103-0377-10L Basics of RE&IS
| Semester | Autumn Semester 2020 |
| Lecturers | M. J. Van Strien, R. Spielhofer, M. Switalski |
| Periodicity | yearly recurring course |
| Language of instruction | English |
| Comment | Only for Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems MSc. |
| Abstract | Every Master student should acquire a number of basic skills that will allow them to practice science independently. Especially in such a broad and practice-oriented MSc program as Spatial Development and Infrastructure Systems, it is important that all students develop a solid foundation of general scientific skills. In this course such general skills are taught. |
| Learning objective | The aim of the course is to teach students starting a RE&IS Master basic skills that are not only required to successfully complete the RE&IS Master program, but are also important for the future career in science or practice. The course consists of two components covering the following topics: -Learning the basics of the statistical software R -Important aspects of sound scientific conduct and practice. |
| Content | The first seven weeks of the course, students will learn the basics of the open-source software R, which is currently one of the most popular software programs for (statistical) data analysis and data modelling. During the computer lab sessions, students will learn how to read and write data from and to files, create and handle R objects such as vectors and data frames, plot data (histograms, boxplots, scattered plots and simple maps), write conditional statements as well as for- and while-loops. Each lab-session will start with a short lecture, after which students have to complete several exercises that have to be completed in order to pass the course. In the following five weeks, issues related to scientific conduct, such as plagiarism or citation, will be discussed. In addition, the students will be introduced to proper citation style and the important elements in the design of tables and graphs. This part of the course will consist of lectures and exercises. Students have to complete the citation and the graph/table exercise in order to pass the course. Two lectures in the course will be reserved for the students to work on their assignments. |
| Lecture notes | A syllabus of the course will be handed out at the beginning of the course. Furthermore, handouts of the lectures and exercise materials will be made available during the course. |