Data Science: Inference and Modeling
Key concepts through a motivating case study
Learn inference and modeling: two of the most widely used statistical tools in data analysis.
1-2 hours a week
What You'll Learn
Statistical inference and modeling are indispensable for analyzing data affected by chance, and thus essential for data scientists. In this course, you will learn these key concepts through a motivating case study on election forecasting.
This course will show you how inference and modeling can be applied to develop the statistical approaches that make polls an effective tool and we'll show you how to do this using R. You will learn concepts necessary to define estimates and margins of errors and learn how you can use these to make predictions relatively well and also provide an estimate of the precision of your forecast.
Once you learn this you will be able to understand two concepts that are ubiquitous in data science: confidence intervals, and p-values. Then, to understand statements about the probability of a candidate winning, you will learn about Bayesian modeling. Finally, at the end of the course, we will put it all together to recreate a simplified version of an election forecast model and apply it to the 2016 election.
The course will be delivered via edX and connect learners around the world. By the end of the course, participants will understand the following concepts:
- The concepts necessary to define estimates and margins of errors of populations, parameters, estimates and standard errors in order to make predictions about data
- How to use models to aggregatedata from different sources
- The very basics of Bayesian statistics and predictive modeling
Your Instructors
Ways to take this course
When you enroll in this course, you will have the option of pursuing a Verified Certificate or Auditing the Course.
A Verified Certificate costs $109 and provides unlimited access to full course materials, activities, tests, and forums. At the end of the course, learners who earn a passing grade can receive a certificate.
Alternatively, learners can Audit the course for free and have access to select course material, activities, tests, and forums. Please note that this track does not offer a certificate for learners who earn a passing grade.