> 03 > computing infrastructure

# > 03 <br> > computing infrastructure
## 💫 with RStudio Cloud! <br> 🔗 <a href="https://rstd.io/design-ds-class">rstd.io/design-ds-class</a>
### dr. mine çetinkaya-rundel
### 27 jan 2020

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layout: true
  
<div class="my-footer">
<span>
Dr. Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel - <a href="https://rstd.io/design-ds-class" target="_blank">rstd.io/design-ds-class</a>
</span>
</div>

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- Install R
- Install RStudio
- Install the following packages:
  - rmarkdown
  - tidyverse 
  - ...
- Load these packages
- Install git
]
.pull-right[
### start like this

- Go to rstudio.cloud
- Log in

```r
>hello R!
```
]

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## Why RStudio in the cloud?

- Reduce friction at first exposure to R
- Avoid local installation
- Install R and RStudio on a server and provide access to students:
  - Centralized RStudio server __*__
  - Dockerized RStudio server __*__
  - RStudio Cloud
  
.footnote[
__*__ Çetinkaya-Rundel, Mine, and Rundel, Colin. "Infrastructure and tools for teaching computing throughout the statistical curriculum." The American Statistician (2018). Part of the Practical Data Science for Stats collection.
]

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# Hello RStudio Cloud!

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## What is RStudio Cloud?

.pull-left-narrow[
<img src="img/cloud.png" width="264" />
]
.pull-right-wide[
.large[We created **RStudio Cloud** to make it easy for professionals, hobbyists, trainers, teachers, and students to do, share, teach, and learn data science using R.]
]

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---

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## Why RStudio Cloud?

- Does not require IT support
- Features designed for instructors:
  - Classes can be organized in workspaces
  - Members can be assigned different roles: instructor, TA, student
  - Projects can be public or private
  - Projects can be made into assignments 
  - Students can make copies of projects created by instructor
  - Instructor can peek into student projects
  - A base project template can ensure same packages in each new project created in the workspace
  - Git works out of the box

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## Contexts

- Semester long courses
  - Intro data science / statistics: little to no background in stats, data science, programming
  - Upper level data science / statistics: Varied computing background and different computer setups
  
- Shorter workshops: Likely no opportunity to communicate pre-workshop instructions, varied computing background and learning goals

---

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## Workspaces

- When you create an account on RStudio Cloud you get a workspace of your own

- You can add a new workspace and control its permissions

- Projects in either workspace can be public or private

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## Projects

- A new project in RStudio Cloud

- is basically a new project in the RStudio IDE

.alert[
**PSA:** If you use RStudio, use projects! Trust me, you won’t regret it. Find out more at r4ds.had.co.nz/workflow-projects.html.
]

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## Projects from Git

- A new project from Git Repo in RStudio Cloud
- is creates (cloning) a project from a Git repository RStudio

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# Teaching a short workshop

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## Sharing an individual project

<br>

- Students land directly in a project upon login
- Works well for workshops where all work will be completed in a single project
- Also great for sharing code in general, e.g. collaboration, reprexes, etc.
]
--
.pull-right[
### Not so good...

- Students need to remember to make a copy of the project (which means you need to remember to remind them!)
- Changes you make after student launches the project won’t propagate to their project
]

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#### First you're the instructor:
- Create a new project and give it a name.
- Create a template R Markdown document in the project.
- Change the access level of the project so others can see it as well.
- Grab the project URL and share it with your neighbor:
- Tip: You can create a short link for the URL at bitly.com.

#### Now you're the student: 
Access your neighbor's project as if you're the student and they’re the instructor.

]

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# Teaching a longer course

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#### You’re the instructor:

- Create a new workspace and give it a name.
  - Tip: Check in with your neighbor and use a different name.
- Add a short description.

]

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## Getting students into class workspace

#### Under the Membership tab:

.pull-left-narrow[
<img src="img/workspace-access.png" width="100%" />
]
.pull-right-wide[
- Make workspace shared for a short period of time, share link with students, enroll them as contributors.
- After drop/add switch over to this access level
- Use invitations for visitors added mid-semester
]

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## Permission levels

| role        | permission                                       | course role |
|-------------|--------------------------------------------------|-------------|
| admin       | manage users, view, edit and manage all projects | instructor  |
| moderator   | view, edit and manage all projects               | TA          |
| contributor | create, edit and manage their own projects       | student     |
| viewer      | view projects shared with everyone               | auditor     |

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## Permissions

### Under the Membership tab:

.pull-left-narrow[
<img src="img/permissions.png" width="100%" />
]
.pull-right-wide[
- By default, all permissions are turned off
- Think carefully before checking these boxes
]

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## Capacity

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#### You’re the instructor:

- Change the settings of your workspace to Shared.
- Change the permissions so that contributors or viewers can’t see the list of members and can’t change the visibility of their projects.

]

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#### You’re the instructor:

- Add a base project to your workspace:
  - Install one or two of your favorite packages.
  - Start an R Markdown document so necessary packages get installed.
  - Add a code-of-conduct.md (you can copy-paste from [here](https://web.cvent.com/event/36ebe042-0113-44f1-8e36-b9bc5d0733bf/websitePage:988cd046-614c-445b-b658-1c8d83ca82b0) if you like) or some other plain text document.
- Make this project visible to everyone.
In the settings menu, set this project as the base project.
- Create a new assignment: `Homework 01`.

]

---

---

#### You’re the instructor:
- Grab the sharing link for your workspace.
  - Optional: Make a short link for it.
- Share it with your neighbor.

#### Now you’re the student:
- Access your neighbor’s workspace and start the assignment.

]

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## Git integration

Base project template can be used, so new project from git also has the right packages installed!

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## Sharing a workspace

- Various permission levels
- Base projects with desired packages installed
- Assignments, which remove the need to remind students to make a copy of the project before starting work
- Ability to peek into students’ projects
]
.pull-right[
### Not so good...

- Students land in the workspace, may need to provide instructions for the next steps
- You can update the base project throughout the course, but it will only be applied to projects created going forward
]

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# On the horizon...

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## Institution accounts

![](img/institution-accounts.png)

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## Dashboards

Student usage / engagement metrics

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## 📦 rscloud

- A new package for managing RStudio Cloud spaces with R: [github.com/rstudio/rscloud](https://github.com/rstudio/rscloud)
- Requires an API key, which any instructor can request (via email for now, but soon in the UI as well)

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# Parting remarks

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## Tips

- Each project is allocated 1GB of RAM
  - Test things out before assignments involving large datasets

- What your students see is not always what you see
  - Create a secondary account and add as a student
  
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## Primers

.pull-left[
<img src="img/primers.png" width="100%" />
]
.pull-right[
[rstudio.cloud/learn/primers](https://rstudio.cloud/learn/primers)

- Free primers made with the **learnr** package
- Companion to R4DS by Grolemund and Wickham
]

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.discussion[
What models can you envision for collecting assignments and providing feedback when teaching with RStudio Cloud?
]