Welcome! Let’s start out with a few more details about this course.

Navigating the work

Lessons

Each week you will have a few lessons () to work through. These will consist of videos from me, videos and readings from online, and a few small check-in activities.

I encourage you to treat these lessons like in-person lecture. Set aside time to work through the whole lesson at once, and work through each step in order - don’t skip around!

Time estimates are provided, but these will vary from person-to-person. On the whole, the total Lesson time each week should be around 4 hours, much like for an in-person college course.

Practice Puzzles

The practice puzzles () will ask you to do a series of specific steps that will require you to use your new skills from the week’s material. If you succeed, you will be rewarded with a single clear answer; for example, in puzzle 1, you will decode a message to reveal a secret poem!

These are very much meant to be for your practice. Don’t hesitate to ask questions, share answers, and Google information.

Labs

To bring together your weekly skills, you are asked to perform a real data analysis. (). Try to give this task your absolute best; this is your chance to use your new skills the way you might in a job or a research project.

At the end of each lab is a “Challenge” that will push you a little outside your comfort zone. I encourage you to try these out!

Patreon Subscriptions

Have you ever told yourself you would work through an online course, but found it difficult to keep yourself accountable without a classroom structure?

Have you ever started teaching yourself something with online tools, only to get frustrated when you are stuck on a small confusion with nobody to ask for help?

Did you perhaps even get started on this course already, and wish you had a bit more structure and guidance?

If so, you might be interested in subscribing to this Course on Patreon.

With your support as a subscriber, I am able to offer some of my free time to give you a better learning experience.

Subscription Tiers

Basic

At the Basic Subscriber level, you will get access to the Class Discord Server. There, you can interact with your fellow learners, see solutions to the puzzles and labs, and occasionally get your questions answered by Dr. Bodwin.

Click here to read more about using the Discord Server.

Full Course

At the Full Course Subscriber level, you will get the experience of a complete, synchronous university course. You have the opportunity to attend Office Hours with Dr. Bodwin (also on Discord), to get “graded” feedback on your labs, and to complete a Final Exam at the end of the course.

Discounts

Note also that I offer a discounted version of the Full Subscriber tier for certain Diversity categories, as well as for K-12 and Community College Educators.