Course: Data Scientist Enablement Program (DSE)

Data Scientist Enablement Program (DSE) is something which I have found by accident. At the beginning of year I was looking for new courses or some complex study with topics about Data Science and Big Data and have been really keen to learn something new. Then I found form which gave me access to SONO to DSE.

This program and its all 4 modules (so far I have done 1st one, so I am just assuming based on the current experience) are not classic course with video tutorial, quizzes and labs with question form and score. It is almost like in school, you can participate or you can not, you can read and watch materials which you got, but nobody checks if you have done it or not. Only one thing you need to do, is submission of assignment. And even this action is not time limited, so there is no penalty for late submissions, only recommendation to do it ASAP.

Moreover, you will get certificate corresponding to your maturity level in this study and based on your composite score which is computed based on your social engagement, activities, projects, collaboration, etc in all 4 modules.

These four modules are following ones:

• Fast track to DataScience (DSE 400)
• Machine Learning with R (DSE 501)
• Modern Data Platforms (DSE 502)
• Advanced Techniques in Big Data Analytics (DSE 600)

Time schedule for 2014 is visualized here:

And dates are following:

• DSE 400: 19.01.2014 - 15.03.2014 - 8 weeks
• DSE 501: 30.03.2014 - 10.05.2014 - 6 weeks
• DSE 502: 25.05.2014 - 05.07.2014 - 6 weeks
• DSE 600: 20.07.2014 - 30.08.2013 - 6 weeks

First module is gone, but I think you can still participate from 2nd module on.

Main communication medium is SONO platform which allows to share materials and participate in discussions which are a part of your social engagement. Main instructions then are fully described in the Google presentation format and each week contains the same blocks with more or less recommended or optional items:

• Reading/Learning block - contains online free accessible books, interesting articles and videos which gives you introduction to specific week topic
• Activity block - contains tasks like read and do, learn and experiment, learn and implement, study, investigate and write
• Assignment block - the main task, a minimum which you need to do and submit, if possible, within specific week, result is always required in PDF form, your practice in R, Hadoop for example or survey about some topic
• Social engagement block - participate in one or two discussions on SONO (recently also possible on LinkedIn, Google+ and Facebook), based on idea, article or video you can discuss main topics and any kind of related or free association.

Anyway, my first impression was self-conscious, then I realized, it is really good to study this kind of course when you can interact with colleagues and teachers. And you will get feedback if your work is excellent. You can also help to others with their problems in much more personal way, because through SONO people interact with each other from person to person. Also students feedback to teacher about problems with technologies, tasks and others are taken into account and if necessary then introduction materials are improved accordingly to give more options in study or bring better and/or more interesting resources. So, it is not rigid study program, but it is flexible, adoptable and absorb new influences from world around.