9  Getting Help

Data science and statistical programming can be difficult. Computers are stupid and little errors in your code can cause hours of frustration (even if you’ve been doing this stuff for years!). You shouldn’t spend more than 15 minutes struggling with anything in this class without asking for help.

We are fully committed to making sure that you learn everything you were hoping to learn from this class. If you tell us you’re having trouble, I will not judge you or think less of you. I hope you’ll extend me the same grace. You never owe us personal information about your health (mental or physical). If you need extra help, or if you need more time with something, or if you feel like you’re behind or not understanding everything, do not suffer in silence! Talk to us! We will work with you.

In general, we don’t have a way to diagnose your problem with R, RStudio or Quarto if you don’t show us what you’re typing that causes an error, or a lack of results. If you wrote a Quarto file, we need to see it, along with a specific question (or series of them) about specific error messages or strange results you are getting. We need to replicate the problem in order to know how to fix your problem, and it also helps if we know what error message you’re seeing, or what strange result you are getting.

9.1 Getting One-on-one help over Zoom (TA Office Hours)

You are strongly encouraged to visit our teaching assistants (TAs) during their Zoom office hours, whenever you need help with the course. This is the best way to get one-on-one help, or try out a new idea. Office Hours are held for your benefit. Our TAs are volunteering their time to help you, and most of them have been in your shoes in previous years. They want to help you!

  • The weekly TA office hours schedule appears on our Contact Us page as well as our Course Calendar. Zoom links are provided on our Shared Google Drive (431 Fall 2026 Dr Love and Students).
  • No appointment is necessary. Please just drop in.

9.2 Getting Help over email

Once the semester begins, if you have a question you want to pose via email about the course (especially outside of TA office hour times), please send it to 431-help@case.edu.

  • Professor Love and the TAs will see this email, and usually respond fairly quickly.

9.3 How We’ll Use Canvas

The course’s primary listing on Canvas is PQHS 431, but students in CRSP 431 and MPHP 431 should find the same information. We’ll use the Canvas platform for two things:

  • turning in most of our lab and project assignments
  • providing information about (and maintaining recordings of) our class sessions

Visit https://canvas.case.edu/ to log in and see what’s available there.

9.4 How We’ll Use Google Drive

Professor Love will share some data and some other materials (answer sketches for lab assignments, for example) through a Shared Google Drive. You will need to log into Google through your CWRU account in order to view and use these materials.

  • To check that you have access to this Shared Google Drive once class begins, visit this link.

9.5 Meeting with Professor Love

Professor Love does not hold regular office hours. He will arrive 10 minutes before each class, and stay afterwards, as well, to address any drop-in student concerns and questions.

  • If you have any unique concerns about the course, need special accommodations or have any other issues you want to discuss with Professor Love specifically, please email him (Thomas dot Love at case dot edu).
  • It’s always helpful if Professor Love knows who you are before December, and this can be an especially difficult thing to achieve in a large class like this.

9.6 Other Sources of Help

We provide extensive supplemental resources for 431 on the Resources page on our website, and in class-specific READMEs and presentations, as linked on the Course Calendar.

In addition, there are many, many online resources to help you learn R beyond those we provide.

  • RStudio Education is a great site with multiple learning paths available.
  • Even in the age of generative AI, building internet searches (“googling”) effectively is an important skill that requires practice. Don’t be afraid to use search engines to figure out how to code things in R, for example.
  • The RStudio Community at Posit is a forum specifically designed for people using RStudio and the tidyverse (and that will be you.)