Getting Started

Welcome to mccoursepack. This guide helps you install tools, open your first project, and render your first journal.

Quick Setup

Follow these steps to get your system ready with the latest course package and two dedicated RStudio projects–one for your weekly class tasks and one for your weekly journal.

Step 1 – Install or Update the Course Package

The course package mccoursepack is hosted on GitHub. Use the pak package to install or update it.

# Install pak if not already installed
install.packages("pak")

# Install or update the course package
pak::pak("SIM-Lab-SIUE/mccoursepack")

Once the installation is complete, load the package into your R session.

# Load the package
library(mccoursepack)

Run the pak::pak() command at the start of the semester and again weekly to check for updates.

Step 2 – Create Two RStudio Projects

Projects keep everything organized. You’ll create two:

  1. A Tasks Project for weekly assignments.
  2. A Journal Project for your course journal.

Create the Tasks Project

  1. In RStudio: File -> New Project -> New Directory -> New Project.
  2. Choose a location, e.g., Documents/MC451/.
  3. Name the folder: tasks_project.
  4. Click Create Project.

Create the Journal Project

  1. Again: File -> New Project -> New Directory -> New Project.
  2. Same parent folder (Documents/MC451/).
  3. Name the folder: journal_project.
  4. Click Create Project.

You now have two separate projects: one for all weekly tasks, one for your running journal.

Step 3 – Set Up the Journal Project

  1. Open the journal_project in RStudio.
  2. In the Console, run:
download_journal("mc451")   # or "mc501" if in the graduate course

This creates the journal/ folder structure with an entries/ directory, a template, and scripts for adding new entries.

Step 4 – Set Up the Tasks Project

  1. Open the tasks_project in RStudio.
  2. Use the helper function to download the starter files for your first week:
download_week("mc451", week = 1)

(or substitute "mc501" for the graduate course).

Repeat each week: change the week number to get that week’s scaffold.

Step 5 – Confirm Everything Works

  • Open the journal_project -> render the index file:

    quarto render

    This should build a unified journal book.

  • Open the tasks_project -> render a week’s scaffold. Check that Quarto builds the .qmd file into HTML/PDF.

If both projects render without errors, you’re fully set up.

Mental Model

  • Journal project: long-running notebook, one entry per week.
  • Tasks project: fresh scaffolds each week for assignments, labs, and exercises.
  • mccoursepack package: the engine that fetches and organizes everything for you.