Business Analytics, Social Network and Web Analytics

Catalog description

Analytics is the application of techniques to identify important observations and patterns in data. Analytical techniques can be used to overcome the practical challenges presented by data, such as the challenges presented by data volume, variety, velocity, and other properties. This includes application of techniques of data reduction, filtering and analysis in order to identify, measure and assess key business indicators. This course focuses on the business rationale for and application of analytics including exploration of how decision-making processes can and should be driven by the results of well-crafted analytics processes. In particular, the course focuses on both the need for organizations to more fully understand, appreciate and exploit so-called "soft" or "unstructured" data -- the things human beings say to each other, in uncontrolled and unformatted ways, on various social media. Search histories and other "temporary" data, not normally revealed by traditional search engines, will also be examined.