Data Mining OpenCourseWare: A Free Undergraduate Course on Data Mining by MIT

Published Jan 27, 2009

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Unearth the benefits of data mining with this free OpenCourseWare from MIT Sloan School of Management's bachelor's degree program in management science. 'Data Mining' explores the tools and techniques of automated approaches to finding patterns in information, and the bottom-line benefits of taking advantage of the results.

Data Mining: Course Specifics

Degree Level Free Audio Video Downloads
Undergraduate Yes No No Yes

Lectures/Notes Study Materials Tests/Quizzes
Yes Yes Yes

Data Mining: Course Description

While poorly applied data mining raises concerns about privacy, data mining can be a useful tool for business and marketing. This free OpenCourseWare from Massachusetts Institute of Technology reviews the beneficial applications of data mining for businesses, including fraud detection and targeted marketing campaigns that maximize advertising expenditures. The uses and shortcomings of data mining are emphasized to allow students aspiring to management-level careers to participate knowledgeably in projects requiring data analysis. The introductory lecture is summarized in PowerPoint slides, with detailed notes provided for all other lectures from MIT Sloan professor Nitin Patel. In addition to the theoretical exploration of why companies benefit from data mining, students get concrete experience performing analyses. Assignments use the XLMiner software tool, which requires a Windows operating system (Windows 2000 or newer) and Microsoft Excel 2000/2003/2007, to give students practical experience mining data sets and applying the results to marketing issues. This OpenCourseWare is also available translated into Chinese.

The free OpenCourseWare includes the midterm exam, a full set of lecture notes, recommended readings, assignment guidelines and links to software tools for completing the assignments. If you are interested in this OpenCourseWare, download the course at the technical management science course page.

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