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The Data Scientist’s Toolbox

Johns Hopkins University

4.5 (20,154 ratings) | 340K Students Enrolled

Course 1 of 10 in the Data Science Specialization

In this course you will get an introduction to the main tools and ideas in the data scientist's toolbox. The course gives an overview of the data, questions, and tools that data analysts and data scientists work with. There are two components to this course. The first is a conceptual introduction to the ideas behind turning data into actionable knowledge. The second is a practical introduction to the tools that will be used in the program like version control, markdown, git, GitHub, R, and RStudio.

Skills You'll Learn

Data Science, Github, R Programming, Rstudio

Reviews

4.5 (20,154 ratings)

5 stars
13,188 ratings
4 stars
5,181 ratings
3 stars
1,349 ratings
2 stars
281 ratings
1 star
155 ratings

AI

Apr 24, 2018

This course was a good intro especially in setting all the necessary software for future courses. I suggest to read the manuals, books and other readings the profs suggest. The resources are helpful.

WC

Sep 26, 2017

I really don't know much about this stuff, I think the jury's still out on whether the last four weeks will be helpful in the future. We'll see how much I think I've learned at the end of the course

From the lesson

Week 2: Installing the Toolbox

This is the most lecture-intensive week of the course. The primary goal is to get you set up with R, Rstudio, Github, and the other tools we will use throughout the Data Science Specialization and your ongoing work as a data scientist.

Tips from Coursera Users - Optional Video 3:53

Command Line Interface16:03

Introduction to Git4:49

Introduction to Github3:53

Creating a Github Repository5:51

Basic Git Commands5:52

Basic Markdown2:22

Installing R Packages5:37

Installing Rtools2:29

Taught By

Jeff Leek, PhD
Associate Professor, Biostatistics
Roger D. Peng, PhD
Associate Professor, Biostatistics
Brian Caffo, PhD
Professor, Biostatistics

Transcript

[MUSIC] I am the game analytics lead at Miniclip. Prior to that, I was the interim lead producer at Miniclip on the mobile division, not the whole company. >> I've been a stay at home mom for 23 years of my biological triplets as well as a series of foster children. But I'm now looking, as my children are getting older, to perhaps getting back into the workforce. >> I'm a policy and public affairs professional, and over 10 years I've worked in policy lobbying in Westminster in London. But at the same time, I'm also a dance artist and a budding choreographer. Cuz it's very easy to sign up for a course and to think, oh, this is a great thing, it's really interesting and I would like to learn a little bit about it. But in fact it does require a bit of preparation, listening to the lecture. So in other words, it needs some time to be put aside. There is never enough time. >> If it was an easy path or an easier path, I think it wouldn't be so helpful. >> It's a little overwhelming for people of my generation, I think, because I didn't know how to set up my microphone and I didn't necessarily know if I would be able to access all the material and understand the videos. [MUSIC] The fact that the lectures are in video form is a very handy thing for someone like me who hasn't taken notes in a really long time, because I can repeatedly pause it and rewind it and go back over it again if I need to. >> I take the lectures almost religiously. I print the handouts. I take handwritten notes. And then I create my notes in a tidy way that I keep on a different notebook. >> Well, there's another side of Coursera that I really appreciate, and that is the peer review. At first I was slightly skeptical, and also a bit daunted because it's an additional coursework and actually it proved really helpful for my own coursework because it helped me understand what are the sort of average standards? What is the better way to approach some of the tasks? And after awhile, you just start to realize that there is something as a common ground. >> Assistants, they are really knowledgeable. They helped a lot of people who had some difficulties because they didn't really have the coding background. To me at least I tend to start having places where I go. Rseek in the case of R helped a lot, but if it was for some other programming language, I would probably go to Stack Overflow. [MUSIC] The things that I'm doing right now, in my job, with what I learned is really nice and was a great experience. >> I also learned so much that I felt clever again all of a sudden. [LAUGH] It was nice, it activated parts of my brain that I hadn't used in a long time. >> Just in my household there is three of us, and all three of us have done at least one Coursera course. So it's really changed what we do in our spare time. [MUSIC]

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