Resource Collection: Data Science Textbooks, Tools, and Certifications

This collection of resources was generated by Data Pathways Community of Practice members—faculty and administrators from 2-and 4-year institutions building data programs. Learn more about ODI's work to support data programs at 2- and 4-year institutions in this 10-min video.

Quicklinks:  ODI Data Program Development Tools | Textbooks | Open Education Resources (OER) | Other Coursework (not OER) | Tools | Industry Certifications | Data Science Associations

ODI Data Program Development Tools

• Profile of the Data Practitioner
  • Data Practitioner Performance Based Rubrics & Glossary
• The Two-Year College Data Science Summit Report
• Tools for Building a Big Data Career Path
• Guide for Data Worker Internships
• Big Data Stackable Credentials Report

For access to more tools, join the Data Pathways Community of Practice.

TEXTBOOKS

Data Analysis/Statistics Textbooks

General

• Introduction to Data Mining and Analytics (2020) by Kris Jamsa
• Introduction to Data Science (IDS)

Python

• Data 8 (Python) 
• Hands-on Data Analysis with Pandas (2019) by Stefanie Molin
• Intro to Python for Computer Science and Data Science by Paul Deitel and Harvey M. Deitel
• Python for Data Analysis by Wes McKinney 
• Zybooks Applied Statistics with Data Analytics (Python)
• Zybooks Data Science Foundations with Python with zyLabs

R

• Data science in a box (R) 
• Intro to Stats —has an R lens. 
• Modern Data Science with R, 2nd edition (2021) by Benjamin S. Baumer, Daniel T. Kaplan, and Nicholas J. Horton
• R-guidebook, StatCrunch, MyLab  by Michael Sullivan III. 
• R for Data Science by Hadley Wickham (updated version!)
• Zybooks Applied Statistics with Data Analytics (R) 

Data Visualization Textbooks 

General

• Storytelling with Data  and Storytelling with Data: Let’s Practice by Cole Nussbaumer Knaflic.
  • Tips: Let’s Practice summarizes main lessons and then gives some guided exercises. Author gives detailed responses. Also offers exercises where answers are not provided. Datasets are all on website and there’s a podcast. Good for a 101 class.
• Data Visualisation, 2nd Edition by Andy Kirk— focuses on data visualization principles.
• Fundamentals of Data Visualization by Claus Wilke.
• The Visual Display of Quantitative Information by Edward R. Tufte (1983)

Ggplot2

• Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis by Hadley Wickham (2009)—ggplot2

R

• Graphical Data Analysis with R by Antony Unwin (2015)

See also Sinclair Community College’s data visualization resource guide: https://libguides.sinclair.edu/data-visualization.

OPEN EDUCATION RESOURCES (OER)

Data & Programming

General

• DataQuest IO (free for institutions). Interactive coding camp. 
• GitHub Classroom
• IBM data science group and academy has a set of curriculum. You have to go through training to get access. Pretty good content but very targeted on data science. Could fit your needs if you're just starting out. 
• SAS Data Literacy Essentials
• Tidy Tuesday Data Excercises Repository

Artificial Intelligence

• Artificial Intelligence Methods in Data Science (free NSF-funded curriculum modules)

R

• Berkeley Computing, Data Science and Society External Resources
• Bootstrap
• Data 6 and Data 8
• Data 100 from Berkeley 
• Introduction to Data Science (IDS)
• Modern Data Science with R, 2nd edition (2021) by Benjamin S. Baumer, Daniel T. Kaplan, and Nicholas J. Horton
• Swirl has 15 modules on how to program in R. Students suggested they wanted to use it at the beginning of the semester. Can be used as an introduction.

R & Python

• Datacamp is a paid service but academics can apply for a free course every semester and its free 6 mos for students, has R&Python content 
• Teaching Introduction to Data Science in Python and R Using OER Materials by Debbie Yuster (see also accompanying video)

Database

• Oracle Academy has a data science course.
• Skills Common (search Business Analytics)
• SQL Foundations is a course offered by Datacamp that you can start for free.

Math & Stats

• An Intro to Statistical Learning with R
• Stats4STEM
• YouCubed
   

OTHER COURSEWORK (NOT OER)

• Exam PL-300 is free from Microsoft. Some of the learning modules at this site are useful for Power BI instruction (cleaning data and visualizations). There are also virtual labs.
• COMPTIA is offering a teacher prep certification.
• Learn SQL is a course offered by Udacity

TOOLS

Data Analysis

• Robotic Process Automation (RPA) Software:
  • Alteryx 
    • ​Free Alteryx training for educators by SparkEd
  • Automation 360
  • AutomationEdge
  • Blue Prism
  • Knime
  • TruBot
  • UIPath
  • Find additional options.
• Excel (advanced)

• Rapid Miner 
• SAS

Data Visualization

• ggplot2
• PowerBI
• Tableau

Data Analysis + Data Visualiation

• Jupyter Notebooks 
• Orange
• Python
• R 
• SQL

​​Cloud Solutions

• AWS —Amazon cloud-solution)
• Azure (Microsoft cloud-solution with Microsoft version of R)
• Google Cloud

INDUSTRY CERTIFICATIONS

Certifications for Analytics

• Alteryx Certification
• Associate Certified Analytics Professional (aCAP) and Certified Analytics Professional (CAP)
• CompTIA Data+
• Excel Certification
• Google Data Analytics Certificate
• SAS certification
• Tableau Certifications for Data Analyst
• PECP Certification for Python
• Power BI Data Analyst Associate

Cloud Solutions Certifications

• AWS Certification
• Azure Fundamentals Certification
• Google Cloud Certification

Other Certifications

• Cisco Certification
• CompTIA Linux+
• CompTIA Security+
• Java Certification

DATA SCIENCE ASSOCIATIONS

• Academic Data Science Alliance
• ACM SIGCSE (Special Interest Group Computer Science Education)
• ASA Section on Statistics and Data Science Education
• Data Science for Social Good
• MAA (Mathematical Association of America)
• The Big Data Innovaton Hubs