Course overview
Course overview
Course learning outcomes
By the end of this course you will be able to:
Apply a range of frameworks, approaches and methods creatively and
critically to envision and gain insights into social, environmental and
economic megatrends and potential futures.
Devise actionable strategies for organisations to address challenges and
opportunities.
Develop visualisation and storytelling techniques to persuasively and
professionally present findings to an audience.
Demonstrate advanced team working and ethical decision making skills
and abilities to collaborate with diverse individuals and stakeholders
Course map
Generate insights
Week 1: Basics of insight generation
Week 2: Basic statistics: Foundations of quantitative insights
Week 3: The normal distribution and histograms
Week 4: Data visualisation
Week 5: Advanced charts and dashboards
Week 6: Demand forecasting
Weekly topics and learning outcomes
Week 1
Basics of insight generation
Topics:
The importance of data science
Data value chain
Tools for generating insights
Learning outcomes:
Know why generating insights is important
Familiarise yourself with the concept of the data value chain and its stages
Understand the tools that can help generate insights efficiently
Familiarise yourself with SAS desktop user interface
Week 2
Basic statistics: Foundations of quantitative insights
Topics:
Basic statistics
Types of variables
Measure of central tendency
Learning outcomes:
Distinguish between population data and sample data
Understand randomness and representativeness in sample data
Distinguish between types of data, measures, and dimensions
Apply basic concepts of statistics like mean, median, mode – Measures of
central tendency
Familiarise yourself with measures of dispersion – variance and standard
deviation
Week 3
The normal distribution and histograms
Topics:
Normal distribution and histograms
The empirical rule
Covariance and correlation
Learning outcomes:
Understand and apply frequency distributions, including the normal
distribution
Apply the empirical rule to data
Apply correlation coefficient and covariance to analyse relationships
between variables
Week 4
Data visualisation
Topics:
Anscombe’s quartet
Data cleaning
Bar charts and heat maps
Learning outcomes:
Apply Anscombe’s quartet
Apply data cleaning techniques in SAS
Create bar charts and heat maps in SAS
Week 5
Advanced charts and dashboards
Topics:
Bar in bar graph and bullet graphic visualisations
Social media data
Dashboards
Learning outcomes:
Create bar charts in SAS
Create bullet charts in SAS
Create dashboards in SAS
Week 6
Demand forecasting
Topics:
Regression analysis
Demand forecasting
Smoothing methods
Learning outcomes:
Forecast trends using linear regression analysis
Understand and apply demand forecasting techniques
Analyse time plots by applying smoothing methods
Learning activities and assessment
Learning activities and assessment
Each week is comprised of:
1. Lessons (1-2 hrs per week)
There are typically three (3) lessons each week.
Each lesson explores a topic with:
(a) Video lectures
These brief lectures cover core concepts and fundamentals.
(b)Recall quiz
There is one (1) recall quiz each week.
These can be attempted multiple times.
The questions are based on the content covered in the Lessons (see
above).
Short recall activities have been shown to improve long-term retention of
core concepts and fundamentals.
(c) Explore further resources
These are the resources that provide further clarify weekly topics and/or
provide useful examples or demonstrations.
2. Practice (1-2 hrs per week)
The practice section – increasing in difficulty after each activity and over
the course of the six weeks – typically consists of:
(a) Practice task
There is 1-2 practice tasks each week.
Here you will apply the knowledge, skills, and capabilities from all lessons.
You can then apply your learning to your current personal and professional
practices.
These exercises will primarily use the SAS Viya for Learners software. This
can be accessed via the integrated link in Week 1.
3. Assessment (1-2 hrs per week)
Learners seeking a course certificate will need to:
Complete the graded assessment at the end of each week
Achieve more than 80% in order to pass
And meet the submission deadlines:
Week
Graded Assessment
1-6
Quiz#
#Note: for Quiz assignments, you will have a maximum of three (3)
attempts within one 8-hour period.
4. Discussion forums
There are two (2) key forums to identify:
(a) General course discussion
There is a discussion forum specifically for each week of the course.
This is a learner-driven and learner-sustained space for collegial discussion
and exchanging of ideas related to the course.
(b)Connect
Use this discussion forum to connect with your fellow learners:
Find a study buddy
Form a study group
Find like-minded individuals to engage and collaborate with, within and
beyond the course.
Software requirements
Software requirements
Course tools
This course will utilise Microsoft Excel, Text Files, and SAS.
You can familiarise yourself with the basics of these tools:
Microsoft Excel skills for business: Essentials
SAS videos (available in the SAS Viya Learning Environment)
SAS Viya for Learners
SAS is an analytics platform that allows you to harness the power of data.
You will use it to connect to a data source, manipulate data, create
visualisations, and run some basic prediction algorithms.
For this unit we will utilise the SAS Viya for Learners virtual software.
In this course, the video demonstrations will use Microsoft Windows 10 as
the operating system, but any operating system should be fine. The
videos also use Google Chrome for running SAS Viya for Learners. Edge,
Firefox, and Safari can also be used. Use of other internet browsers is not
supported.
Accessing to SAS Viya for Learners from Coursera
You will find an integrated link to SAS Viya for Learners in the Week 1
content. You will need to use this link to create your profile and for
accessing the platform throughout this unit.
Refer to the information below (also located in the integrated link/LTI) to
set up and access SAS Viya for Learners.
Please note:
Use the same email address as your Coursera account when creating your
SAS account through this course. Macquarie University students should
use the student email address (@students.mq.edu.au).
Instructions to access SAS Viya for Learners:
Accessing SAS Viya for Learners requires a SAS profile (a free account at
sas.com) that uses the same email address that you use to sign in to
Coursera. If you do not have a SAS profile, you will create one as you
follow these steps.
Note: The recommended browsers for SAS Viya for Learners are Chrome,
Firefox, or Safari. If you are using a different browser now, restart your
Coursera session with one of the recommended browsers.
Follow these steps to access SAS Viya for Learners:
Click Open Tool to open SAS Viya for Learners.
If you do not have a SAS profile, you are prompted to create one by
setting a SAS profile password. To do this, enter the same email as you
use to log into Coursera and the password you enter will be your SAS
profile password. No email acknowledgement is required.
If you already have a SAS profile with your Coursera email address, sign in
with your Coursera email address and SAS profile password to access SAS
Viya for Learners. From now on, you must login to Viya for Learners with
this same email and password. Do not attempt to create a profile at
sas.com, it will not work with Coursera.
Keep this window open throughout your course session so that you are
ready to perform the practices as you get to them. For your convenience
there is a link to open SAS Viya for Learners before every practice. If your
software is already open, you do not need to click these links. You cannot
have more than one instance of SAS Viya for Learners open at a time.
When you end your course session, sign out of SAS Viya for Learners.
IMPORTANT: SAS Viya for Learners may be unavailable every 3 rd weekend
of the month from Friday at 7pm ET to Saturday at 2pm ET while we apply
enhancements.
Tech support
If you experience any technical difficulties, you can troubleshoot with your
peers in the discussion forum or contact the SAS Viya for Learners
technical support as per the information under Resources
