To Author's Page
The Managerial Data Science class was my first experience of a pure online lecture during the Part-time MBA. Like most educational institutes, Frankfurt School has now moved all lectures online as an emergency response to the spread of Coronavirus until end of January (preliminary). To be honest, I took a deep breath when I first received the announcement from our study adviser. I was a little bit concerned whether the pure online format would work out well for me. I had only very limited knowledge of Data Science, but had the ambitious goal to reach a solid level of Data Science knowledge sufficient to apply to the real world. Apart from that, during the previous months I have really enjoyed the in-class lectures as these include highly engaging classroom interactions and make you feel like being a student again. It is also nice to meet with fellow students during the coffee or lunch breaks.
Of course, I also understand the health concerns in the pandemic situation. To make the best out of the online lecture, I started my preparations in advance. To make the learning more effective, I knew that not only the assigned pre-readings were crucial, but also a well-functioning technical set-up. In order to be able to follow the class, I would need fast internet and two screens – one screen served as a virtual whiteboard and the second as my own working place. The lectures started Friday afternoon. I had all settings and preparations in place and was ready to take a deep dive into descriptive and predictive linear regression via Zoom.
From the beginning, it was clear that the course is not about buzzwords, but about practical programming using the R-Studio environment and how to apply data interpretations. Our professor Prof. Alexander Bleier provided us with key know-how and skills for our career development. The insights he shared that allow for data-driven decision making to replace management by intuition. We started the course by analyzing real-life business cases of successful data-driven marketing activities in comparison to less successful examples.
My first learning was that Data Science can be a real game changer for businesses, however it also has limits and significant risks. After a quick refresh of fundamentals of regression analysis, we switched to the practical part of the lecture and took our first steps into R programming. Using interesting case studies, we worked on strategic business challenges navigating through huge amounts of data and filtering out meaningful observations that will help making profound decisions. Gradually the difficulty level increased and we ended up by programming of relatively advanced logistic regression analysis and interpreting outputs in R-Studio.
After two and a half intensive days of Data Science via Zoom, I was impressed about the achievements and – to my surprise – about the productive learning environment during the online lectures. Thanks to the interactive teaching style and the use of online tools, such as Miro, it was easy to follow and stay concentrated even though the material was quite challenging. I discovered a new way to analyze managerial problems based on numbers, facts, and statistics. Even more, after the class I feel able to apply the gained knowledge in my current work projects, thereby helping to provide better, data-based business insights. Taking advantage of available data is an important milestone towards the overall goal of becoming a competent manager.
As the American statistician and management consultant Dr. William Edwards Demin once pointed out: “Without data you´re just another person with an opinion”.
Frankfurt School gGmbH
Adickesallee 32-34
60322 Frankfurt am Main
