How to Use LearningLab
ERCLearningLab is a comprehensive resource designed to help students, faculty, and staff develop data and research skills. The platform offers quick-start guides , in-depth tutorials, workshop recordings, and cheat sheets centered on the main software programs that we offer at the ERC: R, QGIS, ArcGIS, Excel, and Stata.
From downloading data and setup up to tackling common project goals—like applying population weights in Stata or changing data types in QGIS—you'll find hands-on guidance at your own pace. Whether you're working on a class project, conducting independent research, or strengthening your technical toolkit, ERCLearningLab serves as a one-stop resource that complements our regular workshops and help desk services at the ERC.
From downloading data and setup up to tackling common project goals—like applying population weights in Stata or changing data types in QGIS—you'll find hands-on guidance at your own pace. Whether you're working on a class project, conducting independent research, or strengthening your technical toolkit, ERCLearningLab serves as a one-stop resource that complements our regular workshops and help desk services at the ERC.
Features
Complete Guides
Are you looking to learn or advance your skills in QGIS, Stata, R or Excel, and don’t know where to start? Our getting started written guides have been specifically designed by our fellows to guide you through a sequence of skills across different softwares using a sample dataset that you can practice with.
Cheat Sheets
Use cheat sheets for quick tips on how to use specific tools and write basic functions for data preprocessing, analysis, and visualization across the softwares we offer.
How do I..?
This section contains short, digestible guides that target particular skills related to data analysis, visualization, and statistics within one of the softwares that are offered at the ERC (R, Stata, Excel, QGIS). Example skills that are featured on How Do I…? Include:
- How to add population weights in Stata
- How to format regression output tables in R using stargazer
- How to create a bar chart in Excel
- How to sort and filter in Excel
- How to add a layer in QGIS
How do I’s are intended for those of you who have some basic familiarity with the software, and are looking to learn a specific skill.
Workshop Recordings
Beyond the written and short-form video guides found in “How do I” and “Complete Guides”, you can also access long-form software tutorials in R, Stata, SQL, Exc
el, GIS, and more. These tutorials use a sample dataset to walk you through a set of skills in a given programming language or software, and are also hosted in-person at the ERC throughout the academic year.