"Through apt use of analogies, hands-on exercises, and abundant opportunities to get coding, this book delivers on its promise to give a reader without a background in statistics or programming the tools necessary for understanding and conducting real-world statistical inference and data analysis. With an emphasis on learning new concepts first "by hand," before turning to the code, it would make a particularly useful classroom companion. However, the "learning checks" provided throughout also make it a great guide for self-study. Students and teachers alike will benefit from this thoughtful introduction, as it addresses even the smallest of details that can trip beginners up, and keep them from getting to the more fruitful parts of data
analysis."
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Mara Averick, Developer Advocate, RStudio, Inc."This is a comprehensive, modern resource for teaching and learning data science. ModernDive couples the introduction of core statistical concepts directly with learning how to apply data science methods to realistic data sets using the R programming language. The pedagogical approach of ModernDive is thoughtful and highly effective. The text engages learners early with tangible and practical concepts, such as creating data visualizations, that enable students to see early returns on their investment in learning R. The authors have created a guide to learning data science that increases students' engagement and enthusiasm, while simultaneously providing students with the depth of understanding needed to conduct meaningful and reproducible data analyses. ModernDive is my go-to resource for teaching data science. I use it in all of my courses and workshops and I have found it to be the most effective and comprehensive introduction to data science in R available."
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Rich Majerus,
Queens University of Charlotte"With its emphasis on visualization, real world data, and simulation, along with clear instructions about how to work with R and the Tidyverse,
ModernDive is the most accessible and student-friendly statistics textbook I have taught from. The book's early chapters on data wrangling and visualization provide students with hands-on experience with real data and get them excited about making beautiful and informative figures with modern statistical tools like R and the Tidyverse. Where the book especially shines is its simulation-based approach to modeling, confidence intervals, and hypothesis testing. Instead of teaching a complicated flowchart with dozens of types of statistical tests, the book is instead centered around linear modeling and simulation. The chapters on hypothesis testing use simulation to teach about p-values, an approach that students find eminently intuitive. Overall,
ModernDive is a phenomenal modern introduction to statistical inference-it is an essential book for any statistics instructor!"
-Dr. Andrew Heiss,
Andrew Young School of Policy Studies, Georgia State University
