a

Foundations of Global Health Specialization Course

A practical and reputable launchpad into data science using R—organized, hands-on, and perfect for building future-ready skills.

access

Lifetime

level

Medium

certificate

Certificate of completion

language

English

What will you learn in Data Science: Foundations using R Specialization Course

  • Learn to clean, analyze, and visualize data using R.

  • Get comfortable with asking the right questions, accessing data, and ensuring your research is reproducible.

​​​​​​​​​​

  • Use GitHub to manage your data science projects and collaborate effectively.

  • Gain deep skills in using RStudio, version control, RMarkdown, and ggplot2 for data storytelling.

Program Overview

Course 1: The Data Scientist’s Toolbox

⌛ 17 hours

  • Topics: Set up R, RStudio, Git, and GitHub. Learn basic study-design concepts. Understand data, problems, and tools used in data science.

  • Hands-on: Create your toolbox. Set up software. Make a GitHub repository and explore essential tools.

Course 2: R Programming

⌛ 57 hours

  • Topics: Install and configure R environments. Learn R syntax, loops, functions, debugging, and profiling. Read and write data in R.

  • Hands-on: Complete programming and debugging tasks. Explore data via R functions and code organization. Class

Course 3: Getting and Cleaning Data

⌛ 20 hours

  • Topics: Acquire data from web, APIs, databases, and other sources. Learn data cleaning and tidying (creating tidy data). Understand datasets, codebooks, and processing steps.

  • Hands-on: Obtain and clean real data. Create tidy datasets and document the data-processing workflow

Course 4: Exploratory Data Analysis

⌛ 1–2 hours

  • Topics: Learn visualization and summary techniques. Understand trends, patterns, and relationships in data.

  • Hands-on: Apply exploratory methods on real-world data. Generate visual summaries using real datasets.

Course 5: Reproducible Research

⌛ 7–8 hours

  • Topics: Understand reproducible research and its importance. Learn tools like R Markdown for literate programming.

  • Hands-on: Publish analysis as a single document that includes code and results for reproducibility.

Get certificate

Job Outlook

  • A strong foundation for roles like Data Analyst, Junior Data Scientist, or Research Assistant—especially in environments that use R.

  • Helps bridge into more advanced study or specializations, such as “Data Science: Statistics and Machine Learning.”

  • Build real-world-ready skills prized at academic and industry levels—like GitHub version control, reproducibility, and tidy data practices.

9.7Expert Score
Highly Recommendedx
A well-rounded, beginner-friendly specialization that lays the groundwork for practical, reproducible data science using R. Ideal for those seeking a strong, structured entry point into the data science pipeline.
Value
9.5
Price
9.3
Skills
9.8
Information
9.7
PROS
  • Covers all key stages of working with data—from setup and programming to cleaning, exploration, and reproducibility.
  • Hands-on projects at the end of each course reinforce learning by doing.
  • Respected faculty from Johns Hopkins University add credibility and teaching quality.
CONS
  • Many learners report the lectures can feel dry or engineering-heavy, especially early on.
  • Designed as foundational content—it lacks advanced modeling or machine learning content, which you'll need to pick up later in follow-up specializations.

Specification: Foundations of Global Health Specialization Course

access

Lifetime

level

Medium

certificate

Certificate of completion

language

English

FAQs

  • No prior data science or R programming is required.
  • Course introduces R, RStudio, and GitHub from scratch.
  • Focuses on practical, hands-on data skills.
  • Beginners can follow step-by-step tutorials.
  • Emphasizes reproducible research and data management.
  • Teaches data analysis for global health research.
  • Helps interpret epidemiologic and public health data.
  • Provides skills for policy-making and health program evaluation.
  • Strengthens abilities to manage and visualize datasets.
  • Prepares learners for evidence-based decision-making.
  • Learn R programming, loops, functions, and debugging.
  • Master data cleaning, tidying, and exploratory analysis.
  • Use RMarkdown and ggplot2 for reproducible reporting.
  • Manage projects with GitHub version control.
  • Produce polished, reproducible data analyses for research or reporting.
  • Prepares for roles like Data Analyst, Research Assistant, or Junior Data Scientist.
  • Builds foundation for advanced specializations in statistics or machine learning.
  • Skills are valuable in academic, NGO, and industry settings.
  • Enhances ability to handle and interpret real-world health datasets.
  • Strengthens portfolio with practical, project-based experience.
  • Hands-on exercises in each course module reinforce learning.
  • Includes data cleaning, visualization, and reproducibility projects.
  • Real-world datasets provide practical context.
  • Builds proficiency in R and project workflow management.
  • Final projects result in portfolio-ready outputs demonstrating applied skills.
Foundations of Global Health Specialization Course
Foundations of Global Health Specialization Course
Course | Career Focused Learning Platform
Logo