Data Analysis

EIB-301-01-A1

Data Analysis course hex badge

Course Overview

This course is a required offering in the English Taught Program in International Business (ETP) at Shih Chien University, taught by Yu-You Liou. It is designed to equip students with practical skills in data analysis and communication through the modern R ecosystem.

The primary objective of the course is to develop students’ ability to explore, analyze, and present data effectively. A central focus is placed on data visualization using ggplot2, with an emphasis on understanding the grammar of graphics as a principled framework for building clear and informative figures. Students will learn to translate analytical findings into compelling visual narratives suitable for academic and professional audiences.

The required textbook is ggplot2: Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis (3rd ed.) by Hadley Wickham, Danielle Navarro and Thomas Lin Pedersen, freely available at ggplot2-book.org. Adler’s R in a Nutshell (2nd ed.) is optional background reading only.

Start Here

Before the first class, work through these five steps — each one is needed to submit your very first assignment:

  1. Install R, then RStudio, following the course R page.
  2. In the RStudio console run install.packages(c("tidyverse", "patchwork", "uuid", "rmarkdown", "knitr", "tinytex")), then tinytex::install_tinytex().
  3. Copy the official assignment template from the Problem sets page.
  4. Knit it to PDF once, to confirm your setup works before anything is graded.
  5. Upload that test PDF to the course pCloud folder so you know the submission route works.

Assessment

Component Weight Details
In-Class Exercises 36% 12 exercises × 3% each
Midterm Exam 32%
Final Exam 32%

Exam Regulations

Both the mid-term and the final examination are answered online, on your own laptop, in the classroom. The following regulations apply to both.

  1. Mandatory Attendance Students must take the exam in person. Roll call will be taken five minutes before the exam begins. Late arrival or absence will result in a score of zero.

  2. Network Restriction The exam system tracks IP addresses. You must use the campus Wi-Fi. Access from a non-campus IP address will result in a score of zero.

  3. One Device Only The exam must be taken on a single device. Keeping any additional device, such as a phone or a tablet, available during the exam will result in a score of zero.

  4. Authorized Resources This is an open-book exam. Printed reference materials are permitted without limit. Electronic reference materials and AI tools, such as ChatGPT or Gemini, are prohibited. Any use will result in a score of zero.

  5. Media Prohibition Photography, video or audio recording, and screenshotting are strictly prohibited. Violators will receive a score of zero.

  6. No Communication or Disturbance Interpersonal communication, causing noise or disruptive movements are strictly prohibited. Violators will receive a score of zero.

  7. Copy-Paste Disabled The exam system prohibits copying and pasting. Do not attempt to bypass this feature.

The link to the examination system will be published on this page one week before each exam. Until then, this demonstration page shows what the interface looks like.

Contact Me

Please feel free to contact me via email. However, to ensure fairness and consistency for all students, I will not respond to three categories of inquiries:

  • Questions regarding information that is already available on the website

  • Requests for make-up examination, assignment, or attendance adjustments

  • Requests for special arrangements regarding examination schedules

Thank you for your understanding as we work to keep our learning environment fair for everyone.