Microcredential ekomex Learning Data Visualisation in R

Content 

This 2-day online course focuses on teaching practical skills for making data-driven, good-looking graphs using the ggplot2 package in R.

What Is This Course About?
This comprehensive introductory course equips you with the knowledge and skills to interpret and present your data visually. It will guide you in understanding and showcasing trends in your data using the powerful ggplot2 package in R, enabling you to select the most fitting visual representations. By the end of the course, you'll have the proficiency to translate complex data into clear, meaningful visuals that effectively communicate your data's story.

Learning Goals

  • Understand the ggplot2 syntax and principles: Gain a firm understanding of the ggplot2 package, its syntax, and the underlying grammar of graphics principles it is built upon.
  • Create a variety of plot types: Learn how to create and customize different types of plots, including scatter plots, bar plots, line plots, histograms, and more, using ggplot2.
  • Enhance plot aesthetics: Understand how to manipulate elements like color, size, shape, and theme to make visually pleasing and effective plots that best represent the data.
  • Implement data transformations and statistical summarization: Learn how to use ggplot2 to transform data, summarize it statistically, and display those summaries on your plots.
  • Build multi-layered plots: Develop the ability to build complex, multi-layered plots by adding multiple geometries to the same plot, which will allow you to visualize multiple dimensions and aspects of your data in a single graph.


Recommended Readings for the Course

  • Wickham, H. (2011). ggplot2. Wiley interdisciplinary reviews: computational statistics, 3(2), 180-185.
  • Wickham, H. (2016). Programming with ggplot2. ggplot2: Elegant graphics for data analysis, 241-253.


Assignments for the Course

  • Take-home exercises.
  • Group exercises.


Schedule

  • 10:00-12:00h
  • Break
  • 13:00-15:00h


Who Is Your Instructor?
Dr. Massimiliano Canzi is a Data Scientist and Lab Manager at the University of Konstanz's Linguistics Department. He utilizes R programming for linguistic and cognitive science experiments and teaches statistics to Linguistics Master's students. His research involves quantitative and experimental methodologies and tools such as electroencephalography and pupillometry.

Bildungszeit (can be claimed by employees in Baden-Württemberg) 
Anforderungen des Bildungszeitgesetzes Baden-Württemberg sind erfüllt
Fee 
250 EUR / Early bird 180 EUR / Please note: you will gain access to our learning management system Moodle only after having paid your course fee
ECTS Credits 
1
Contact for Questions 
komex Office
Date 
19.02.2026 (All day) to 20.02.2026 (All day)
Duration 
2 study days
Lecturer 

Massimiliano Canzi

massimiliano.canzi@uni-konstanz.de

Requirements 
To get the most out of this workshop, participants should have at least a beginner level of familiarity with R, such as taught in the ekomex short course “A basic introduction to R for beginners”. This includes understanding what R packages are, knowing how to load them, creating variables and vectors, and opening datasets in formats like .csv or .txt. Prior experience using R, even if minimal, is necessary. Please ensure you have RStudio and R installed before attending. This workshop is focused specifically on data visualization with ggplot2, so while it is an introduction to ggplot2, it is not intended as a basic introduction to R. No prior knowledge of ggplot2 is required.