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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Big Data by University of California San Diego

4.6
stars
10,791 ratings

About the Course

Interested in increasing your knowledge of the Big Data landscape? This course is for those new to data science and interested in understanding why the Big Data Era has come to be. It is for those who want to become conversant with the terminology and the core concepts behind big data problems, applications, and systems. It is for those who want to start thinking about how Big Data might be useful in their business or career. It provides an introduction to one of the most common frameworks, Hadoop, that has made big data analysis easier and more accessible -- increasing the potential for data to transform our world! At the end of this course, you will be able to: * Describe the Big Data landscape including examples of real world big data problems including the three key sources of Big Data: people, organizations, and sensors. * Explain the V’s of Big Data (volume, velocity, variety, veracity, valence, and value) and why each impacts data collection, monitoring, storage, analysis and reporting. * Get value out of Big Data by using a 5-step process to structure your analysis. * Identify what are and what are not big data problems and be able to recast big data problems as data science questions. * Provide an explanation of the architectural components and programming models used for scalable big data analysis. * Summarize the features and value of core Hadoop stack components including the YARN resource and job management system, the HDFS file system and the MapReduce programming model. * Install and run a program using Hadoop! This course is for those new to data science. No prior programming experience is needed, although the ability to install applications and utilize a virtual machine is necessary to complete the hands-on assignments. Hardware Requirements: (A) Quad Core Processor (VT-x or AMD-V support recommended), 64-bit; (B) 8 GB RAM; (C) 20 GB disk free. How to find your hardware information: (Windows): Open System by clicking the Start button, right-clicking Computer, and then clicking Properties; (Mac): Open Overview by clicking on the Apple menu and clicking “About This Mac.” Most computers with 8 GB RAM purchased in the last 3 years will meet the minimum requirements.You will need a high speed internet connection because you will be downloading files up to 4 Gb in size. Software Requirements: This course relies on several open-source software tools, including Apache Hadoop. All required software can be downloaded and installed free of charge. Software requirements include: Windows 7+, Mac OS X 10.10+, Ubuntu 14.04+ or CentOS 6+ VirtualBox 5+....

Top reviews

DK

Aug 11, 2021

I love the course. It goes deep into the foundations, and then finishes up with an actual lab where you learn by practice. I greatly benefited from it and feel I have achieved a milestone in big data.

HM

Sep 8, 2019

I love the course. It goes deep into the foundations, and then finishes up with an actual lab where you learn by practice. I greatly benefited from it and feel I have achieved a milestone in big data.

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26 - 50 of 2,460 Reviews for Introduction to Big Data

By Jeffery T

Aug 31, 2016

This is a great introduction for Big Data. It helps me to revisit what I learned from the meetups and webinars, then put the fundamental knowledge and information in a solid foundation. Thank you.

By HARSHIT S

Aug 27, 2020

Best course for making your fundamentals strong about Big Data Field.

By Apoorv S S

May 30, 2020

I found this course to be exceptionally well paced, all the concepts that were touched upon were explained properly, it never got boring and i felt excited after each video, i particularly enjoyed the assignment for the word count and was able to grasp the concept of map-reduce model intuitively, although the number of questions in quizzes could have increased and be more application based but i think that it might be a trade off between making a course that is beginner friendly and helpful at the same time.

By Mark R

Dec 3, 2020

An excellent introduction to Hadoop and MapReduce, for those who know nothing about these things. The course uses a virtual machine, which means you don't need to install Hadoop on your own machine.

By Matthew L M

May 11, 2019

Good intro that also helped me understand some of my previous assumptions

By Jonathan R

Oct 31, 2022

It's a bit slow to start, especially if your reason for being here is already solid. It's always good to start from the "why", but we sat there for a very long time when I imagine most people come in knowing why they're doing this (though I could of course be wrong). The best part was the bit of hands on with Hadoop at the end, which I wish I had gotten more of. Also, the course probably needs an update as it uses a long deprecated version of VirtualBox, so much so that my computer would not let me use it for security reasons.

By Ellinor G

Jan 12, 2021

Do not waste your money and time with this course! All the instructors do is read useless slides which throw consulting- like concepts at you (the four Ps the 5 Ts the 6 whatevers) with zero connection to reality ( the few examples given are poorly chosen and totally uninspiring).

in line with many other recent data courses at Coursera, after prompter- reading through the slides the instructors then require knowlede that was NOT presented in the instruction material or in the videos to solve the problems in the assignments (load balancing, anyone?).

Do yourself a favor and skip this course, there are far better ones out there!

By Blanca

Feb 9, 2021

Esta desactualizado.

By Vivek G

Jan 15, 2021

It's a great course and introduction to Big Data. Great content, very well presented. Most importantly Quiz keeps you honest. Most importantly it gives you instructions to go at Hadoop with clear instructions to download Virtual Machine and use couple of applications. Thank you for putting this course together. What the university should do is put together an article or a short version of this course that covers all that has changed in the last 8 years since this course material was put together. It will be a great course to take for people like me, who are not practicing Hadoop in everyday work life.

By Nicolas A R C

Apr 6, 2021

I took this course because my university has an agreement with this platform, I joined the course by curiosity but I ended up falling in love with this field of knowledge. I got deeply interested in the uses of big data and I consider that is a high quality course. I wanted to continue with the second course but out of the blue, the agreement stop covering the rest of the modules of this specialized program. I'm broken hearted. I guess I will have to look for a different specialized program to keep learning, but I must acknowledge that I definetely loved this course.

By Yousif

Dec 5, 2020

Honestly, it was an awesome journey. I want to give heartfelt thanks to Coursera for giving me such a precious opportunity to reach out to my interests. I want to extend my heartfelt thanks to both instructors especially to professor Ilkay Altinatas. She surly ignited my curiosity and interest into learning more and more about the Big Data technologies!. She definitely paid so much effort into this course and her way of teaching simplified so much in a unique style of explanation.

Thanks again.

I will keep learning through the rest of your big data courses.

By Glenn B

Jan 29, 2017

I did this course and have been enjoying all of the subsequent courses. I find the content great and the examples and lecture fascinating. I have been working with Cloud computing for 5 years. This course really opened my eyes up on the applicability and the inner workings. It is not a programmers course. It is excellent if you are a Sr. manager or strategist that needs to work with people as part of a data science team. I think this should be a mandatory course for anyone who thinks they may need to deal with bid data and the new computing cloud universe

By Dean O

May 20, 2021

This course was very helpful in helping me understand the high-level concepts of big data, which I'm sure will be of great use to me in the future. The lectures covered everything needed for intro to big data, were not taught too fast or too slow, and there was not too much going on in the slides to distract me. The hands-on activities and somewhat challenging quizzes were also very nice and kept me engaged. It also only took me like 5 days to complete it. Im very glad I spent my time doing this.

By Muhammad S S

May 20, 2022

I absolutely loved this course. I was introduced to the basics which helped me develope core concepts. I am sure these concepts will help me later in this specialization.

There are few things that could be improved. Firstly, peer graded MapReduce assignement is of no use. It doesn't do any good. Secondly there should be more practical work in this module.

But overall, this is an excellent course to build foundation about Big Data, its uses and a great platform to get to know about Hadoop.

By AJESH K (

Dec 22, 2019

A highly motivating introduction to Big Data with option to work out the examples hands on in cloud with Hadoop. The course inspires the learner to dive deep in to big data and explore big data analytics.

The course presentations are well planned. It is presented as short videos in a very attractive manner. The way the researchers have shared their experiences in using Big Data for disaster management is great information to the learners. Overall, it is a very good experience.

By Nicolas A

Sep 26, 2016

It is very easy to follow the course. This first course is not complex. As the title says, it is more of an introduction of the world of big data and hadoop. Also, you will learn how to install and run hadoop as well as some very basic functions of MapReduce.

Overall a very good course. As a tip, if you are fluent in english, I would recommend you to run the video x1.5 or x1.75. At the beginning it may be hard, but it will reduce the time that you spend watching video.

By Tony W U

Aug 28, 2016

Despite my busy work schedule I had fun taking this course especially because of the forum that diverse learners from all around the globe participated it. Twice I got stuck with running hadoop and other learners had posted the solution so I tried their suggestions and I got unstuck! I appreciate those who put in extra work to make my learning easier and fun. Honestly, that was the incentive that made me to complete this course for I was about to drop out. Thank you.

By ESTEBAN Q G

Aug 17, 2020

This course was my first coursera course, my first programming course and my first total English course, really it's gonna be forever in my heart. In other side, it pushe me in context about the Data science and how it is very importatn for current time and for future generations and daily live. The teacher was very clear in her explanations and the excersices was very thoughts for actual learning. I only have admiration and thank words. thank you very much

By Kevin L

Jul 13, 2017

Lots of good material. Of the three "aspects" of data science, this one covers the business angle pretty heavily. It also sets you up with Hadoop and introduces the MapReduce elements.

If you already have background knowledge of data science, some of this material may seem to drag a little bit. Nonetheless, it's one of the few courses on this platform I've taken that address how data science is used in industry (rather than simply the methods).

By Prathviraj S C

Jun 28, 2020

Instructors are genius. I want to first understand the thing before learning it. For me it is very much difficult to learn something without knowing how it is applicable in our life or in technology. The best part of this code is, it first explained how big data is playing role in our life, and later shown how to perform task on data , which most courses don't. Thanks Sir and Ma'am, lots of love from India, Keep making courses like this.

By Aveek M

Feb 20, 2017

The course is exceptionally well made and tailored to our needs. I had a great time going through the course. The course was clear and well tailored covering all the major aspects of Big Data. I started the course late and was unable to finish it by the deadline, but was auto enrolled to the next month and was able to successfully finish the course. Thank you Coursera and University of San Diego for explaing Big Data in such a simple way

By Brad K

Mar 28, 2017

This was a very good course covering great information on Big Data with many quizzes and workshops to reinforce the learning content. I found it very interesting and looking forward to continuing the big data journey. Passing this course was fun and exciting! I'm already using what I've learned on my job. I'm planning on registering for the next module but taking a moment to celebrate this success.

By Silvia A D P

Jun 27, 2020

I really liked the course. I knew almost nothing about big data, it was very informative for me as a beginner, I loved the final part of the course very much where we had to put our knowledge into practice, because although it took me a long time to find the solution, I did it and it was very satisfying. I really feel that I learned a lot and now I can only continue reading, practicing and improving

By Herath M P S M

May 12, 2020

Excellent Course !!! Big Data is a leading area of Data Science which will take major role in future . A beginner to Big Data Science must understand the basic concepts of Big Data Analysis and How to identify Big Data problem and work with it . Anyone who doesn't know any thing about Big Data , but have curious about what is this Big Data is ? Best place to stats with Big Data is this Course.

By Huynh L D

Jun 29, 2016

This is much better than the previous version! 6 weeks with much more spread out and comprehensive contents about big data with a nice balance between theory and hands-on assignments.

Technical software taught are Hadoop, following the MapReduce framework, to which the introduction was very gentle and progressive. Thus, it makes it manageable to take in the and learn the rope by small baby steps.