Data Analysis and Visualization Foundations Specialization

Deriving insights from data and communicating findings has become an increasingly important part of virtually every profession. This Specialization prepares you for this data-driven transformation by teaching you the core principles of data analysis and visualization and by giving you the tools and hands-on practice to communicate the results of your data discoveries effectively.
You will be introduced to the modern data ecosystem, consisting of databases and other data sources within and outside your organization. You will learn the skills required to successfully start data analysis tasks by becoming familiar with spreadsheets like Excel. You will examine different data sets, load them into the spreadsheet, and employ techniques like summarization, sorting, filtering, & creating pivot tables.
Creating stunning visualizations is a critical part of communicating your data analysis results. You will use Excel spreadsheets to create the many different types of data visualizations such as line plots, bar charts, pie charts. You will also create advanced visualizations such as treemaps, scatter charts & map charts. You will then build interactive dashboards quickly and easily with IBM Cognos Analytics.
This Specialization is designed for learners interested in starting a career in the field of Data or Business Analytics, as well as those in other professions, who need basic data analysis and visualization skills to supplement their primary job tasks.
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- Describe the data ecosystem, tasks a Data Analyst performs, as well as skills and tools required for successful data analysis
- Explain basic functionality of spreadsheets and utilize Excel to perform a variety of data analysis tasks like data wrangling and data mining
- List various types of charts and plots and create them in Excel as well as work with Cognos Analytics to generate interactive dashboards