occupancyTuts: Occupancy modelling tutorials with RPresence

1. The occupancy modelling framework offers tremendous flexibility in estimating species abundance and distribution patterns while accounting for imperfect detection, and has seen rapid growth and adoption since its introduction at the beginning of the century.

2. At the same time, in an era of big data, there are increasing demands on developing quantitative skills and proficiency in young ecologists, many of whom lack the quantitative training needed to conduct research professionally.

3. We introduce occupancyTuts, an R package that features 28 learnr tutorials that teach the statistical underpinnings of several occupancy models. The tutorials include written content, instructional videos, R exercises, and quiz elements, covering a range of topics including statistical underpinnings, single- and dynamic-occupancy models, study design and several of the ‘spin-off’ models that extend the basic framework.

4. We plan for development of new tutorials that use RPresence as the analysis engine, and welcome new tutorial contributions that use other R packages as the analysis engine as well.