Given the disruption caused by Covid-19, the application deadline for this course has been extended to April 8. Apply for the LACOL Intro to Data Science summer course.
Bryn Mawr College students are invited to apply to an 8.5-week, intensive Introduction to Data Science course, that is being held June 10-Aug. 7, through the Liberal Arts Collaborative for Digital Innovation (LACOL), a consortium of ten liberal arts colleges. This fully online, team-taught course is designed to introduce students to the concepts, theory, and practice of modern data science. You will learn basic coding in R, the theory and applications of basic statistical concepts to data analysis, and the ability to summarize and describe data methodologies and analytical results for different audiences.
No prior data or coding experience is required, but a foundation in algebra and calculus is strongly recommended.
This course is designed to provide a collaborative, socially relevant, discussion-oriented online classroom experience in the style of liberal arts colleges. Web-conference, screen-sharing, chat, video tutorials, and online office hours provide ample opportunity for student-faculty and peer connections. Lectures, assignments, data labs and projects will be conducted in a fully supported virtual classroom environment, using a mix of synchronous (scheduled, face-to-face) and asynchronous (discussion boards, video, etc.) platforms. The course culminates in a team project that requires you to integrate and apply the data selection, data cleaning, exploratory data analysis, visualization, and model-building skills you will learn over the term. For more information about the course, please see the course website and read the Course Syllabus, FAQ, and Course Policies carefully. Some points to consider when you are deciding whether to take the course are:
- Bryn Mawr students will receive a grade for this course and it will appear on their transcripts, but they will not receive academic credit for the course. The letter grade that the instructors award will be translated into its Bryn Mawr College grading scale equivalent, but the course grade will not be factored into your GPA and the units will not count toward college distribution or major requirements.
- This is an intensive course: it fits an entire semester's worth of content into eight weeks. You should expect to spend more time on it per week than you would a standard Bryn Mawr course.
- You must be attend 3 hours of face-to-face meetings per week via webinar. Meetings will be held multiple times a day on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (8-10 a.m. ET, 4-6 p.m. ET, and 8-10 p.m. ET) and once on Saturdays (10 a.m.-Noon ET) to accommodate students with different schedules in different time zones. You can mix and match time slots as needed (e.g., attend during the 4-6 p.m. slots on MW, but 8-10 a.m. on F, or do mornings in June, but switch to evenings in July).
- This is a fully online course. You will need access to a computer and high-speed Internet for the entire course period in order to attend webinars, communicate with your peers and complete homework and assignments. Accepted students will receive a welcome packet with info about software and help ensuring everything is installed before they leave campus for the summer.
If you have any questions about the course or whether it is right for you, please e-mail Jennifer Spohrer (jspohrer@brynmawr.edu), who has been involved in developing the course and is serving as the course liaison for Bryn Mawr College students.