Super helpful course for anyone actually interested in biological research/data analysis. As a non-premed interested in research, this is the most useful biology course I’ve ever taken. Weekly completion-based skill check assignments, a guided midterm (take home set of questions), and an open project final (whatever you want to do within certain criteria, applying all the skills you’ve learned). Lectures are recorded so attendance isn’t required, though I do recommend going occasionally to ask any questions you might have. Only complaint is that the syntax of certain functions is not made clear, but Google helps.

Data wrangling, model fitting and testing, data analysis, data visualization. All in R/RStudio, beginner friendly. You are shown every function you’ll need to know for the assignments. If you work in a lab and are doing BIOL388S/390, you can use your lab data for the final project, then use your analysis for the 390 paper. Super applicable to real-life data analysis.

Professor and TA are both super nice and leave detailed feedback on assignments. Office hours by appointment and very open to answering questions.

Having some stats experience beforehand is helpful but not essential. STAT312 or any form of data science is enough. Coding experience not necessary but is helpful. If you already have R installed, UPDATE IT! Mine was a few versions behind and it broke quite a few of the functions we needed to use.