Managing Big Data with MySQL

Duke University via Coursera

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Provider

Coursera
Pricing

Free Online Course (Audit)
Languages

English
Certificate

Paid Certificate Available
Duration & workload

1 day 3 hours 2 minutes
Sessions

On-Demand
Subtitles

Arabic, French, Portuguese, Chinese, Italian, German, Russian, English, Spanish, Korean, Hindi, Pashto, Bengali, Hungarian, Ukrainian, Indonesian, Urdu, Kazakh, Swedish, Greek, Thai, Japanese, Azerbaijani, Polish, Farsi, Dutch, Turkish

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Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business

2.7

Overview

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This course is an introduction to how to use relational databases in business analysis. You will learn how relational databases work, and how to use entity-relationship diagrams to display the structure of the data held within them. This knowledge will help you understand how data needs to be collected in business contexts, and help you identify features you want to consider if you are involved in implementing new data collection efforts. You will also learn how to execute the most useful query and table aggregation statements for business analysts, and practice using them with real databases. No more waiting 48 hours for someone else in the company to provide data to you – you will be able to get the data by yourself! By the end of this course, you will have a clear understanding of how relational databases work, and have a portfolio of queries you can show potential employers. Businesses are collecting increasing amounts of information with the hope that data will yield novel insights into how to improve businesses. Analysts that understand how to access this data – this means you! – will have a strong competitive advantage in this data-smitten business world.

Syllabus

About this Specialization and Course

The Coursera Specialization, "Managing Big Data with MySQL" is about how 'Big Data' interacts with business, and how to use data analytics to create value for businesses. This specialization consists of four courses and a final Capstone Project, where you will apply your skills to a real-world business process. You will learn to perform sophisticated data-analysis functions using powerful software tools such as Microsoft Excel, Tableau, and MySQL. To learn more about the specialization, please review the first lesson below, "Specialization Introduction: Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business." In this fourth course of this specialization, "Managing Big Data with MySQL” you will learn how relational databases work and how they are used in business analysis. By the end of this course, you will have a clear understanding of how relational databases work and have a portfolio of queries you can show potential employers. Businesses are collecting increasing amounts of information with the hope that data will yield novel insights into how to improve businesses. Analysts that understand how to access this data – this means you! – will have a strong competitive advantage in this data-smitten business world. To get started with this course, you can begin with, "Introduction to Managing Big Data with MySQL." Please take some time to not only watch the videos, but also read through the course overview as there is extremely important course information in the overview.

Understanding Relational Databases

In this module, you will learn how relational databases are organized, and practice making and interpreting Entity Relationship (ER) diagrams and relational schemas that describe the structure of data stored in a database. This week’s exercises are donated from a well-known Database Systems textbook, and will help you deepen and strengthen your understanding of how relational databases are organized. This deeper understanding will help you navigate complicated business databases, and allow you to write more efficient queries. At the conclusion of the week, you will test your understanding of database design principles by completing the Week 1 graded quiz. To get started, please begin with the video “Problems with Having a Lot of Data Used by a Lot of People.” As always, if you have any questions, post them to the Discussions. I hope you enjoy this week's materials!

Queries to Extract Data from Single Tables

In this module, you will start interacting with business databases. You will write SQL queries that query data from two real companies. One data set, donated from a local start-up in Durham, North Carolina called Dognition, is a MySQL database containing tables of over 1 million rows. The other data set we'll learn about was donated from a national US department store chain called Dillard’s, is a Teradata database containing tables with over a hundred million rows. Make sure to watch the instructional videos about how to use the database interfaces we have established for this course, and complete the MySQL exercises. At the end of the week, you will test your understanding of the SQL syntax introduced this week by completing the graded quiz. As always, if you have any questions, post them to the Discussions. Enjoy this week's materials!

Queries to Summarize Groups of Data from Multiple Tables

In this module, we are going to learn the SQL syntax that allows you to segment your data into separate categories and segment. We are also going to learn how to combine data stored in separate tables. Make sure to watch the videos about joins, and complete the MySQL exercises. At the end of the week, you will test your understanding of the SQL syntax introduced this week by completing the graded quiz. We strongly encourage you to use the course Discussions to help each other with questions.

Queries to Address More Detailed Business Questions

In this module, you will practice integrating the SQL syntax you’ve learn so far into queries that address analysis questions typical of those you will complete as a business data analyst. Due to the extensive nature of the queries we will practice this week, we have put the graded quiz that tests your understanding of the SQL strategies you will practice in its own module at the end of this week. Make sure to complete the MySQL exercises, and we strongly encourage you to use the course Discussions to help each other with questions.

Strengthen and Test Your Understanding

This module contains the final graded quiz for the course. This quiz are intended to hone and build your understanding of the last important concepts in the course!

Taught by

Daniel Egger and Jana Schaich Borg

Reviews

4.0 rating, based on 6 Class Central reviews

4.7 rating at Coursera based on 4062 ratings

Start your review of Managing Big Data with MySQL

Gregory J Hamel ( Life Is Study) @greg

Managing Big Data with MySQL is the fourth and final course in Duke University's Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business specialization offered through Coursera. The 5-week course focuses on teaching students how to make relational databas…

Managing Big Data with MySQL is the fourth and final course in Duke University's Excel to MySQL: Analytic Techniques for Business specialization offered through Coursera. The 5-week course focuses on teaching students how to make relational database queries. Unlike some database courses that delve into details concerning database construction and theory, this course is all about the practical use of databases from the perspective of a business analyst. The first week introduces the concept of relational databases, entity relationship diagrams and schema, while the remainder of the course covers querying from simple select statements to summary functions, grouping, joins and subqueries. You don't need any particular background to take this course and it could be taken in isolation from the rest of the specialization. Grading is based on 4 week-end multiple-choice quizzes.

Weekly course content is divided into several lessons that typically involve watching a short video segment and then working through an exercise set in MySQL or Teradata, two relational databases used in the course. The lecture content is high quality but after the first week, you'll be spending most of your time working on exercises rather than watching videos. In fact, some lessons don't have video lectures at all: the written exercises are really the core of the course. The MySQL exercises are contained in Jupiter notebooks--interactive text and code documents--that let you read instructions and play around with code in the same place. The exercises provide plenty of opportunity to drill SQL queries and build SQL vocabulary. The answers to exercise questions are provided in PDFs (they are ungraded), which means you can skip ahead if you don't need more practice. Considering each week after the first has at least 3 exercises sets plus a quiz, each of which could take a few hours to complete in their entirety, consulting the answer keys frequently is recommended to keep things moving along at a reasonable pace.

At the end of each week after the first you'll do a final exercise set using Teradata and answer multiple choice quiz questions based on your results. You use the same real-world data set for each quiz--product information from Dillard's department stores—helping you build some familiarity with the data by the end of the course. The final week of the course doesn't cover any new material: it just contains the final quiz.

Managing Big Data with MySQL is a great course for learning practical relational database querying skills with plenty of exercises that let you interact with real-life data sets. The focus on drilling ungraded exercises combined with sparing use of lectures after the first week does, however, make the course feel impersonal. It plays out more like a collection of training materials than the sort of university-style course you may expect from Coursera.

I give Managing Big Data with MySQL 4.5 out of 5 stars: Great.
Anonymous

I learned a lot and the course material was high quality. Lots of exercises to practice the material. This was helpful for learning, but I think the stated workload was an underestimate.
Prasant Chakroborty

This is the best course I have taken in coursera. This course teaches data analysis using sql.The approach is quite handson with reallife database and real business scnarios.
Mturgal

It's a very high quality course. It's quite demanding and getting tougher as you move through the course. Highly recommended if you want to learn SQL on different (MySql and Teradata) platforms.
Sam Chan
Jinwook