite was written, and I was marked correct (proving the question was written incorrectly). I have a statistics degree and have used R in several past projects, so I'm not just complaining out of ignorance.

By Ruilong Z

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Sep 14, 2023

Trust me, you don't want to take this class. The quiz is fine but the project is not at all. First things first, there is no submission button on the final project. Second, they don't teach you how to use R. You will have to learn it by yourself. Also, all of their documents may not working on your end and it is as hard as you can think to get to hold of the "professor" and the customer service. I mean the human service. Their bot is an Artificial Idiot.