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Data Analysis

Josh Milbrandt
Josh Milbrandt
6,209 Points
Posted by Josh Milbrandt
Josh Milbrandt
6,209 Points

Why nothing related to R in the entire data analytics section? R has become a pre-requisite to advanced data analysis.

I was visiting this site to brush up on my R. In University Environments R is farmore common than Python when doing things Like Machine Learning. When it comes to Scientific Data analysis in corporate environments the preferred tool by most Senior Scientists is R. R is the language of Data Science, it is used twice as often as Python in Data mining, and around 20% more often in Data Analytics.

Many plugins related to Protein Folding and Gene Sequencing are actually exclusive to R. Meaning that in practice knowledge of R would be a prerequisite to doing some of the data analytics that this website suggests.

How you could have a course on Machine Learning that doesn't mention R at all, I have no idea. There is an entire Library on Data Science that doesn't mention it when R is the most common tool in beginner Data Science, no Washu Grad student in Stem that would be hired over the summer or taken seriously if they couldn't recognize R code.

Most of the Data Analytics that this site teaches and suggests doing would not be done Python, it would be done in R. The fact that R doesn't have it's own Library was surprising. There is even Machine Learning stuff on this site and none of it mentions R. it's like a purposeful exclusion.

I posted this in Data Analysis because the #1 or #2 tool for Data Analysis is not even mentioned in that section.

Every single one of your competitors has a class on R. The R Class on Coursera is on track to hit a million people this December and it's absolutely free with 90% positive Reviews. Most "Introduction to Statistical Programming" classes are in R.

This should be a huge red flag. R has been ubiquitous for three years now. This makes me question my subscription, I am having to go to another website that I don't pay monthly for to enroll in a free course. Google has even gone so far as to say it is not going to make breaking changes to R tensorflow code.

Are there immediate plan to rectify this situation?

1 Answer

Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points
Steven Parker
Steven Parker
231,198 Points

If I recall, shortly after Treehouse began developing Data Science and Machine Learning courses, the owner made a drastic change to company focus and neither of those topics were part of the new direction. But since then, the company has changed hands, so yet another shift may be in the works.

In any case, while the forum is a great place to get help from other students on learning issues, a better way to submit comments and suggestions on course material is by contacting the staff as described on the Support page.

Josh Milbrandt
Josh Milbrandt
6,209 Points
Josh Milbrandt
Josh Milbrandt
6,209 Points

That's interesting. I don't like R but it's just ubiquitous in a very large number of domains. Especially when there isn't time to train a group of people to learn the logic of a full programming language. R allows you to visualize the data as you are working with it which allows groups of people who have trouble picturing how data is being manipulated in their minds (for example some people might have trouble imagining the results of a pivot or cross-apply but R shows what is happening to the data when operators like this are used)

certainly Python is preferrable but you if you have someone who is smart but knows nothing about coding you can can get someone up and running and working with large datasets much faster in R than you can in Python and this is a huge issue in Academia where Coding is necessary but it is not the primary responsibility of the person in question. For example someone who's primary responsibilities might be phylogeny and Neuroscience does not have time to be a full time coder up to date with several programming languages.

I will make a recommendation thank you for the info