Instructor Notes
The presentation of this course should be adapted to the target audience. Beginner researchers may not need advanced topics such as automatically generating and deploying documentation websites; those episodes can be skipped, but the material is included here if required.
Slides
The slides for this lesson are available on Google Slides.
System Setup
Run through the following pre-flight checks with learners at the start of the session. The learner-facing Setup page has full installation instructions.
GitHub
Ensure all learners are logged into GitHub. This is needed to access the example repository and to raise questions or issues during the workshop. Learners without an account can sign up for free.
Visual Studio Code
Verify that Visual Studio Code opens and that the appropriate language extension is installed and active:
- Python: the Python extension by Microsoft.
- R: the R extension by REditorSupport.
Show learners how to open a project folder via File → Open Folder.
Virtual Environment (Python)
For Python learners, verify they can create and activate a virtual environment before installing any packages.
Activation command by platform:
| Platform | Command |
|---|---|
| macOS / Linux | source .venv/bin/activate |
| Windows (Command Prompt) | .venv\Scripts\activate.bat |
| Windows (PowerShell) | .venv\Scripts\Activate.ps1 |
The shell prompt should show (.venv) once the
environment is active.
Note: Python must be available (any distribution,
including Anaconda) for learners who will use mkdocs to
build documentation websites. Confirm this early — learners without
Python cannot complete that episode.
Package Installation (R)
R learners do not need a virtual environment. Confirm that R and the
R extension for VS Code are working, then check that learners can
install packages with install.packages().
If the workshop uses renv for reproducible environments,
verify that learners can run:
R
renv::restore()