Data Analytics Certificate Program
WHY DATA ANALYTICS?
Data Analytics offers students the opportunity to pursue a wide range of careers in business, finance, and healthcare. Jobs for Data Analysts offer starting salaries of $65,000 - $115,000, according to Glassdoor. One such example - Operations Research Analyst - offers a median salary of $86,200, and employment is projected to grow 4x the national average. This Data Analytics program is intended to prepare students for similar roles in a variety of industries or to pursue further study in Data Science or Analytics.
According to Emsi Burning Glass, in the last 12 months, there were 83,775 postings for data analytics-related jobs in the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro area. Further, job opportunities in LA for graduates in this degree are expected to grow by 12.26% in the next 10 years, which is faster than the national average of 6.81% and California as a whole (11.95%).
ABOUT PROGRAM
This Data Analytics curriculum was developed, in large part, using the Data Science curriculum from the University of California, Berkeley. These courses have been changed from their original format slightly to ensure they are slightly broader in scope and adjusted in pacing to better serve the needs of LCMC students.
The outline of the program and the courses it contains were reviewed by multiple individuals from both an academic and business context, some of whom are listed below. This program is deliberately smaller than many other programs in Data Science or Data Analytics to allow students to pursue their own interests in the liberal arts and consider how their newfound understanding of data might shape the way they look at problems in other fields.
DATA ANALYTICS CERTIFICATE ILLUSTRATIVE
|
COURSE
|
NAME
|
RECOMMENDED
|
UNITS
|
|
BUS 193
|
Special Topics
|
-
|
3
|
|
CSC II
|
Programming for Everyone I
|
None
|
3
|
|
CSC III
|
Programming for Everyone II
|
CSC II
|
3
|
|
DAM I
|
Foundations of Data Analytics I
|
None
|
3
|
|
DAM II
|
Foundations of Data Analytics II
|
DAM I
|
3
|
|
DAM III
|
Principles and Techniques of Data Analytics I
|
DAM II, CSC III
|
3
|
Program Learning Objectives
Please note, the program level Learning Objectives here are specific to the Data Analytics and Computer Science classes within the program. And thus, do not include courses in Mathematics.
- Students will be able to evaluate and apply fundamental statistical concepts in the context of a broad range of data problems, including Bayes Theorem, common statistical tests and biases, inference and causal inference and hypothesis testing.
- Students will be able to perform in-depth exploratory analysis to form hypotheses and use visualization techniques to communicate insights.
- Students will be able to design experiments to answer causal questions and evaluate the results of the experiments.
- Students will be able to apply and evaluate machine learning algorithms in a business problem context, with an emphasis on selecting predictive modeling only when appropriate.
- Students will be able to perform feature engineering and data preprocessing in order to improve the accuracy and efficacy of predictive models.
Boilerplate Information
Lower Cost Models Consortium
The LCMC was founded in 2017 by a collection of college presidents looking to partner on collaborative solutions that expand educational opportunities for students while streamlining and lowering institutional costs. Leveraging an innovative online course sharing model, LCMC colleges can start new, enrollment-driving academic programs without the upfront cost, time, and risk typically associated with new program development. Together, 130 member institutions have started hundreds of new pathways to employment for students in high- demand fields like Computer Science, Digital Marketing, and Cybersecurity.
Rize Education
Rize Education was founded at Adrian College in 2019 to help small colleges and universities start enrollment-driving majors and minors that provide new pathways to employment for students. Over the last two years, Rize has helped 90 colleges start 300 new academic programs through an online course-sharing model developed in partnership with the Lower Cost Models Consortium. These shared majors allow colleges to provide students with degree pathways in high-demand areas without incurring the upfront cost and risk typically associated with developing new majors.