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Learn to code for data analysis
Learn to code for data analysis

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Week 1: Having a go at it Part 1

Introduction

Please note: A number of learners have reported issues with the software and quizzes within this course. We will be carrying out a review and updating the material where necessary. Additionally, a link to a supplementary FAQs page will be added here soon.

Welcome to Learn to code for data analysis! This course has been written to show how a little bit of code can go a long way in making sense of the increasingly vast amounts of open data available online.

If you’re used to the manual approach of copying and pasting formulas in spreadsheets, you’ll see that writing a few lines of code to manipulate data can be quicker, less error-prone, and more powerful.

Please note: in the following video, where reference is made to a study ‘week’, this corresponds to Weeks 1 and 2 of this course.

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You will write code in a programming language called Python, named after the comedy group Monty Python. Python is very popular for teaching programming, but is also widely used in professional software development.

The notebooks Ruth mentions in the video use an environment (like a program) called Jupyter, which allows you to write notebooks that include Python code. Jupyter is used by many scientists and data analysts as part of their workflow. Although you will use Python and Jupyter at a basic level, you will be learning tools used by the pros.

Python, Jupyter and other software you will need to take part in the course are included in the Anaconda distribution (like a package). You’ll have an opportunity to download the software in the next step.

For now, think about your goals are for taking this course. Do you have any previous coding or data analysis experience, e.g. with spreadsheets? Perhaps you want to find more efficient ways of working with data, or perhaps you’re intrigued by the idea of what code is and how it can possibly help you work with data.

The Open University would really appreciate a few minutes of your time to tell us about yourself and your expectations for the course before you begin, in our optional start-of-course survey [Tip: hold Ctrl and click a link to open it in a new tab. (Hide tip)] . Participation will be completely confidential and we will not pass on your details to others.

We hope you enjoy the course!

  • Michel Wermelinger
  • Rob Griffiths
  • Tony Hirst