AURA Lab R Companion
A Visual Studio Code extension that gets students new to R to a working setup, then writes commented tidyverse code from menus. It is built for the R courses at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville: MC 427 Social Media Analytics, MC 451 Research Methods, and MC 501 Research Methods (graduate).
R stays visible. Every menu writes the code into your own script, with a comment on each step, so you can read it, run it, and explain it.
What it does
- The AURA panel. An icon in the Activity Bar lists every task for your course: setup, data, charts, tests, your steps, and help.
- Setup. Finds R, checks every package your course needs, installs what is missing, and checks again from your R library.
- Write R code. Menus for importing a CSV or Excel file, wrangling, joining two tables, describing, charts, and the course's statistical tests. Each writes the same code the course pages teach, into the script you have open (or
steps.Rwhen none is open), so you can run every step again from the top. - Coding sample. Draws a random sample to code, with a seed you pick, and saves it as a CSV file. The same seed draws the same rows every time.
- Data viewer and coding sheet. Opens a data file in a grid, and lets you code rows from your codebook, once or twice for a reliability check. The R that rebuilds your coding sheet goes into your steps by itself, and Write this view as R does the same for the filters and sorts you set. Your original file is never changed.
- Reliability. Cohen's kappa and Krippendorff's alpha from the two passes in your coding sheet, or from the reliability grid (MC 451 and MC 501).
- Explain an R error. Paste what R printed and get a plain-English cause and the steps to fix it, with a one-click fix where the Companion can make it.
Install
Search for AURA Lab R Companion in the Extensions view (Ctrl+Shift+X, or Cmd+Shift+X on a Mac) and select Install. It is on the Visual Studio Marketplace and Open VSX. The R extension for VS Code (by REditorSupport) installs with it. You also need R; the extension takes care of the packages.
Commands
Open the Command Palette (View, then Command Palette, or Ctrl+Shift+P) and type AURA, or select the AURA icon in the Activity Bar.
| Command | What it does |
|---|---|
| Pick my course | Tells the extension which course's packages and code to use. |
| Check my setup | Reports R, each course package, the R extension for VS Code, and sess (the helper that connects R to VS Code), line by line. |
| Install what is missing | Installs the missing packages, then checks again. |
| Open my course workspace | Opens or clones your course folder. |
| Write R code | The menus: data, describe, and test. |
| Import a data file (CSV or Excel) | Picks a file and writes the code that loads it. |
| Open my steps | Opens the script that holds your steps. |
| Run my steps from the top | Runs that script in R, in order. |
| Open the data viewer | The grid and coding sheet. |
| Reliability grid | Two coding passes and the reliability statistics. |
| Check my test choice | Says whether the test you chose fits your variables. |
| Explain an R error | A plain-English explanation of an R message. |
| Open an R terminal | Starts R in VS Code. |
| Where to get help | Course help pages and how to ask. |
| Fix R (not attached) | Installs what R needs to connect to VS Code, then opens a new R terminal. |
| Make a help report | Your setup, versions, and recent errors in one document, ready to email to your instructor. |
Privacy
No telemetry. The only network traffic is the CRAN and GitHub downloads you start with Install what is missing. Make a help report reads your setup and log files on your computer and sends nothing; you decide what to email.
More
The full guide, with every feature, the settings, accessibility, how the extension finds and runs R, and how to adapt it for another course, is in docs/details.md. The changes in each release are in the CHANGELOG.
It is part of From Vibes to Variables, the AURA Lab's open methods package, with the course hub, the v2v R package, and the course workspace. MC 427 uses the mc427-codespace template.
Development
npm install
npm test # compiles, then runs the unit tests
npm run check:separation # fails on any SIM DAD or TASS source
npm run package # all of the above, then builds dist/r-companion-<version>.vsix
This is an AURA Lab project. It contains no SIM DAD LLC or TASS source, and scripts/check-separation.mjs fails the build if any appears.
License and citation
MIT. See LICENSE. To cite the extension, use CITATION.cff.
