DataCamp

I was working on datacamp exercises at work and a client stopped by and was telling him about it. I was showing him how it works and got to the part where you search for 'RT' in a dataframe containing tweets from Twitter. Press "Run" on the code what do I have on my screen? "CRUZ SCREWS HOOKERS" and a bunch of other political tweets.
Like most people learning with datacamp, I am taking this course for professional reasons and I expect professional content. Is this the only data you could come up with?

I would highly recommend people to not waste time with Datacamp. I've used it actively for a few weeks and don't feel like I've really learned anything. The exercises are ridiculously easy and the instruction for them gives everything away. Usually the code needed to solve the problem is more than half written for you and you just have to do the easiest parts, sometimes by copypasting code from the instruction.. Seriously, what am I supposed to learn this way?

Although they advertise themselves as "firm belivers of 'learning by doing'" their site doesn't reflect this. Most of the time spent using Datacamp is watching videos (which are not bad) or reading the instructions for the exercises that repeat the videos' content. There is very little doing where you have think, hardly any to be honest.

I went through the first eight (out of 23) chapters of their Data Scientist with R Track, so I belive that I have a good picture of the overall quality. The depth these courses have would be ok for high school but I seriously doubt that it gives you skills to compete with in the job market. 

When news about successes in data analyses and visualisation emerged in social media, newspapers and TV, I started understanding the importance of learning programmes like R. Big data analyses open new opportunities in this business-intense, science-oriented, and the interpretation-focused world. Therefore, I tried to learn the language from free online courses. However, they were not for me, who wants to get the skills right after 2-3 classes. I wanted a platform that teaches me everything with the help of simple, but elegant methods.

In one of my google searches, DataCamp popped up and I first learned some basics from the free courses offered by their team. When I found that the courses are beneficial and help me get a deeper understanding of the analysing techniques and visualisation, I got a yearly subscription. The videos and the interactive exercises are so effective that I was able to confidently write the codes within 3-4 months. Now I can handle data visualisation, analyses etc. by writing codes in R. I really enjoy making plots and analysing data. 

 

I enjoyed the learning experience with Datacamp during the past two monthes as a subscribed member. The interactive learning platform & the easy-to-understand course content are great for entering the data science world as well as refreshing prior knowledge in a practical way. The course portfolio in the career/skill tracks provide systematic training to kick start the data science journey. In addition, I could see a possibility to stay with it in the long run, due to its regular release of new courses. 

I was intimidated by R at first.  The design of the courses in R imparts an active learning process that does not depend on boring lectures or exercises.  The course chapters and certificates of accomplishments help track progress.  Some exercises are a little clumsy because the authors assume a level of knowledge that may not have yet been gained.  There is no general recommended flow of learning among chapters, just that within a chapter.  So I certainly do not feel ashamed in taking some hints or requesting the solution in order to progress.  In all of the mistakes and frustration, theee is learning.  And Data Camp has developed an exquisite path to learning.

Ive used datacamp for about 3 months now and while i found it to be quite useful and informative for the beginner courses, as the courses progress and become more advanced, it becomes very frustrating. There are frequently mistakes in the exercises and it becomes even more frustrating to attempt to reproduce any of the exercises offered as the resources used in the exercise are not offered, instead you will need to find and download what you hope will be identical to what was used. Furthermore there are steps which although are seemingly minor can stop you from completly many of the exercises of which are not covered and you will need you seek out the answers from other sources. Would recommend for beginners only.