This repository collects files used in UCR data encounter courses.
You can view and download data files, code, and other materials relevant for your course assignments from this repository.
Please find the course iteration relevant to you as follows. Every iteration of a data encounter course has its own folder. The main folders specify the course codes (as e.g. SSCECON207), while subfolders within those folders specify the semester in which the course was offered (e.g. 2022h1 is Spring 2022, 2022h2 is Fall 20222). Any materials you need for your coursework are also directly linked to on your course's page on the Data Center website.
Please ignore the projects.Rproj and the .gitignore files in the main repository folder. They are only relevant to members of the Data Center who are editing the contents of the folder.
Once you find the file(s) you need to download/view (see the previous section on folder structure), you have multiple options to download them to your local drive, depending on the file type:
- If you see a neatly displayed text file or document, you likely don't need to download it; just read it within Github's display.
- If you see a display of the data/file you need to download, then click on the "Raw" button at the top right side of the display. That will open the file (likely in quite an ugly format). Once you have that file open in your browser, right click in the file, select "Save as" and save the file.
- You might receive a message that the file is too large to be displayed on Github. A "Download" button will then be available at the top right side of the display. Click that button and download the file to your local drive.
- In most cases, direct download links for all files that you need are included on the Data Center website.
The main folder contains projects.Rproj. Clicking on that in your local copy of the repo opens the project in RStudio, which allows you to work with R scripts and Rmarkdown files. You can also create files in any other way and put them in the relevant folder within your File Explorer.
Course iteration subfolders are the same as in private-files, and as explained in the section for students. The internal structure of course iteration folders is flexible depending on the needs of the course. All course iteration folders should have a README file explaining the contents and structure of the folder.
Keep the files in the repo to the absolute minimum, use clear file names, and only include files that you refer to in other materials (e.g. linking to it on the website's course page).
For not course-specific materials (e.g. basic coding tutorials), if it becomes necessary, an additional folder may be created in the future. If you think you already need such a folder, please reach out to Tina to discuss.
The repo is public (visible to anybody on the internet), and is directly shared with all students taking data encounter courses. Keep that in mind when adding/editing files. Do not add any files that are not finished yet, and keep your edits after pushing the first version of a file to a minimum. It goes without saying, but do not add any files containing confidential information (including information only public within the UCR community).
To ensure smooth collaboration in the repo:
- Fork the repo, and submit your changes to the main repo via pull requests (see the tutorial on Moodle on how to do that).
- Make sure to always work with the latest version on your local drive (make sure that your fork has the latest changes, then use "fetch origin" in GitHub Desktop before you start working).
- Regularly commit and push your changes to GitHub to avoid version clashes.
- Use sensible commit messages.
- Do not upload large files to the repo if possible (keep in mind both GitHub's file size limits and the limits of collaborators' local drives).
- Make sure you're familiar with the GitHub and GitHub Desktop tutorials on Moodle; if you encounter any issues, check those first.
- If you encounter issues you can't fix on your own, reach out to Tina.