Weeks 9 Through 11 Overview

Published

2025-08-11

This wraps up the content for week 8. Now we require some practice! You should head back to our Moodle site to check out your assessment for this week.

This week is all about Shiny! This is one of my favorite topics in 558. R Shiny is a web framework that allows you to build interactive web applications and dashboards using the R programming language. It simplifies the process of creating web applications, especially for data analysis and visualization, by allowing you to work entirely in R without needing extensive knowledge of web development languages like HTML, CSS, or JavaScript.

Weeks 9 & 10 Additional Readings/Learning Materials

Basic Concept Video: Short 2-minute video on the high level concept of what R Shiny is!

Mastering Shiny: to be used at your own discretion

Weeks 9 & 10 Learning Objectives

Upon completion of these two weeks, students will be able to:

  1. outline the creation of a shiny app

    1. define the term R Shiny App
    2. describe the files/parts needed to create a Shiny app
    3. reference elements in the user interface in the server and vice-versa
    4. utilize debugging techniques for shiny apps

  2. create a user interface for a shiny app

    1. add and customize widgets to the user interface of a shiny app
    2. customize a shiny app to have a dynamic user interface
    3. describe the three major methods to create a dynamic user interface
    4. compare, contrast, and choose an appropriate method for creating a dynamic user interface
    5. create a custom user interface using fluidRows

  3. create a server file to run R code on the backend of a Shiny app

    1. explain the purpose of the server file
    2. explain what a reactive context is and why it is important to know about
    3. compare and contrast reactive and observe
    4. source files into shiny apps
    5. improve efficiency of shiny apps through the use of things like isolate
    6. create a shiny app with mouse over and click inputs

Use the table of contents on the left or the arrows at the bottom of this page to navigate to the next learning material!