Coursera上的R语言课程

今天登上Coursera一看，随便点开几门课居然都是用R来辅助的...R是什么时候悄悄的渗透到这么多大学和行业的哇？孤陋寡闻了呢。

入门的，如专门的数据分析计算，有一门Computing for Data Analysis，是时长为4节的R语言课程。讲的貌似比较基础：

This course is about learning the fundamental computing skills necessary for effective data analysis. You will learn to program in R and to use R for reading data, writing functions, making informative graphs, and applying modern statistical methods.

还有一门类似的，Data Analysis（居然是Johns Hopkins的生物统计研究生院一年级的课程）：

This course will focus on how to plan, carry out, and communicate analyses of real data sets. While we will cover the basics of how to use R to implement these analyses, the course will not cover specific programming skills. Computing for Data Analysis will cover some statistical programming topics that will be useful for this class, but it is not a prerequisite for the course.

当然，基础的统计课程也是R的天下了：Statistics One

Statistics One also provides an introduction to the R programming language. All the examples and assignments will involve writing code in R and interpreting R output. R software is free! It is also an open source programming language. What this means is you can download R, take this course, and start programming in R after just a few lectures.

经济与计量、金融计算自然也不能免俗...Introduction to Computational Finance and Financial Econometrics

Learn mathematical and statistical tools and techniques used in quantitative and computational finance. Use the open source R statistical programming language to analyze financial data, estimate statistical models, and construct optimized portfolios.

自然还有类似的金融课程：Financial Engineering and Risk Management

With regards to programming, we have designed the course so that all required "programming" questions can be completed within Excel. However some questions may be easier to complete using Matlab, R, Python etc.

然后居然还看到社会网络分析也是用R来辅助的：Social Network Analysis，这里有我最喜欢的Gephi和R，咿呀呀，不奇怪的嘛，好歹我也是研究了SNA那么久了呢。

We will be using Gephi for visualization and analysis. The interactive demonstrations will be primarily in NetLogo, which you will be able to access through your web browser. If you would like to complete the programming assignments, which will be done in NetLogo and R, NetLogo is freely available here and R is freely available here.

显然这远远没有结束...生统方面，Mathematical Biostatistics Boot Camp自然也是用R的：

• What resources will I need for this class?
  Please download and install the R statistical programming language.

临床上也是...Data Management for Clinical Research：

• What resources will I need for this class?
  For this course, you will need: 1) an Internet connection; 2) software package capable of generating table-based CSV files (e.g. Microsoft Excel, Google Docs, Numbers); and 3) and an install of the open-source R programming platform.

好吧，我已经不奇怪会看到更多的了。这两年业界对于R的需求井喷，绝对跟学校里面的教育脱不开干系。不过如果我只是一味列举而不是比较，那岂不是有违统计学风范？R跟C或者Java比显然没有意思...不是做一件事儿的嘛。SAS的结果只有一门，Passion Driven Statistics，我猜很大程度上是这东西不免费，不能让每个学生都有的用;Matlab就多很多了，主要是Matlab的计算确实强大，其他的跟它确实没法比啊（至今我写模拟还是喜欢在Matlab里面写矩阵运算...R里面涉及到无路可逃的循环真的是让人忍无可忍），目测有9门课程使用。注：Stata结果为0，哎，真的是打不过免费软件啊。

赘述完毕...