The ability to interpret data and communicate results and/or trends in a meaningful way is a highly desirable skill, and Skillable has released a lab template that enables our customers to more easily create hands-on skilling in the field of data science.
Templates from Skillable are designed as a starting point for a wide variety of lab authoring and enable our customers to use pre-created labs as the base for their new lab. This new data science template includes the most common tools used by data scientists and has plenty of public domain data pre-loaded to build great lab experiences out of the box.
Combined with the standard Skillable lab features such as Type Text™ and save state, this template provides a powerful platform for data science labs.
WHAT CAN I DO WITH THIS TEMPLATE?
This data science template provides the software, data and environment so that subject matter experts can build labs without having to build out the entire data science tool kit. The lab template supports building labs on a range of topics including:
- Statistics
- Linear Algebra/Linear Programming
- Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA) and Data Prep
- Data Visualization
- Supervised Learning
- Unsupervised Learning
- Time Series & Forecasting
- Deep Learning for Computer Vision
- Deep Learning for NLP
This lab template includes all features from our platform, and Lab Developers can use code blocks and Type Text™ to help learners by adding code and commands directly into the environment.
Custom starter files and additional software can be added and saved. The save state feature allows Lab Developers to start the lab with software already loaded. For example, a lab builder can load Jupyter and bring the learner right into a Jupyter notebook when the lab starts.
The data science template also supports the powerful Skillable script engine, and Lab Developers can use life cycle activities to dynamically configure the environment each time a learner starts a lab. For example, the developer may want to dynamically update starter files in a GitHub repository and pull those files into the lab when it starts. Automated activities dramatically improve the learner experience by providing verified feedback as the learner progresses through the lab. Scored activities allow lab builders to create performance testing.
WHAT IS IN THE TEMPLATE?
The data science template is built on the latest version of Windows 10 and includes the two most common toolsets used by data scientists: R Studio and Jupyter.
Jupyter is provided through Anaconda, which makes additional tools such as PyCharm readily available. Toolsets are only as good as the tools they contain, so Skillable has worked with a data science subject matter expert to identify and load more than 300 packages for R Studio and more than 140 packages for Python.
There are also over 50 public domain data sets pre-loaded in the environment to build examples and exercises, including everything from flight data to museum visitors.
In addition to the analysis software and sample data, the template comes preloaded with MySQL, SQL Server and SQLite, which means that the template supports traditional relational data analysis as well.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Skillable will periodically refresh the data science template as tools and packages are updated and as new tools become available.
We are also planning on adding some great new data science capabilities to our gallery in the coming year:
- Data Visualization: Our next iteration of the data science template will include two common data visualization tools in addition to Jupyter and R Studio: Microsoft Excel and Tableau.
- Jupyter Platform: We are developing a template that loads directly to a Jupyter notebook. This is designed to be fast, targeted and lightweight, while still retaining the capabilities that make labs developed with Skillable so powerful.
Skillable is also creating two Challenge Lab series that focus on data analysis and prep for both R/RStudio and Python/Jupyter, scheduled respectively for late April and May 2022. You can follow the progress of these lab series on the Challenge Labs Roadmap.
GET STARTED!
Already developing labs with Skillable? Log into our lab development platform and check out this new data science template in the gallery.
Want to develop labs with Skillable? Simply click the button below and we’ll get you and your team started on your lab development journey!
