The study of Coursera’s data analysis courses

Abstract

Objective: to identify the particular methods of teaching in massive open online courses. Research object: a learning process of the massive open online courses. Research subject: general and special in teaching methods of Coursera’s data analysis courses. Research goals: to participate as a student in massive open online courses in category «Statistics and Data Analysis», to analyze the types of software that is used there, teaching methods and teaching materials. Research methods: participant observation, content analysis, the analysis of the products. Research results: general in the teaching methods is the course syllabus, the use of short video lectures with built-in tests and subtitles, lecture’s texts presentation in the ppt and pdf formats, automated tests on each topic, a forum for communication and assistance. The special are structure and content of video lectures, statistical software, the tasks of programming, data sets, the use of peer-assessment, final projects, teacher’s and student’s blogs. Conclusions and recommendations: teachers’ participation as students in the courses of leading professors from leading universities allows to get acquainted with different styles of teaching, to expand their knowledge and scientific horizons, to learn new types of software, to update and to expand the content of courses, to develop professional relationships, to integrate into the global educational community.