Bud Fields's Journal: Learning All Over Again...For The First Time!

This week begins a several-month adventure for me. I have begun the "Data Science Specialization" series of courses over at http://www.Coursera.org.

In looking at the 9 courses required for this Certification program, there came a surprising reality for me. In the time I have been "coding for self defense", I have been involved (to some degree or other) in each of these areas of study while living in the real world--over the past 4 decades! (The first two decades were spent in other pursuits.)

Putting them together seems not only reasonable, but miraculous to me. Imagine finding an obscure text file with code snippets that, when put together suddenly reveal a simply written, elegant program worthy of a start-up business venture!

The students enrolled currently in this specialty are some pretty highly gifted and intelligent types from around the world, many with lots of experience, and many with no experience whatsoever. From what I have seen so far, the Instructors are not "shooting for the middle" by any means. The primary purpose of the specialization is to whet student appetites for further study--and experience; heavy on the experience.

The stated primary focus for this series was clearly, plainly and fear-creating simplicity within the first three minutes of the first course by Jeff Leek, Ph.D, one of three principle instructors for the specialization:

"We will, in this specialization, focus on the 'SCIENCE' part of the title. You should be prepared for that." (Emphasis his!)

What could go wrong? Computer Programming, Biostatistics, Business Intelligence, Machine Learning, Data Analysis.... No problem. :rolls eyes:

This opportunity came to me, when I very specifially was NOT looking, because I am a military veteran. I am retired. I am disabled.

The Department of Veteran Affairs, The Department of Education, other governmental entities as well as Coursera have joined up to offer veterans a unique educational opportunity. You can complete ONE specialization program of your choice--for FREE. It is well-advised that you do a fair amount of due diligence before selecting your specialization, especially if your choice has to do with possible career choices, employment opportunities, or passions to be engaged.

This particular specialization is being taught by the collective brain trust of the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. Considered to be the #1 American School of Public Health at one of the very best American Universities Schools of Medicine, a short jaunt through the Google or the YouTube will give you a summary opinion on the quality being offered here.

Coursera has joined alliance partnerships with some really outstanding educational institutions world wide (as have several other online learning opportunities) as their understanding of an ever changing for-profit online educational model, the realities of the American marketplace and current economy, and needs of our heroes (and other citizens, too) continue to develop.

This series represents one of the highest quality opportunities the Coursera endeavor has created, developed, and offered--ever. As an owner of a private, online educational opportunity, I continue to see great promise in the models used today. I continue to advocate for even more positive, outcome-driven recognition that the only 'product' such endeavors have to offer are graduates of the highest caliber, capability and promise. Even for courses taken for casual learning or deep pleasure by the student, I have been advocating this model for a long time now. It represents problematic possibilities to an order of magnitude, but I have always held the view that adopting such a model would bring the very best to the very top. If your program or institution isn't willing to achieve and maintain that standard, you simply should not be in that particular industry. (An 86% failure rate, nationally, with a 100% profit margin is criminal behavior in my personal opinion.) With a close understanding of the historical analysis of MOOCs, I still maintain that quality attracts quality, and increases probability of success. Yes, Virginia, there actually ARE standards and expectations. I KNOW! Who knew?

This journey is human. Given that entire subset of data, I will be writing entirely human observations on a new personal blog at http://datasciencestudy.blogspot.com. I'll offer some more technically relevant observations here, in a journalized series.

I hope you will read, reply and comment along the way. One of the most important elements, either there or here, is discourse. I look forward to learning, growing and sharing wherever those things are possible.

Let's DO this!