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Integrating Dataquest into your courses

Dataquest’s platform is built to meet your students where they are. We have developed a suite of entry points to serve students with limited or no prior experience with programming.

We also have more advanced starting points for students that already have some experience with the data skills and programming languages we teach.

Considerations for integrating Dataquest into courses:

• If your students are beginners, Dataquest’s introductory content provides a well-tested growth path for students. Our learners typically report feeling that they have a solid starting point from which to grow after completing the first three courses in any of our learning paths.
• Our courses are arranged in a thoughtful sequence, with each course building off of what was learned in the previous one. Most instructors report that this continuity of concepts is difficult to find on other services, and it makes integrating Dataquest into a curriculum easy, because there are no “gaps” students have to fill between courses.
• The course sequences, while helpful, are not mandatory — instructors can choose to have students complete courses in any sequence, or skip courses in our sequence that students have covered in their previous coursework.
• Dataquest’s guided projects test and develop a student’s critical thinking skills. These projects challenge students to synthesize and apply the knowledge they have gained, and think creatively about new ways to use their new skills. 

Project Based Learning

We know that data science in the workplace doesn’t happen in a vacuum, so we also know that data science training can’t happen in a vacuum either. All lessons are built around answering real-world data questions using real data. Learners study machine learning by building a model to predict future sales trends, and learn Python and pandas by writing code to analyze advertising markets.

Each course ends with a guided project that requires the learner to synthesize the new coding concepts they’ve learned to solve a bigger and more open-ended data problem, similar to the kinds of problems they’ll be solving for work.

In Dataquest projects, learners are also challenged to communicate their results in notebooks that are transparent and comprehensible to anyone — even team members with no technical background.

No Tedious Lectures

Video lectures are the foundation of a lot of online courses, but we don’t think they work very well for teaching applied technical skills like programming. They separate the learning process from practice and make retention more difficult.

They also take too long and don’t allow learners to skim material that is easy for them or spend additional time on harder concepts.

Our focus on applied learning means learners are forced to confirm mastery before moving on. It’s an approach that’s backed by science — studies have shown that passive, lecture-based learning doesn’t work well for teaching STEM topics.

Challenge – Not Frustration

Let’s be frank: many online learning platforms are too easy. This provides an enjoyable and motivating user experience, but it sets learners up for failure in the long run. Being able to correctly answer a multiple choice question about a Python function, for example, isn’t the same as being able to write one in practice.

Dataquest is designed to provide a careful balance between keeping learners motivated and ensuring they are genuinely challenged. Learners can get immediate feedback on their code by running it directly in the browser.

Our learners regularly tell us that Dataquest “makes them think” more than other platforms they’ve tried. And 97% of them say they recommend Dataquest for building job skills.