This release (v3.0) of R-DAVIS is the final 2020 iteration of the quarter-long graduate seminar course taught by Martha Zillig and Michael Culshaw-Maurer. The course content integrates and builds on Data Carpentry Ecology lessons, and is taught as part of the curriculum for students in the Graduate Group in Ecology at the University of California, Davis, USA.
The lessons in this version have been significantly updated since 2019, with a greater focus on in-class activity time, weekly homework, and a final assignment. The lessons tend to be shorter, with more time given for each lesson, which allowed us to stay on schedule more effectively than in the past. This also involved cutting out the "choose your own adventure" lesson for the final class, but that allowed us to get through all of our planned material without rushing.
Helpers: The key to making this course successful was having integral course helpers, willing to help answer questions and troubleshoot while the course moved forward. In 2020, helpers included:
Christian John
Christine Parisek
Connor Higgins
Instrumental to the course content and organization is Ryan Peek, the original creator of this course.
Support: Funding was provided by the GGE, and the course faculty sponsor was Truman Young. The UC Davis Data Science Initiative (now known as the Data Lab) provided classroom space.
Release
The 2020 course website can be rebuilt using this version as it was presented throughout the quarter, but we expect further development of the website for future iterations. This version should allow students that attended the R-DAVIS 2020 course to find materials where they found them during the course, but also to see the most polished version of the content as the course improves in the future.