Working Up

by Dwayne Phillips

I complete yet another certificate program. This time it is in Data Science and from Microsoft and EdX.

I just finished the Microsoft Professional Program in Data Science. This took about 12 weeks and cost me about $500.

The Good:

I learned…

• cool tricks with MS Excel
• how to write SQL queries (an awful “programming language”)
• how to use the MS Azure Machine Learning tool (it has a lot of bugs still)
• some R programming
• I knew a lot about data science already, but we didn’t call it data science when I learned it
• (some) college professors are still good at obfuscation
• never believe anything you see in the media about such-and-such percentage of such-and-such did such-and-such so we all MUST do this and that

The Bad:

• see my post about MOOCs
• They use many non-English speakers to lecture. It is difficult to understand what they are saying.
• fuzzy screens shots
• lots of busy work that has nothing to do with the subject at hand
• general laziness in the production and presentation
• Microsoft won’t officially recognize completion of the program until January 2017

The Ugly:

Customer service is very bad.

Me: I have a question

Answer: ask someone else

The learning program is a partnership of EdX.org and Microsoft. No one claims responsibility for the product. Ask EdX a question, and they tell you to ask Microsoft. Ask Microsoft, and they tell you to ask EdX. Ask an instructor, and they tell you to ask other students on the discussion board.

Conclusion: I made it through to the end. I have yet another certificate. Maybe it might mean something to some potential employer.