Data Analytics is a rapidly-evolving field applicable to many business, engineering, and computer science workplace contexts. Open educational resources are more likely to be better options than costly, traditional commercial textbooks that become outdated rapidly. The digital content in this new online course, Data Analytics and Decision Making, introduces learners to fundamental concepts of data analytics and their application in decision making. The emphasis is on the utilization of practical analytic tools in a complex engineering management environment. Topics covered include careers in data analytics; data types, formats, and repositories; big data and cloud computing; stages of data analytics; descriptive analytics; predictive analytics, including statistical learning and machine learning; and prescriptive analytics with decision-making examples.

Download the Course Syllabus 

Course Need

The course will be offered within the curriculum of graduate degree programs in the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Windsor such as: Master of Engineering, Master of Applied Science, and Master of Engineering Management.  The modular design of the course will allow future alignments with other programs.

Labor Market Need

Today’s labor market, namely for engineering graduates, demands data analytics skills. Employers are increasingly requiring candidates to be able to deal with large amount of data and be able to interpret and utilize data in decision making. To further verify this market need, we have conducted a labor market analysis (https://www.services.labour.gov.on.ca/) and scanned skills required for jobs with Above Average job outlook for 2017- 2021 such as: computer network technicians, computer and info systems managers, info systems analytics, system consultants and database analysts. Data-related skills were demanded in these jobs.

Need for Online Format

The technical nature of the course lends it the strong potential to be delivered online with high quality. In Summer 2022, this course will be offered for the first time as a required course (GENG-8050) in the Master of Engineering Management program that attracts full-time working professionals. Hence, offering it in a virtual format (fully or partially) adds to  programming flexibility.

This project was developed with funding from the Government of Ontario and eCampusOntario Virtual Learning Strategy.

Data Analytics was developed by Prof. Ali AbdulHussein (Odette School of Business) in collaboration with Dr. Bahman Naderi (Faculty of Engineering) at the University of Windsor. Dr. Bahman contributed draft presentation slides, labs and tutorials, and assignments for the course.

Dr. Nobuko Fujita (Office of Open Learning) provided instructional design support, and Dr. Chris Teplovs recorded the lecture videos.

Dr. Beth Robertson contributed her Equity, Diversity, Decolonization, and Inclusion (EDDI) expertise in reviewing the course materials and providing advice.

Sakshi Arora, our student partner specializing in the Business Analytics stream. Odette Master of Management,  contributed to editing data analytics equations for accessibility and multimedia production and post production.

Shreyas Tambe (Office of Open Learning) provided support for video production and post-production.

Patrick Carnevale (OOL Co-op Student; School of Computer Science) provided graphic design support on Dr. Naderi’s slides.

Current students in the Master of Management Program, Mayank Ghai, Hasib Imam, Muhammad Shahid, and Spencer Stinson, contributed to the creation of the course by providing feedback on the use of data analytics in their professional engineering contexts and experiences with online learning.

While we attempt to make all elements of this resource conform with international accessibility guidelines, we must acknowledge a few accessibility issues:

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This accessibility statement is adapted from Understanding Document Accessibility by The Chang School, Ryerson University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Citation & Attribution

The suggested citation for this book in APA format is:

AbdulHussein, A. (2022). Data Analytics and Decision Making.  University of Windsor. http://ecampusontario.pressbooks.pub/dataanalytics/

The suggested attribution for this textbook is

Data Analytics and Decision Making by Ali AbdulHussein is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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