PCDE Orientation

Introduction

This is the orientation to how to succeed in the MIT xPRO Professional Certificate in Data Engineering (PCDE) course .

First Some Lessons About Good Note Taking

Interacting with Lectures

It's important to take notes on the content released each week. Good note taking can even save time on doing activities and assignments, as the information needed for some of them will often be within good notes taken.

Effective learning includes what goes on before lectures, during and after. The University of British Columbia have put together some recommendations on those three phases. Also there's another note on notetaking effectively, including the information presented in University of B.C.'s article.

Chat with your Learning Facilitators

There are times we're simply stumped, regardless of our best efforts. It's best to go through the modules as early as possible, with ample time to reach out to learning facilitators and peers. Attend office hours frequently, when possible, both for information reinforcement and to ask your questions. Submit support tickets to ask those questions and get extra guidance.

Connect with your Fellow Learners

Just because you are viewing course material on your own, doesn't mean that you're the only one pursuing this certificate. Use Slack to connect with others, ask questions, and get some help from your peers. They may have the same difficulties as you or might have some great tips that will make the topics click.

The moral of the story here is that the more you can interact with course content in many ways, through effective note-taking, review and connecting with others, the more you'll be able to get the concepts down and get the most success from the course.

Some Time Management Recommendations

If taking the course in a well structured way, it should be taking about ~15 hours a week. This is a minimal recommendation and you may find yourself spending more than 20 hours per week some weeks. Integrating this time into your schedule will require disciplined time management. Here are some more in depth tips on managing time while in the program. Remember though with previous knowledge from previous cohort that is now deferred, shoot for 10 hours a week. If more time is necessary for each week it's important to seek help earlier. Notes on the orientation module for the Data Engineering Course.