MIT’s First Professional Online Course on Big Data

Come early March, MIT will open its first online course specifically targeted at professionals and executives in the technical business world. The course on Big Data will be the first in a line of professional programs dubbed “Online X”.

The course will cover Big Data topics such as data collection, processing, storage, visualization, analytics and applications. To lead the Big Data course, MIT assigned a staff of 12 faculty members from their School of Engineering’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory.

For a little under $500, STEM professionals around the world will have access to the course through MIT’s Professional Education (MPE) division and the MIT-Harvard open-sourced online platform edX. Once completed, students will receive an MPE certificate and access to MPE’s alumni network.

“I am thrilled with MIT Professional Education’s Online X course offering of Tackling the Challenges of Big Data as part of MIT’s digital learning portfolio,” said Sanjay Sarma, Director of the MIT Office of Digital Learning. “Our goal is to expand access to MIT’s knowledge and expertise globally via online courses. A course on a high interest topic such as big data is a perfect way for us to begin addressing the learning needs of working professionals who may not otherwise be able to come to MIT to attend courses.”

Bhaskar Pant, Executive Director of MIT Professional Education said, “MIT Professional Education is pleased to be able to offer a unique and comprehensive online course addressing a very important challenge facing industry today … I am confident this course will allow industry players to not only learn of new approaches to big data, but will spark innovative thinking among teams charged with finding solutions to big data challenges.”

Students may register for the course as individuals or as groups of employees from the same company.

Source MIT.