1  Week 1: Getting Set Up

1.1 Before Our First Session

Our first live session will focus on turning data into managerial insight, not on troubleshooting software installations. Before then, please install or confirm access to R, RStudio, Excel Solver, and Quarto on the computer you plan to use throughout the course. All four tools are free, and most of you likely have some of them already.

Budget about 30–45 minutes for this. If you run into a problem you cannot resolve, don’t spend hours on it—post a note before our session and bring your laptop so we can fix it together.

1.2 Installing R and RStudio

R is the statistical programming language we will use for analysis; RStudio is the application (an “IDE”) that makes R easier to work with. You need both, and you install them separately, in this order.

Step 1: Install R

ExampleInstallation Steps

  1. Go to the Comprehensive R Archive Network (CRAN) at posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop, which links to the correct R download for your operating system, or go directly to cran.r-project.org.

  2. Choose your operating system (Windows or macOS).

  3. Download the latest release and run the installer, accepting the default options.

Step 2: Install RStudio Desktop

ExampleInstallation Steps

  1. Go to posit.co/download/rstudio-desktop.

  2. Download the free RStudio Desktop version for your operating system.

  3. Run the installer, accepting the default options.

Verifying your installation

Open RStudio (not R by itself—you should never need to open the plain R application directly). You should see a window divided into several panes, including a Console pane. Click in the Console and type:

2 + 2

Press Enter. If you see [1] 4, R and RStudio are working correctly.

NoteAlready have R and RStudio installed?

If you installed R or RStudio some time ago, please update both to recent versions rather than assuming your existing installation will work. In RStudio, you can check your R version by typing R.version.string in the Console. We will be using packages that require a reasonably current version of R (4.3 or later).

1.3 Confirming Access to Excel Solver

We will use Excel’s built-in Solver add-in for the optimization module later in the course, but it is worth enabling now so it is one less thing to configure later.

ExampleEnabling Solver (Windows)

  1. Open Excel and go to File > Options > Add-ins.

  2. At the bottom of the window, next to “Manage,” select Excel Add-ins and click Go….

  3. Check the box next to Solver Add-in and click OK.

  4. Confirm it worked: you should now see a Solver button in the Data tab of the ribbon.

ExampleEnabling Solver (Mac)

  1. Open Excel and go to Tools > Add-ins… in the menu bar.

  2. Check the box next to Solver Add-in and click OK.

  3. Confirm it worked: you should now see a Solver button in the Data tab of the ribbon.

NoteDon’t have Excel installed?

As a Baylor student, you have access to Microsoft Office (including Excel) through the university at no additional cost. If you are not sure how to access it, check the Baylor ITS website or contact the help desk before our first session.

1.4 Installing Quarto

Quarto is the tool we will use to turn your analysis—code, output, and writing—into a single polished report. If you installed a recent version of RStudio (2022.07 or later), Quarto is already built in and you can skip this step.

ExampleInstallation Steps (if needed)

  1. Go to quarto.org/docs/get-started.

  2. Download and run the installer for your operating system.

Verifying your installation

In RStudio, go to File > New File > Quarto Document…. Give it any title, keep the default output format (HTML), and click Create. Click the Render button (it has a blue arrow icon) at the top of the document. A preview should open in a new window showing a simple formatted page. If that happens, Quarto is working correctly.

1.5 Setup Checklist

NoteComplete before Module 1 (September 4)