| Activity type | Online virtual group |
| Title | Virtual group on strengthening the use of the statistical software package R |
| Participants | There were 22 registered participants from Armenia (4), Azerbaijan (3), Belarus (5), Georgia (4), Moldova (4) and Ukraine (2). Participants were staff from various parts of the NSIs (both subject-matter statistics and support units such as IT). |
| Location | Online |
| Timing | Kick-off: 18 February 2021 Training: 22, 24-26 February and 1 March 2021 Follow-up sessions: 25 March, 15 April and 6 May 2021 |
| Activity code | C2.1_42 |
The activity was set up as an e-learning course. Participants were given access to Statistics Iceland’s online learning hub Eloomi with video lectures, self-assessment tests, reading material as well as a chat function. The participants studied the online material in the morning with an open session during the afternoons of the course where the course instructors were available to the students, using an open Zoom call with all the students and the interpreters.
In addition, three follow-up sessions were also conducted, which were similar to the open sessions. The main objective of the follow-up sessions was for the students to bring concrete examples or problems they had been working on after the course ended. Then, during the session, they could get help and feedback from the instructors and/or their colleagues in the group.
STEs assessed the work done on the e-learning platform and concluded that the work was carried out well and without any major difficulties or problems from participants. The course contributed to supporting the further use of R within the statistical systems of the partner countries. This is particularly important as R is an open source software which can be used for solving different problems and, with the addition of the GSBPM, the solutions can be made generic over a host of differing statistical outputs within, or between, statistical systems.
