Chevron Left
Back to Introduction to Big Data

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

4.6
stars
10,792 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

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.

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.

Filter by:

2376 - 2400 of 2,460 Reviews for Introduction to Big Data

By Lakshmi M

Oct 5, 2017

Good overview

By Manoj S

Oct 28, 2017

Pretty basic

By Sanjay

May 12, 2018

nice one

By Safoora

Feb 6, 2018

Good st

By Baji r

Nov 2, 2023

nice

By SHAIK A G

Nov 17, 2022

good

By Raizza S d S

Jul 15, 2020

I had quite some high expectations for this course however Week 1 videos were already such a turn-off. The videos were so slow-paced that it actually became just like a lecture at uni (boring). However, at first, the content was indeed interesting for Big Data introduction. The first quiz was horrible. It was so hard, half of the questions had nothing to do with the content (in my opinion). I had to research the subjects on another websites as I honestly did not see half of them on the videos. All other tests were more reliable to what was previously learned. But the part that made me more upset was having to download and install 2 applications (this was not explicit on the programme) for the final assessment understanding and answering a 2-question quiz in which one of these applications had FOUR GBs to be downloaded. Up to this point, I did download the file. Overall I do not recommend this course to anyone. Reasons are clear: the "sluggishness" of the videos and presenter and the final/ultimate 4GB gift. They should create an online environment for this task/application. I do give a star for the assessment where we had to create a presentation of how MapReduce works. I liked that interactivity.

By Petter B

Aug 8, 2016

The content of the course is ok. The main problem is that the way the information is presented. Ilkay Altintas, who is the main lecturer, is a sweet woman, but lecturing from a manuscript is not her strongest side. It is clear that she is reading from a screen while she is looking into the camera. Anyone could do that job, and they should have chosen more of an "news anchor" type of person with better pronunciation and more flow. It's simply very uninspiring and boring to listen to. Also, 59 dollars is far too expensive for such a short course.

By Sweta S

May 24, 2021

Its was more of theoretical knowledge than application knowledge which is generally required for working professionals.

Practical implementation example are less.

Courser material still refers to the 5.1/5.2 Virtual Box versions which are no longer supported. A link to Virtual Box would have been better than installing locally in system.

Hadoop exercise could have been more , better if divided into smaller tasks with commands usage for better understanding.

By Michał S

Jan 6, 2017

It covers theoretical part of "What big data is" and basic info about Hadoop. Quality of presentation slides is below average. Most of them are not readable - many fonts, many colors, some with complicated pictures, some with no information at all. Part with Map reduce is just slightly touched, not explained in details, without examples. Practical tasks from hadoop are very easy and they show nothing (just how to navigate over hadoop file system.

By Evženie T

Apr 5, 2018

The basic concepts were mentioned but not explained deeply enough, so I was mostly memorizing rather than understanding. The presentation was boring, and the tests did not really test anyone's understanding of the subject matter but rather if one memorized correctly the information from the videos. I would recommend finding a more engaging course.

By Adrián C

Jun 11, 2020

There is a big learning gap between the first two weeks and the third one. Some key concepts are poorly or never defined throughout the course. By the end of this course, I lack the knowledge to perform a basic big data analysis. The tools we learn how to use during the course are not particularly relevant.

By Yuri C

Sep 29, 2021

The course instructors are indeed a charm and do a great job. But the practical session are too outdated. Even the company that offers the VirtualMachine image does not offer it anymore. The content on this part comes straight out of 2015 and it shows! It is a pity because the theoretical part is great.

By Faisal A

Jul 12, 2020

Decent overview of things but the presentations seemed outdated. The material is a bit too basic and could benefit from more practical aspects. It felt like not a lot of effort was put into making the course. I hope the next few courses in the specialization are better :)

By Jochen D K

Sep 27, 2017

No clear guideline of how to use Cloudera proparly. Some functionalities you need to complete the final weren't even mentioned during the lectures! It took me several hours to find useful information about it online.

By Robert H

Sep 8, 2017

Tedious exercises through VM where instructions oftentimes do not work out of the box. It is a hassle to download the slides in small sets and their design awful. Definitely one of the worse courses I have taken.

By Lourens A

Oct 25, 2019

There is a lot of terms that is not needed, the presentation of the course does not inspire to want to know more and is very one tone. If you know a bit about data and some concepts you do not really learn a lot

By Chris R

Feb 19, 2020

The material was pretty out-dated and extremely basic. Given the technical nature of the later courses, this material would only be useful for people are incapable of finishing the specialization.

By Onur O

Oct 10, 2020

It is old fashioned and much theoretical. Does not mention any details about hive, spark etc. But if you want to learn the history of bigdata its good for it and understand main need.

By KEE K X

Jun 4, 2020

I have problem at the last hadoop part, which requires a lot of laptop performance and eventually let my laptop went into repair.

Do be careful while sign up for this course.

By Aditya A

May 28, 2020

You can easily get away with skipping the first two weeks of the course. Only the last half the third week seems to contain any real technical information about hadoop.

By César G M

Jul 16, 2017

I guess I shouldn't be pissed at an 'Introduction' course to be too basic, but still... It's completely skippable, even if you don't know anything about big data.

By Pavindu L

Dec 26, 2018

This is more focused on theory than practical experience.Its better to shorten the video duration so that it will not be boring to listen to lectures.

By Quji B

Nov 27, 2020

The introduction is too theoretical and the practice starts too late. The last assignment is actually where I truly felt I started learning Big Data.

By Robert B B J

May 10, 2020

Worst introduction. The Instructors are very promising don't get me wrong. The structure of the course and the presentation and editing is awful.