By SUSAN JONES
Pitt’s School of Computing and Information (SCI) is making it easier for anyone with a bachelor’s degree — in any subject — to get a master’s degree in the in-demand field of data science.
The school is partnering with Coursera to offer a masters in data science program, which will have a $15,000 tuition — considerably lower than other similar programs — and take a minimum of 20 months to complete.
Students won’t have to take any entrance exams, but will need a required initial three-credit, performance-based admission course that they will have to get a B- or better in to continue. The program is pay-as-you-go, so students only pay tuition fees for the courses they enroll in each term.
Enrollment is scheduled to begin Feb. 12, with the first course starting in May. Admitted students can begin a full course load in fall 2024.
Marni Baker Stein, chief content officer at Coursera, said this innovative program will “allow learners to … really experience and learn the introductory data science content, but also not just learn it, but figure out if it’s interesting, figure out if they have a passion for it, and to be able to do that in a low-risk, low-cost environment.”
Bruce Childers, dean of the School of Computer and Information, said he’s heard statistics that 65 percent of employees today need data science skills. “The gap and the need for data science is so wide that to limit it to (people with) a data science background or computer science background would I think impede the opportunities, and it will also impede supporting what the workforce needs.”
Childers said they are “over the moon excited to partner with Coursera on this initiative.” The 10 courses (for 30 credits) were created by and will be taught by SCI faculty. Students will take the classes asynchronously, but will “have a live engagement with a course facilitators and our full-time, wonderful, awesome faculty that have created this curriculum,” he said.
The dean said the school and Coursera were in alignment in their “commitment to access and affordability inclusive of learners from all walks of life, especially in these burgeoning areas like data science, where there’s a (projected) 35 to 36 percent increase in jobs over the next decade.”
This is the first full-degree program Pitt has partnered with Coursera to provide, but there are five other single courses offered by Pitt on the online platform. Earlier this year, the Office of the Provost and the University Center for Teaching and Learning created an Open Online Short Course Development Grant to encourage full- and part-time faculty members to develop non-credit, stand-alone, asynchronous courses designed to serve large enrollments for the Coursera platform. Five Pitt faculty were awarded $10,000 and support from Pitt Online Services to created these courses.
The Coursera platform reaches more than 100 million learners around the world and has partnered with more than 300 universities and companies. Childers said they hope to eventually enroll 1,000 students annually in the master’s program, and will need to scale up instructional facilitators and student support services to meet that need.
The program is geared toward adult working professionals, Childers and Stein said, who would find it difficult to participate in a part-time or full-time program on campus because of commuting times, child care issues and changing work schedules.
Thais Safe Carneiro, director of SCI’s Professional Graduate Program, and Adam Lee, executive associate dean, are the key people in the school leading the program. They are being assisted by Audra Longert, associate vice provost for digital education, along with the Center for Teaching and Learning, Pitt IT and the registrar’s office.
Childers said the most important aspect of the online Master’s of Data Science program is its inclusivity for “learners that see the need for data skills in their current career or they want to enter into a data orient career. We want to make that possible.”
Susan Jones is editor of the University Times. Reach her at suejones@pitt.edu or 724-244-4042.
Have a story idea or news to share? Share it with the University Times.