Notices tagged with datacamp
-
Embed this notice
Less than a month left of the #DataCamp subscription. I need to look at the "professional" tracks and pick something that I can accomplish in that time.
Lots not to like ... in many ways, their courses and especially their practice exercises look like they hired a couple of college kids to build them over a weekend, then posted them without having an editor look them over.
In multiple courses under the subjects of Python, SQL, Julia, and R-Lang, the exercises will mis-spell a language keyword or some library function / method that is widely used in Data Science. In a couple, the answer is already entered into the question ... just select the choice that matches what they've just showed.
In the "real world" projects, they tend to go beyond what the courses have covered. Yet, they're opinionated about which functions / methods are used (and sometimes even the order they're used in). So you do some research, find some functions that produce the exact desired results, and the project is rejected because your research didn't uncover the desired functions to use.
Now, there's lots to like, too. For example, despite having both R-lang and Julia (and Scala) on my to-learn list for years, this was my first hands-on experience with all three.
-
Embed this notice
So this part of the #DataCamp #Python programming track is much much easier. Why? Because it is closer to regular Python rather than Data Science python.
-
Embed this notice
Ever since my mom's death, I've been a little frazzled. In the #DataCamp program, I did a 22-hour "R Programming Fundamentals" track. At the end of it is an optional skill assessment.
I drew a complete blank in 4 of the first 5 questions, so I didn't even finish it. #r-lang
While I return to the Python tracks, I'll try to do some more R stuff on the side. Now that I'm sure I absolutely will not get the approximately 200 hours of #Python related coursework done before the end of December, so I will have to pick and choose which subsets to complete.
-
Embed this notice
So, we're taking stuff that I already don't really understand and wrapping them in functions. The "wrap this in a function" is mostly pretty easy, except the part about renaming a function-internal variable. That part is also easy, but I never remember it until I submit the exercise.
I think I need to download some data from the US Census Bureau and start chewing through their data with R-Lang, JuliaLang, and so on.
Too bad #DataCamp doesn't also cover GNU Octave. It's been so long since I used Octave and SciLab that I'm sure I'd just sit there staring at a blank screen.
-
Embed this notice
Pushing back the "skill assessment" in R-Lang because I'm 100% sure I'd fail it currently. I need to check, because if they have a similar assessment for JuliaLang, I'd like to prepare and take it also.
In other news, I had a certificate I was pursuing that would have required about 200 hours between the time I started on it in early August and the end of December. But from mid-August, my available time and concentration to put into the program have been about half what they were previously, as I'm being squeezed between my mom's death and extra grandchild duties because Son_2 and his wife are about to have another baby.
#DataCamp
-
Embed this notice
I've been persistent in #DataCamp's "rate this lesson" and "rate this course" to talk about unnecessary pedanticism, but that's probably the wrong terminology.
An example:
```
SELECT common_name, COUNT(*)
FROM biology
WHERE common_name LIKE '%lady%'
GROUP BY common_name
ORDER BY common_name;
```
gives the same results as
```
SELECT common_name, COUNT(common_name)
FROM biology
WHERE common_name LIKE '%lady%'
GROUP BY common_name
ORDER BY common_name;
```
when there are no nulls (missing values) in the common_name field.
And without some clues in the assignment text, it isn't possible to know which one their JS-based checker will accept. So in the majority of assignments, I get things like this "wrong" in the first pass.
I've lately been vocal about my perception that quality control and beta testing should have exposed such things and led to their correction before deployment to paying customers.
In the case of the #SQL courses, I did recently have a multi-part assignment where they asked for the NOT NULL version from the start, but only in the 3rd or 4th part of the assignment did they expressly say they wanted that and use pre-entered SQL scaffolding to show why it matters in that specific case.
In other news, I've temporarily de-emphasized both #Python and #R-lang (and delayed my exploration of #Julia) because I'm on a "track" that focuses on SQL. At the current rate, I should be finished with the SQL track & emphasis in a month or so.
I've also noticed they have some courses that cover MSExcel / PowerBI, Tableau, Google Sheets, and (of course) "AI". I expect to take the intro courses for most of these topics. I don't typically use spreadsheets except as gridded formatting tools for lists, but many years ago I used Lotus 1-2-3 and Quattro Pro and even took some classes. So relearning such things as formulas and internal scripting may be helpful in making these tools more broadly useful.
-
Embed this notice
I haven't been anywhere in a couple of weeks, except:
Last weekend, while my son and daughter-in-law were out of town for their first weekend away from the kids, #GS4 had a medical issue and I had to drive him to the doctor's office.
Thus, it is likely that exposure to the doctor gave me a cold.
It is getting better, and will probably be gone completely in another day or two.
The cold seems to have sapped my energy. I've been doing an hour or so of #DataCamp, plus another hour or so of #Coursera each night, but recently it is either one or the other.
-
Embed this notice
Weird feeling for me: In a few of these #DataCamp courses, I'm now feeling lost when I'm doing the exercises. I think I need to spin up a separate data analysis project using #R-Lang, or #Python + #numpy + #pandas or #SQL ... or maybe do the same project three ways.
With SQL, at least, it seems to be an artifact of the way their hands-on code runner works (Displays a short `head` of the relevant tables ... so when you're working on queries, you may not have a direct way to see whether your query does specifically what you expected and intended.)
With R-Lang, it is just that it isn't always apparent what the language will do. Some things are inexplicably backwards compared to most other languages I've seen, so mentally I tend to go with the wrong choice. Also, the practice question set is too small. I've reached the point where some of the practice exercises are familiar enough that I know which answer to choose immediately without having any understanding of why that is the correct choice.
-
Embed this notice
Naturally, #DataCamp's courses only cover the parts that are relevant to "data science / data analysis", so it feels like there are some holes. But I had forgotten how much fun #Python could be, and I'm enjoying #R-lang also. (The courses themselves are often frustrating as can be, but the parts of the languages themselves that I'm exposed to are mostly okay.)
Their continuing practice exercises seem to emphasize the smallest tripping factors, but I guess that will be useful if I'm ever paid to use these languages for data analysis.
-
Embed this notice
I should mention that I probably seem like I'm grumbling a lot about these training sites / programs and the courses they contain. Let me say that I am very, very grateful to both #NYS unemployment for paying for the #Coursera programs (Google CyberSecurity & IBM Backend) and to Brandon (bthall) for paying for the #DataCamp subscription.
With all that is happening, it is quite difficult to force myself to do these courses every day ... but I try my best to participate in both of them (and some #Udemy courses that I paid for in the past) despite the obstacles. I'm nowhere near 100% successful, but I'm doing my best.
-
Embed this notice
I keep missing little details in #DataCamp assignments. For example, I needed to say which #Python datatype `print(type("True"))` shows. I saw `True` and completely missed the quotation marks, so I said "<class Boolean>", which was wrong.
That's a frequent thing on their courses, but I've never encountered it with #Coursera or #Udemy or #Udacity or #Linda.com / #LinkedInLearning. It feels like they're intentionally tripping me up with gotchas.
-
Embed this notice
Even with all the annoyances and issues that come with #DataCamp's sandbox, it is still miles ahead of my #Coursera cybersecurity course, where you get to download .docx files from opaque Google Drive shares. (Yeah, I know. Everything we tell our users NOT to do.)
-
Embed this notice
I am coming to believe that #DataCamp's courses may be too simplistic. I'm still in my first one (hoping to finish it tonight), but if you're new to the topic, it may not have the information you need to gain a basic understanding. And it can be somewhat fast paced for such learners. If you're somewhat familiar already, their toy terminal for lesson exercises is aggravating because it expects only specific commands. In some cases, there's another command that can accomplish the same task ... and that is an error.
I'm not negating them. I still think they can be useful as part of a self-training program in which you use multiple sources to learn a particular skill.
-
Embed this notice
So I started #DataCamp with an intro course. After I finish, I’ll go on to the intermediate courses in the series. So far, it seems too simplistic. And too gamified. You get ’daily XP’ each day when you do your coursework. If you don’t need or want ’XP points’ you just have to ignore them.
But I must remember that I am not there to focus on how much I dislike XP points. I am there preparing for “job.next()”.
-
Embed this notice
Brandon was able to talk to #DataCamp and resolve the issue. He paid for me to have a year of access.
-
Embed this notice
No response from #DataCamp today. I keep thinking 🤔 “if they are this slipshod about helping someone pay 💰 them, how bad will they be if there’s a problem with one of the courses?” and I admit it doesn’t look good.
-
Embed this notice
In this case, #DataCamp seems not to have considered that one might want to gift a year’s subscription to someone else, so using my personal/ account information and @bthall’s payment 💰 information is likely triggering a fraud alert. The company has not said why the payment hasn’t gone through, but Brandon was able to buy his own subscription without issue.
As I see it, the key is to find the one person in the company that can and will go around the barriers and accept the payment. That gives them some time to suggest the company implements gift subscriptions and some time for the company to do so.
-
Embed this notice
If there's a lesson that I'm learning from the struggle Brandon is having trying to give me a year's paid subscription to #DataCamp, it is "don't make it hard for people to give you money".
Linux Walt (@lnxw37j1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
LinuxWalt (@lnxw48a1) {3EB165E0-5BB1-45D2-9E7D-93B31821F864}
All GNU social JP content and data are available under the