We at Data Science Dojo conduct a 5-day, in-person data science bootcamp for individuals who are planning to get started in this field or want to use it in their current job. Many of our attendees are working professionals who can benefit from adding some data science techniques to their current skill set. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or have little to no prior knowledge, anyone can get started in data science in just one week.
There isn’t one right way to learn data science, but we’ll give you three reasons to attend an in-person data science bootcamp.
Focus
When attending an instructor-led training session in a classroom, students are better able to focus on what’s being taught compared to participating in an e-learning session.
We aren’t just saying this because we offer in-person training. It’s scientifically proven! Meeting in-person gives a sense of importance to both parties involved. You will subconsciously want to focus because you’re taking the time to learn in a new environment rather than staying in a familiar space.
Did we mention the level of distractions greatly decline when you attend face-to-face? Phones are silenced, co-workers aren’t running into your office, and there’s no television to distract you. It’s you, the instructors, and your peers all in the same place with a common goal: To learn.
It’s not only the student’s responsibility to stay focused. The instructor can adapt to the preferred learning style for each class to help. In live class sessions, instructors can read the room to keep students engaged and focused on the task at hand. When teaching in-person, an instructor can look at posture, glazed eyes, or distracted students to see how the lesson is going, adapting in real-time to bring the class back to life. Something that can’t happen in online classes.
I’ll leave you with this quote from Daniel Tobin, a Learning and Development Director, on LinkedIn:
“E-learning advocates have recognized these problems and have attempted to resolve them by including frequent short quizzes or polls that require the participants to ‘pay attention,’ but the fact remains that there are many more distractions for the learner in an e-learning environment than in an actual classroom.”
Motivation
Helping you focus isn’t the only benefit of having an instructor teach in-person. Motivation is also a key advantage in attending this style of training.
Motivation is the act of starting a task. Dedication is seeing the task through to completion. In a face-to-face boot camp, your instructors are there to get you started. They teach, guide, and encourage you to begin. Your peers are there to help you get to the finish line.
This brings us to the fact that we, as humans are inherently social. We want to be around other people and interact together, to bring positive feelings and think highly of each other. The social aspect of learning is missing in an online experience. You may be interacting with other people, just not physically.
Dr. Albert Mehrabian, the author of Silent Messages, conducted studies on how people communicate. He found 55% of all communication comes through nonverbal cues (posture, facial expression, etc….). With an e-learning experience, you’ll miss out on more than half of what the instructor is communicating. It’s no wonder the average completion rate of MOOCs in 2017/2018 was around 3.13%.
Networking
In our experience, you can apply to hundreds of jobs, and you might hear back from 2 or 3, but if you have a connection with someone in the company, the probability that you will hear back and receive an interview skyrocket.
Having the ability to network is one of the biggest advantages of attending an in-person class, training, or bootcamp. Along with learning, you can meet people from a multitude of backgrounds. This is great if you’re on the job hunt, but also for those already employed. New people mean new perspectives. Just by talking to someone you can learn from them and have the potential to apply their perspective on a project at work that you’ve been struggling with.
At Data Science Dojo, our alumni network spans across the world with 4,000 people and counting from more than 1,000 companies. We offer exclusive networking dinners, chatrooms, and a LinkedIn group that we encourage our alumni to engage with. We promote cross-functional cooperation and networking to give our alumni the best opportunity to start/change careers, earn promotions, and solve high-level analytical problems.
In Summary
Like we mentioned at the beginning of the article, there isn’t one correct way to learn data science. We just strongly feel the best way is with in-person training. You’ll be focused, motivated, and dedicated all with the chance to network with the people in your cohort. Whether you want to break into the field, change careers, or add some tools to your toolkit, it’s hard to beat an in-person data science bootcamp.
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Written By:
Khaja Raeesul Hasan and Nathan Piccini
