Coursera

keith16 · 03-02-2014 11:19AM #1

Has anyone ever used Coursera? I'm thinking of taking the data analysis and statistical inference course.

Just wondering if anyone had any thoughts on the course content?

04-02-2014 08:19AM

Welcome to the Researcher forum keith16.

Have not yet used Coursera. The content of the Data Analysis and Statistical Inference is relatively basic but appears useful. The online course, text materials, and statistical software are all free, which makes it attractive. If you have already had data analysis and statistics, it might serve as a good refresher.

keith16 · 04-02-2014 01:47PM

Thanks Black Swan.

I'm worried about how familiar I need to get with R beforehand.

I did a module in statistics years ago in college. We used SPSS - not sure if that's similar to R in any way shape or form?

05-02-2014 12:32AM

I'm an SPSS user too. Have not used R. Might be a useful alternative, given that SPSS is very expensive for individual users without student, university, or other supported access providers. Just to experience R may justify the free course.

Ostrom · 05-02-2014 01:25AM

keith16 wrote: »

Thanks Black Swan.

I'm worried about how familiar I need to get with R beforehand.

I did a module in statistics years ago in college. We used SPSS - not sure if that's similar to R in any way shape or form?

R is quite different. Dialog-based packages (menus and point-and-click selection) like SPSS are falling quickly out of use and being replaced with syntax based programmes. R is a bit unwieldy for a beginner, but pays off long term in ease of use, lack of license fees, easy replication of commands, and endless upgrading of the base package. Open source seems to be making inroads on old license packages like stata, sas, spss etc, so it would be good to have some grounding in the basics.

arodabomb · 09-02-2014 08:50AM

I completed 3 coursera courses and started numerous. Its a brilliant facility but its really only as good as the content. I find it hard to gauge the level of the course until I actually start it (hence why I've started many and only finished 3, some of them end up being too much of a beginner course). There are some brilliant courses out there, some very basic courses that claim to be much more and some that are almost a pitch for certain universities.

I can't comment on the above course, but https://www.coursera.org/course/compdata might be a good side course if you're struggling/starting with R.

keith16 · 20-02-2014 08:58PM

I started the course on Monday and I must say it's very engaging so far. Highly recommend it.

Ostrom · 21-02-2014 05:06PM

Forgot about this - you might find it useful afterwards url]http://www.bristol.ac.uk/cmm/learning/online-course/index.html[/url

All exercises are provided for MLwiN, R, and Stata. Since the course you are taking gets you up to basic multiple regression, I think this would be an ideal follow-on, as it deals with a number of common procedures and models (i.e. things you may encounter in real-world modeling).

Coursera

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