Courses and Open Teaching materials

This page collects the main courses and open materials I make publicly available. Whenever possible, slides, exercises, and code are freely accessible so that students, teachers, and researchers can reuse or adapt them.

Basics of R for Data Science English


Course website: https://enricotoffalini.github.io/Basics-R/

Short description
Short (10-hour) introductory course on R for data science. The idea is to give learners a practical entry point into R, a language widely used in academic research and increasingly in applied data science, with emphasis on foundational tools and concepts that prepare students for future methodological courses/applications where R is routinely requested.

Open materials available

  • 📑 Slides (fully open)
    • Intro to This Course, Getting Started with R
    • Basic Operations, Basic Types of Data
    • Environment, Packages, Functions, Import/Export
    • Data Structures: Vectors
    • Data Structures: Data Frames
    • Data Structures: Factors, Lists, Matrices, Arrays
    • Basics of Programming: If/Else, Iterations, Custom Functions
  • 🧪 Exercises and tutorials
    • First steps in R
    • Exercises on vectors and data frames
    • Basics of programming with real data tasks
    • Challenges that integrate core concepts from slides
    • Additional optional exercises (e.g., word clouds, statistical data simulation, Monte Carlo simulations) for motivated learners

Who this is useful for

  • PhD students and early-career researchers who need a compact, applied introduction to R
  • Teachers who want ready-made R exercises and examples to integrate in their own courses

Basics of Python for Data Science English


Course website: https://enricotoffalini.github.io/Basics-Python/

Short description
Short (10-hour) introductory course on Python for data science. The idea is to give learners (who ideally already use R) a practical entry point into Python, with a focus on tools that R does not cover as easily.

Open materials available

  • 📑 Slides (fully open)
    • Intro to This Course, aka Why We Should Use Python
    • Getting Started: IDEs, Operations, Basic Types of Data
    • Virtual Environments, Packages, Import/Export
    • Basic Syntax, Typing, Indexing, Differences with R
    • Basics of Data Science: Intro to NumPy and pandas
    • Programming: Conditionals, Loops, Custom Functions
  • 🧪 Exercises and tutorials
    • First steps in Python and in NumPy / pandas
    • Programming exercises that mix control flow with real data tasks
    • Extended exercises on:
      • Clustering and simulation of clusters
      • Sentiment analysis with Hugging Face transformers
      • Text embeddings, PCA, clustering, and simple text classification
      • Examples of language, speech, and image processing
      • A mini-tutorial on using AI / LLMs as research assistants in systematic reviews
  • 💻 Code and reproducible material All materials are hosted publicly on GitHub and are designed so that students can adapt scripts and notebooks to their own research problems

Who this is useful for

  • PhD students who already know R and want a practical bridge to Python
  • Instructors who want ready-to-use, research-oriented Python notebooks for data science, NLP, and ML

General Psychology (MOOC on Federica Web Learning) English


Course page (free registration required): https://lms.federica.eu/course/view.php?id=889

Short description
Online course in General Psychology hosted on Federica Web Learning. The MOOC covers most core topics of general psychology and is taught in English.

In this course, my modules focus on:

  • Methodology of research
  • Learning and conditioning
  • Memory
  • Language and thought
  • Motivation
  • Intelligence

Within the same MOOC, another professor covers:

  • History of psychology
  • Perception
  • Time perception
  • Attention
  • Emotion
  • Personality

What you find in the course

  • 🎥 Video lectures with concise explanations and examples
  • 📝 Self-assessment quizzes to monitor understanding
  • 📚 Supplementary materials, such as short texts or reading suggestions linked to modules

How this can be useful

  • As a fully online, self-paced introduction to general psychology in English
  • As support for university courses in General Psychology
  • As a structured revision tool for students and professionals

Psicologia dell’Intelligenza Umana Italiano


Sito del progetto e del corso IN COSTRUZIONE: https://enricotoffalini.github.io/psicologia-intelligenza

Questo sito è un libro online in costruzione e, allo stesso tempo, uno spazio che raccoglie materiali didattici e divulgativi sulla psicologia dell’intelligenza umana, pensato per:

  • chiunque voglia capire meglio cosa significhi “essere intelligenti”
  • studentesse e studenti universitari
  • psicologhe e psicologi che usano test cognitivi nella pratica

Contenuti principali

  • 📘 Capitoli tematici
    • Storia e teorie classiche e contemporanee dell’intelligenza
    • Basi biologiche e genetiche delle differenze individuali
    • Misurazione psicometrica, QI, e principali test cognitivi
    • Fenomeni sociali e culturali legati all’intelligenza
  • 💥 Temi avanzati e critici
    • Neurodiversità, plusdotazione, funzionamento intellettivo limite e disabilità
    • Interpretazione dei punteggi, limiti dei test, rischi di uso superficiale dei risultati
  • 💬 Divulgazione e Professione
    • Sezioni come Domande & Risposte e brevi approfondimenti su temi specifici
    • Ad esempio, una pagina dedicata a una rassegna commentata degli strumenti per la valutazione dell’intelligenza attualmente disponibili e standardizzati in Italia

A chi potrà servire

  • Studenti e studentesse di corsi di Psicologia dell’Intelligenza e affini
  • Professionisti che desiderano una base teorica solida per interpretare i test cognitivi
  • Docenti che cercano materiale aperto in italiano su intelligenza, QI e misurazione

Psicologia dell’Olfatto e del Gusto Italiano


Sito del corso e materiali aperti: https://enricotoffalini.github.io/Olfatto-e-Gusto/

Breve percorso introduttivo sulla psicologia dell’olfatto, sulla percezione multisensoriale dei sapori, e sul comportamento umano in relazione ai sensi chimici. Il corso affronta:

  • il ruolo dell’olfatto nella vita quotidiana
  • le basi anatomiche e fisiologiche dei sensi chimici
  • i principali disturbi dell’olfatto e le loro conseguenze sulla qualità di vita
  • le relazioni tra olfatto, comportamento sociale ed emozioni
  • l’integrazione tra olfatto, gusto, vista e udito nella percezione del sapore
  • applicazioni alla psicologia del vino, al marketing olfattivo e alle differenze individuali e culturali

Materiali disponibili

  • 📑 Slide in accesso aperto
    Tutte le diapositive del corso sono disponibili online e possono essere riutilizzate (con citazione) per attività didattiche, divulgative o di autoformazione.

A chi può essere utile

  • Persone curiose di capire meglio come gli odori e i sapori influenzano il comportamento e le decisioni quotidiane;
  • Studentesse e studenti di psicologia, neuroscienze e scienze sensoriali;
  • Docenti che cercano materiali pronti all’uso per lezioni su olfatto, gusto e percezione multisensoriale.

Reuse of materials

  • ✅ You are welcome to link to these course pages, embed specific exercises in your own syllabi, or recommend them to students.
  • ✅ Slides and code examples are generally fine to reuse for non-commercial teaching, ideally with a short acknowledgement (but for the MOOC on Federica Web Learning, please refer to the Federica license before copying any part!).
  • ❓ If you plan a more extensive reuse (for example, translating large parts of material, or integrating them into a paid course), it’s generally fine, but please get in touch first.

Contact

If you are interested in using or adapting these materials for your course, or if you have suggestions for improvements:

I am always happy to see these resources reused, remixed, and improved, especially when they help promote better methods and critical thinking in psychological science.