Last updated on 2026-02-13 | Edit this page

Session 1

Required Self-Study

Session Plan

Intro of participants

  • Who am I?
  • Who are you?
    • fields of studies?
    • Background in programming?
      • R, Python, other languages?
      • AI for coding tasks?
      • git(hub)?

Intro to course

  • Goals of the course
    • experiencing different use cases for AI in R(Studio) coding
    • discussion and consideration of AI-coding-related issues and implications
    • awareness of possibilities and limits
  • Course setup
    • style and workflow (inversed/flipped classroom)
    • what is expected from you?
    • what do you expect from me?
  • Technicalities
    • GitHub account & student status registration
      • all set up? problems?
    • What is GitHub (for)?
    • Why GitHub Copilot in this course?

Experiences with AI-supported coding

As a follow-up to the task in “Where Do We Need AI Support?”

(Students should have thought about and made some notes…!)

  • Discussion of AI coding experiences
    • Have you used AI coding assistants before? What was your experience?
    • Can you share an example where AI helped you solve a problem?
    • Can you share an example where AI suggestions were incorrect or unhelpful?
    • How do you decide when to use AI assistance versus figuring things out yourself?

AI for self-study

  • AI-bots for self-assessment = example for tailored AI-supported learning
  • ? experiences? useful? annoying? alternatives? hacks?

Getting Started with GitHub Copilot

  • TASK: Write a short description of your field of interest and what data sets are typically used in your field. Use GitHub Copilot to help you write this description.
    • Start with creating a new Markdown file
    • Set a descriptive header prefixed with an # to mark it as a title (e.g., # My Field of Interest)
    • Write a few sentences describing your field and the data sets you work with.
    • Use GitHub Copilot to generate suggestions for your description. You can trigger suggestions by typing and accepting them with Tab or Enter. You can also ask Copilot specific questions or for help with phrasing by typing prompts like “Write a sentence about…” or “What are common data sets in…?”
    • What suggestions does Copilot give you?
    • How do you evaluate the quality of these suggestions?
    • Do you find the suggestions helpful? Why or why not?

Discussion of secrets and sensitive information

  • Passwords and Tokens via System Variables
    • Why is it important to keep secrets out of your code?
    • How can you manage secrets securely in RStudio?
    • What are the best practices for using environment variables to store sensitive information?