coursera

cbee817

Has anyone used Coursera at all? There is a 9 course program with a capstone project and certification in Data Science through Johns Hopkins University that I was looking at. Each course is 4 weeks long so it would take roughly 9 months to complete. Something to supplement my current role at work and it's a lot cheaper (only $423) and easier to complete (no travel, don't have to enroll in a physical school) than others that I've seen. For example, a SAS certification in Data Science is a 12 week boot camp in Cary, NC for $16,000.. I don't think that would fly with work or home! I would pay for these on my own and just add the certification to my goals/review for my director. Our reviews aren't completed until April, so the 9 months would be feasible. For background info, I have a BA in Mathematics, MA in Economics and my current role is Advanced Analytics Modeler II on track to become a Data Scientist. Has anyone tried these- liked/disliked? Thoughts?

Erikan73

A friend of mine has done something similar to this. It was an accelerated program. It was nice because the classes were shorter, but that was also hard too. Instead of tackling the average of 1-2 chapters a week. She was doing about 5+ chapters of class work a week. So there was a ton of homework involved and if you screwed up on something, there isn't much time to try to bring up your grade or to get help with tutoring. On the plus side, she got a 4 year degree done in about 2 years and she saved money also.

cbee817

Although this post didn't get much input, I am pleased to say that I started the Data Science certification and have already completed Course 1! Obviously it will get more difficult, but I am excited to try out R (currently use the SAS suite of products at work) and become familiar with GitHub as well. 

Coursera also has a Statistics with R certificate from Duke that looks like a pretty good option for the next round of training as well- probably will save that for 2017 goals/review. 

I definitely recommend checking out Coursera- lots of free classes and other programs from some top notch universities: http://www.coursera.org

maple2

Good luck! R and GitHub seem really well suited to distance learning, so I'm sure you will continue to do well.

short+sassy

Sounds great!  I know when I was on unemployment a few years ago, I debated getting certified (not sure if that is the phrase) in Microsoft Office.  There was a free online program the UE office told me about, though I'm not sure if it is normally free or was just free for people on UE.