Alright, folks! The The Analytics Edge course on edX is almost over and boy, have I learned a lot about Machine Learning in the past 2 months! This MOOC is hands down the best one I've taken so far, and I hope my other courses can at least live up to its awesomeness.
I first dipped my toes in the world of Machine Learning during my masters, but this class took me to a whole new level. What I loved most about the course is that it tackles real-world problems and shows us how to solve them using machine learning techniques. The course covers almost all the basic and important algorithms and the go-to language is R. However, for those who didn't have prior experience with R, the learning curve could be a bit steep. But hey, after a few days, they got the hang of it. Personally, I used to be a Python enthusiast for Data Science, but now R has won my heart as my primary language. Although, I still use Python exclusively to write scripts and understand algorithms.
MITx had the brilliant idea of opening a private Kaggle competition, which accounts for 15% of the final grade. Unfortunately, they made the rookie mistake of using the same competition as last year, and as a result, many students cheated their way to the top. It's not cool, folks. Winning at all costs is so last year.
Anyway, to complement this course, I've also signed up for the Statistical Learning course by Stanford University. I'm actively applying for Data Scientist/Machine Learning positions and I hope I land one soon so that I can apply my "Machine Learning" skills to help businesses and accelerate my professional growth. Wish me luck, y'all!