November 7, 2019

CADS is excited to announce the official start of the new Data Awareness Micro-Credential with the completion of the first session this past week: Code Demystified. 

Micro-credentials are a part of Miami’s 2019 Boldly Creative Initiative. The initiative seeks to give students a competitive advantage by exploring and refining skills geared towards real-world application. Students can achieve a micro-credential by attending classes, workshops, or completing online modules. They allow students to tailor their education to their needs. 

The Data Awareness Micro-Credential gives students an introduction to the tools used by data scientists along with teaching them how to tell stories with data. 

In the first session, almost 70 students were in attendance, the majority of which were underclassmen. 28% of the attendees were freshmen while 25% were sophomores. Five of Miami’s divisions were represented with majors spanning from mathematics and statistics to graphic design and Spanish education. Students were truly able to see how data analytics is applicable in all fields.

During the session, students received a background of coding--what it is and who does it--along with fundamentals skills. They ended the session by gaining hands-on experience through a case study in Python. Students acted as marketing analysts looking at customer transaction data from their company’s website. Collectively, they determined which website design drove user engagement. Students answered a posed question, applied their new coding knowledge, and learned how coding can be used in a variety of different specializations.

The next session in the Data Awareness Micro-Credential is the Science of Storytelling taking place on February 20, 2020. Stay tuned for more information by following CADS on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.