It's been a while since I covered MOOCs. It sounds vaguely like an epithet, but for those of you who have been hiding in a cave, MOOC means "massive online open course," which in normal-people talk is “taking courses online.”
It has also been a while since I expressed my derision for the term “data scientist,” but in the last few news cycles these two topics have come together: Three major universities now offer online certifications in data science. What’s interesting is the difference between them.
Three ways to get your data science cert
John Hopkins University is offering a paid-for “specialization” certificatethrough Coursera. The program seems to center around the R language, specifically learning R programming and plowing through the likes of how to cleanse and load data. It also delves into machine learning and various statistical analysis techniques. Sweat equity, some bandwidth, and $490 earns you this nine-course certificate. If you don’t care about the certificate -- you probably shouldn’t -- you can take the courses for free.
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