Coursera - A Crash Course in Data Science Review

A Crash Course in Data Science is a succinct, one-week overview of the field of data science produced by the same team from John Hopkins University that produced Coursera’s data science specialization. It is the first course in the “Executive Data Science” specialization, a data science track aimed at non-technical people like business managers. The course defines data science and then discusses different aspects of data science like statistics, machine learning and the structure, output and success metrics for data science projects. Grading is based on a handful of short multiple-choice comprehension quizzes.


A Crash Course in Data Science is good for what it is: a brief overview of a field taught at a high level so that anyone can follow along. The professors have plenty of face time, explain concepts well and the video quality is good. The content quality is a definite step up from the original John Hopkins data science track.


The only real knock against this course is its brevity and the fact that it costs the full $49 to get a verified certificate if you want to complete the specialization. A course that you can complete in an hour or two should not cost the same as a month-long course. Students looking to dig their teeth into something substantial for the first month of the Executive Data Science specialization may be disappointed.


A Crash Course in Data Science is a well-made primer on the data science field, but its brevity may leave paying students wanting.


For freeware students I give this course 4 out of 5 stars: Very Good.