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Sacred Spaces

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Sacred Spaces

A recent Times article profiled New Yorkers who have set aside part of their homes to pray, meditate or give thanks.

Do you have such a space in your home? If so, describe it. Is it religious or secular in nature? How does it evoke calmness?

If you do not have such a space, would you like to make one? What would it like look? Does a “sacred space” need any ornamentation? How important is it to have a special place in order to pray or reflect, either in your home or outside of it?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related article to learn more about the sacred space of New Yorkers.


Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: omnibus

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Word of the Day: omnibus

noun: a vehicle carrying many passengers; used for public transport

noun: an anthology of articles on a related subject or an anthology of the works of a single author

adjective: providing for many things at once

_________

The word omnibus has appeared in 50 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on March 18 in “Alexander Calder, MoMA’s Household God, Still Holds Sway” by Roberta Smith:

The outstanding exhibition “Alexander Calder: Modern From the Start” is his first big solo at MoMA since 1969. It is an in-house job that delves primarily into the museum’s Calder holdings and archives to tell the story of its relationship with this early favorite. Several unfamiliar loans from the Calder Foundation fill out the narrative.

It includes the artist’s early toylike sculptures of farm animals and his brilliant wire portraits and jewelry; his famous hanging, gently drifting mobiles; his wall-mounted constellations and earthbound stabiles; and a sprinkling of exceptional works on paper.

… Calder’s MoMA debut came in December 1930, when four of his clunky wood sculptures were seen in “Painting and Sculpture by Living Americans,” a group show that opened barely a year after the museum’s inauguration. By then Calder was artistically elsewhere, spurred by Mondrian’s example. In fact, he was developing into an omnibus modernist whose work could fit at several spots on the museum’s nascent map of advanced styles and mediums. In 1936, for example, he was in both “Cubism and Abstract Art” in the spring and, at year’s end, “Fantastic Art, Dada and Surrealism” to mention but two of the museum’s pioneering shows…

Can you correctly use the word omnibus in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how omnibus can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

EdTech and Skills

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EdTech and Skills

I’ve heard from a couple of vendors who play in the EdTech market (defined as K-12 and higher education), that believe skills, specifically skills capabilities can be successful at the higher education sector. It’s a novel approach, actually interesting, in one way, but it comes with assumptions, and if anyone who has studied the EdTech higher education segment, the pitfalls are very clear.

When talking about skills, these are skills focused on job roles or job opportunities, depending on your take. I could see interests being of value to those in higher education, and for colleges and universities who want to tap into the skills angle for their career center.

However, the track record of say a wide variance across the various departments at a college or university (regardless of two or four years), to utilize capabilities in a learning system that benefit their students, is not great. In fact, for many NexGen features alone, it is poor.

The Assumptions

Track Record of Mobile Usage

How many colleges and universities that have a learning system are tapping into the mobile app for student usage? How many add content on a daily or weekly basis to the learning system, that goes beyond synchronous, and relevancy? How many pick systems that offer an on/off synch app and use it to its full potential?

How many colleges and universities keep track – metrics wise of how their students are accessing the learning system – which if the system offers it (and most do not), would be of great value?

The challenge with EdTech systems overall, is that for most, they lack all metrics to really, I identify gaps for learning. They are not the strongest with segmentation, partially due to the overwhelmingly way of distributing learning – thru synchronous.

Some mobile views are downright dated. Others are mirrors, reflection of what they see on the system itself – not ideal, IMO.

There are colleges and universities outside of the states, that do not use the mobile app, due to some restrictions they have placed into their overall strategy for students to learn.

Relying on who is in charge of the system (college or university, department specific)

Skills capabilities in the entire learning system landscape are at an infant stage. Even systems that say they are skills specific, do not have all the skills functionality (that I cite in my template). Some skirt around and say they do, yet when you dive into the details, they do not.

How many people, the administrator, the person overseeing the entire system or even by department, are going to know what skills functionality are relevant and which are not? What skills functions would be of the most benefit to a student?

If I am studying history, and plan to graduate with a history degree, what job role should I be focused on? And let’s say, I want to go to grad school, what do I do then? Maybe I want to be a history teacher or down the road a professor. Perhaps, I am interested in sales, but change my mind, and go with logistics? Only certain departments or colleges within the university itself, would see a benefit in this, but the assumption would be that the student knows what they want to do when they graduate.

How many of you, said, “I want to work in e-learning? Let alone even knew what it was?” I can’t recall a university offering a degree in training? Learning and development? Maybe you are studying finance and thus will select job roles of interest around finance. But, due to the economy and opportunties where you reside, upon graduation, those roles are not available.

What do you do then? Can you, upon graduation, access the EdTech learning system, and select other job roles to learn those skills? How many colleges and universities offer this capability today -whereas their graduates can access the learning system, to take content/courses? How many systems tapped into the career center, offer their graduates access to courses/content that are 3rd party, not built by someone at the institution, but actual 3rd party content, for the student to engage in on-going learning, after graduation?

If a college or university offers this, then on-going skills development could benefit those graduates who have yet to find a job. Let’s say you have adult learners, those 25 or older, who already have a job, and their place of work, has a learning system. Will that student, who is working half or full-time, use the learning system at your college/university to develop skills for their job, if those skills have no bearing on what they are required for a course?

Zoom This

Way too many people see “remote learning – an awful term, BTW” as a major downer. They say they can’t learn, it fails to deliver effecting learning and acquisition of knowledge. Some see the system itself as a clunker, and the professor, teacher, etc. is only as good as how often they access and use the system – following up with office hours, allowing people to turn in assignments with leeway, and not a set time, as though everyone is located in the same time zone.

Professors (or whatever their title at the college/university is) are using web confernincg as the core for their students, rather than a tool. Synchornous based learning is widely and heavily used in EdTech, yet asynchronous based learning is the primary and main choice for corporate.

Self-paced learning works. Scenarios and engagement works. Courses that allow students to move around and select what is relevant to their learning, works. WBT was established because there are way too many weaknesses around ILT. Education immediately adopted and selected synchronous, because when the systems focused on education launched in the 90s, they were designed specifically for synchorous based learning. I’m referring to how the course is designed and appears. People erroneously assume that SBL means a discussion board, forum and chat room. No, it never meant that. I had a corporate system and most today, have at least a discussion board and chat.

If you are using a syllabus and your course is tied to the syallbus and the sutdent cannot jump ahead, but has to stay on that specific area, until the next one is opened and tied to the syllabus, then you have SBL.

A SBL course looks 100% different than an Asynchronous based course. Go to any 3rd party course provider and check out their courses and content. All of it is asynch.

I note this because it is a key when we are talking about skills and job roles or opportunities. The downside at the corporate level is way too much assigned, but think about this – why?

Where did this notion come from? Where did you hear assignements?

At school. A school, college, university all have assignments. They have required reading or viewing. They have tests. They base your success or lack thereof tied to those components. SBL is a way of taking the classroom mentality and sticking it online and calling it online learning.

But that is a misnomer. Can a student select their own content of interest? Is the system designed to be learner-centric? Does the faculty allow their students to pick and choose from a variety of offerings that are under a subject matter? Are colleges and universities adapting their learning to the needs of today’s students, by offering interests as a way to increase retention and comprehension?

Do they have API connections to Tik-Tok, Instagram, Whatsapp, FB Messenger, and whatever is next up for students to use? Do they align their projects around these solutions, where their students are using on a daily basis?

Are the learners really experiencing learning for the 2020’s or are they still stuck in a modality of learning from 1920?

Bottom Line

Before an EdTech vendor dives wholeheartedly into skills capabilities tied around job roles and opportunities, first let’s focus on learning for the next decade, by changing modality away from syllabus driven to learner/student driven.

Let’s add interests which opens up learning for all subject matter, and degree pursuits, rather than skills which aligns to job roles that, could be available to that student, but may not be. Add skills – allow them to select those skills, but do not force them into it.

Skills and Interests are two different areas.

Each will offer the student, something that we all believe in,

A well-rounded.

Education.

E-Learning 24/7

See How Michael Built a New Life and Career as a First-Generation College Graduate

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See How Michael Built a New Life and Career as a First-Generation College Graduate

Meet Michael! He began learning on Coursera after deciding to pursue a new career in data. Michael has taken several courses and Specializations covering entrepreneurship, data science, communication, and deep learning. In his story below, he shares his thoughts on emerging from poverty to become a successful professional and thought leader in his field. He discusses the role Coursera has played in his journey and his strategy for augmenting his undergraduate education with job-centric learning online.

I’m a first-generation college student. ​​I went to college to break the cycle of poverty. No one in my family graduated from college before. It wasn’t easy. I’d been medically discharged from the Airforce in 2011, and then at one point, I had to take a leave of absence to take care of my mother. I had no money or support to speak of. In 2012, I went back to college for the third time.

For the first two weeks of school, I was homeless. I finally managed to get an apartment with a friend, but I sometimes had to ride my bike 45 minutes to campus because I couldn’t afford gas. I even had to economize the week’s food while studying economics! It’s hard to study when you’re hungry and washing your laundry in a Lowe’s bucket.

Despite all of that, I not only graduated, but I was the recipient of several awards and scholarships. Still, I knew I needed more than just my undergraduate degree to really succeed. I had a hypothesis that my college education, supplemented with Coursera courses, could give me the edge I needed to establish myself professionally. I felt that Coursera would allow me to reach new heights because I could take classes from world-class institutions. I come from such an impoverished background that any college is a dream, let alone colleges like Stanford, University of Michigan, and Rice University. 

Today, I’m a successful professional at Ford. I’ve been recognized as a thought leader and value creator, and my work is well-respected in my field. I believe a part of that stems from courses I’ve taken on Coursera. I’ve learned a great deal about data science, machine learning, and deep learning, and I leverage my analytics knowledge every day at work in new and creative ways. This has empowered me to be both a strong individual contributor and leader. I have the skills now to thrive in tough situations, and I can bring together cross-functional teams to march towards a single goal. 

I’ve been able to break free from the cycle of poverty, and I would not be where I am today without the knowledge and skills I’ve gained on Coursera.

Weapon Burger

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Weapon Burger

What do you think this image is saying? How does it relate to or comment on society or current events? Can you relate to it personally? What is your opinion of its message?

Tell us in the comments, then read the related Opinion essay to learn more.


Want more Picture Prompts? Find them all in this column.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Word of the Day: stalwart

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Word of the Day: stalwart

adjective: having rugged physical strength; inured to fatigue or hardships

adjective: possessing or displaying courage

adjective: dependable

noun: a person who is loyal to their allegiance (especially in times of revolt)

_________

The word stalwart has appeared in 173 articles on NYTimes.com in the past year, including on Dec. 2 in “Mothers of Reinvention: The Lab Pivots as Studios Close” by Margaret Fuhrer:

It is a scary time to be running a dance studio anywhere, and perhaps nowhere more than Los Angeles. The strain of protracted shutdowns and plunging enrollment, magnified by the city’s rising rents, proved too much for several prominent dance centers during the pandemic…

… In August, the Los Angeles-area stalwart the Lab also closed its dance space, a 12,000-square-foot location in West Covina. Known for its vigorous, “Olympic-style” coaching of young dancers, a crew of which won the second season of the NBC television show “World of Dance,” the studio saw 70 percent of its business vanish during shutdowns.

Can you correctly use the word stalwart in a sentence?

Based on the definition and example provided, write a sentence using today’s Word of the Day and share it as a comment on this article. It is most important that your sentence makes sense and demonstrates that you understand the word’s definition, but we also encourage you to be creative and have fun.

Then, read some of the other sentences students have submitted and use the “Recommend” button to vote for two original sentences that stand out to you.

If you want a better idea of how stalwart can be used in a sentence, read these usage examples on Vocabulary.com.

If you enjoy this daily challenge, try one of our monthly vocabulary challenges.

Students ages 13 and older in the United States and the United Kingdom, and 16 and older elsewhere, can comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff.

Weekly News Quiz for Students: Kazakhstan Revolt, Tragic Fires, College Football Final

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Weekly News Quiz for Students: Kazakhstan Revolt, Tragic Fires, College Football Final

Sidney Poitier, whose portrayal of resolute heroes in films like “To Sir, With Love,” “In the Heat of the Night” and “Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner” established him as Hollywood’s first Black matinee idol and helped open the door for Black actors in the film industry, died on Jan. 6 at the age of 94.

Which of the following is NOT true of Mr. Poitier’s life and career?

Have You Ever Been Surprised by an Act of Generosity?

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Have You Ever Been Surprised by an Act of Generosity?

When have you given, received or been witness to an unexpected act of kindness, large or small? What do you think was the motivation behind the act?

Three days after Christmas, Michael Gartner summoned the employees of the Iowa Cubs minor league baseball team to a staff meeting at Principal Park, the team’s stadium in Des Moines.

The team’s sale to a global sports and entertainment company had closed that day, and Mr. Gartner, 83, said he wanted to give the employees their new business cards.

But there were no business cards in the envelopes that he handed out. Instead, inside were checks worth $2,000 for every year each employee had worked for the team — $600,000 in total for the 23 full-time workers.

Employees who work in maintenance, accounting, marketing and other areas received checks for $4,000 to $70,000, said Mr. Gartner, who was the team’s majority owner for 22 years, until the sale closed last Tuesday.

“My jaw dropped,” said Alex Cohen, 33, who has been the team’s radio broadcaster since 2018 and has worked in professional baseball since 2009. “It’s an industry where you work really hard, and sometimes you don’t get compensated like that.”

Mr. Cohen described the checks as “a life-changing gesture” for some longtime staff members.

“Seeing all the people who had been there for two decades, three decades, tears streaming down their faces, it was a very special, emotional day,” he said.

Mr. Gartner said on Saturday that sharing proceeds from the sale “was the right thing to do.”

“A lot of those people have worked for us for over 20 years, and they’ve helped us build a successful team,” said Mr. Gartner, whose gesture was reported by Yahoo! Sports. “They’re just fantastic people.”

Mr. Gartner, who had owned the team with his son and three other partners, added: “They need the money more than we do. A lot of them still have mortgages and car payments and college payments.”

Want more writing prompts? You can find all of our questions in our Student Opinion column. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate them into your classroom.

Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public.

Lesson of the Day: ‘Revolt in Kazakhstan: What’s Happening, and Why It Matters’

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Lesson of the Day: ‘Revolt in Kazakhstan: What’s Happening, and Why It Matters’

Featured Article: “Revolt in Kazakhstan: What’s Happening, and Why It Matters” by Dan Bilefsky

In the past weeks, protests in Kazakhstan have intensified from anger over surging fuel prices to clashes over the future direction of the country. The recent unrest prompted a Russia-led military intervention and the killing of dozens of antigovernment demonstrators.

In this lesson, you will learn about the clashes between protesters and police officers, the events that led to the demonstrations as well as how the government, and neighboring countries, have responded. Then, you will read one additional article to learn more about the conflict.

How much do you know about Kazakhstan? Can you find the country on a map? Try this quiz to test your knowledge and to learn something new.

What have you seen or heard about the recent protests in Kazakhstan? Watch this one-minute video that shows images from the demonstrations and gives some background information about the situation.

  • What is your reaction to the video?

  • What is one thing you learned about the current situation?

  • What is one question you hope will be answered in the featured article?

Read the article, then answer the following questions:

1. Read the five introductory paragraphs to the article and respond to the following questions:

  • What are some of the locations in Almaty, the country’s largest city, that have been affected by protests?

  • How did the president respond to the protests?

  • What do these protests symbolize about larger tension in the region?

2. On the most surface level, what led to the protests? When digging deeper, what are some of the more complex and longstanding issues that contribute to the anger and frustration that many Kazakhs feel?

3. What changes do protesters want to see in their country?

4. Up until this point, how has Kazakhstan been regarded from the outside? What is the country’s relationship to Russia?

5. Why might the crisis in Kazakhstan undermine Moscow’s sway in the region? What could this mean for countries like Ukraine and Belarus? What does it mean for the United States?

6. What are some of the actions the government has taken to meet demonstrators’ demands? What has the government done to try to shut down protests?

7. What is the relationship between Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s former president, and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the current president? How have recent events challenged that relationship?

Prepare for a Career in Data Analytics

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Prepare for a Career in Data Analytics

Earn your master’s from Russia’s #1 university and learn to make better decisions driven by data.

At this time of intensive economic digitalization, robust data analysis capabilities are essential for any business’ success in the digital economy. Demand for qualified data specialists continues to soar. The new online Master of Data and Network Analytics (MDNA) program on Coursera represents a unique opportunity to master the vital skills necessary to analyze data on a massive scale and to develop the fundamental skills needed to solve key business problems with data. Whether you are just starting your career or looking for a mid-career leap, you can enter the lucrative field of data analytics by earning your master’s from the Russian university ranked #1 by Forbes – 2020.

To learn more about this new program, we spoke with Professor Valentina Kuskova, the Academic Supervisor of the online Data and Network Analytics master’s programs at HSE and Head of the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research. Among the many topics we covered over the course of our conversation, Professor Kuskova talked about the program’s founders and faculty, its structure and focus on innovation, and the parallels between this program and HSE’s Master of Applied Statistics with Network Analysis (MASNA) program. MASNA is a unique offering on the educational market in the broader field of data science as an offline mirror of the MDNA program. To further understand these parallels, we also heard from three MASNA graduates who shared insights about their learning journeys and the role their degrees continue to play in their careers.

Professor Kuskova, thank you so much for taking the time to talk with us, and congratulations on the program launch! Let’s get started with some context. Can you tell us a bit about the creators of the program?

Thank you, and yes, of course. The program was created by leading researchers, experts in applied data analysis, at the International Laboratory for Applied Network Research (ANR-Lab). The Lab is a semi-independent unit within the Faculty of Social Sciences at HSE University. The laboratory develops and tests new methods of data analysis and their wide-ranging applications in empirical research. Affiliated laboratory faculty include researchers in such fields as sociology, political science, economics, management, mathematics, statistics, computational linguistics, and computer science.

The breadth of focus is really impressive, and the program sounds like an excellent opportunity for learners to engage with world-class faculty.

Yes, just as with the on-campus master’s program, students have access not only to high-quality educational content, but the ability to participate in hands-on research and business analytics projects of the Lab. They also benefit from direct contact with expert lecturers in both classes and workshops.

As you think about the curriculum and the structure, what types of learners do you see as benefiting from this program?

Our program offers comprehensive theoretical and empirical training in analytics. It is ideal for those learners who want to use state-of-the-art approaches to working with any data, but especially with unstructured (texts and images) and relational (network) data. Everyone, from students and aspiring researchers to industry experts and managers in the public sector, can benefit from knowing how to use data to make the right decisions in research, practice, and everyday life. 

So is it correct to say that the focus is on fundamental concepts as they apply to the current state of data in the world?

Our program provides competencies that meet the challenges of the modern world. We give students the analytical grounding to solve problems, draw important conclusions, and apply an integrated approach to problem-solving. The program prepares beginners and experts alike to better understand and study complex data and phenomena.

Now that we’re talking about your approach to teaching, we’d love to hear more about the experts who are teaching in the program. Can you share some insights about the faculty?

The program faculty come from the best international universities. We’re proud to have, as our faculty, world-renowned professors who are not only very knowledgeable in modern analytical trends, but who advance these trends by creating new methods. Nearly 80% of the program’s courses are taught by teachers with PhD degrees from the world’s best universities. 

Faculty involved in the program include Anuŝka Ferligoj, a leading expert in cluster analysis and blockmodeling and Nada Lavraĉ, a world-renowned expert in artificial intelligence. We also have Janez Demšar, one of the creators of Orange data-mining software, and Ljupco Todorovski, the co-creator of several machine learning systems. Erik Štrumbelj is a leading expert in Bayesian methods and a co-author of several R libraries for Bayesian analysis. The list goes on.

Given their wide scope of expertise and experience, would you say there is a core set of principles or characteristics that unites the group?

I think it’s the problem-oriented approach that is the core competency of our master’s program. Unlike other educational programs that teach methods, our professors emphasize formulating the problem first, considering both the issues at hand and the data. Once it is clear what types of data are available for solving the problem, only then can we move to selecting a method of analysis. We believe such an approach allows for better, unique solutions that stand out.

What can you tell us about the actual learning experience?

This is an applied program that fully incorporates project-based training using live data and real cases, including cases brought to the program by students themselves. Projects are implemented at three levels (course, specialization, thesis), and by the end of the program students’ portfolios can contain dozens of projects.

And how about the curriculum? Are there different tracks?

Students can choose one of the tracks for their individual study plan: Network Analytics, which emphasizes working with relational data (such as social networks); Business Analytics, which focuses on generating non-trivial, data-driven decisions for modern businesses; and Computational Social Sciences, which is designed for those who want careers in science.

To what extent can the program accommodate learners with different levels of knowledge and experience?

Almost all courses are available at both basic and advanced levels. This allows students with different knowledge backgrounds to study the same topics. The program offers a wide range of subjects to choose from—many more than the required number to earn a degree—which enables students to broaden their analytical horizons as much as possible.

Professor Kuskova, thank you so much for sharing your insights and expertise with us! We’re thrilled that the new program is now live on Coursera, and we look very forward to seeing how learners grow their careers through the knowledge they gain in this master’s program.

~

On the topic of learners and career success, we mentioned in the introduction of this post that we also spoke with some on-campus graduates of the Master of Applied Statistics with Network Analysis program at HSE University to learn about their career advancement. Let’s hear from them now!

Dina Yakovleva, as a MASNA graduate, can you tell us about some of the most important skills you learned during your studies?

I would say I acquired three key skills in the program. The first is that I can do data analysis on anything you provide me, no matter what field it is. This means that I can find a job that I like in any location, which I really appreciate! Second, I can learn any software I’m given. I know how to go through programs and understand their language and structure. And third, I am a part of a young, dynamic, scientific community where I can always find help and support. 

Brennan Lewis Larson, we’d love to hear your perspective as a student from the U.S. What led you to HSE, and how do you feel about the learning experience?

I was looking for a master’s degree in statistics, and what attracted me to the HSE program is that the professors are from European universities. I am really enjoying the experience and the support I’m receiving from the faculty. Whenever you want to talk to professors about research ideas or projects, they gladly help you out.

Elizaveta Chernenko, can you tell us about your current role, and how you saw HSE fitting into your career plans?

I am a teacher of Probability Theory and Statistics at the International College of Economics and Finance of HSE University. I am also working as a business consultant, which is an opportunity to apply organizational working analysis. I chose MASNA because I wanted to build a career in social network analysis—especially as it applies to business consulting. I tried several projects that were only half successful. I felt I had a lack of contacts, skills, and knowledge in this sphere. I didn’t know the right people to help me make the right decisions. When I learned about the new MASNA program, I was impressed. The list of professors really inspired me. 

Looking back now, how would you describe the impact earning your degree had on your career?

I would say the most important outcomes are that I made connections with the right people, gained access to the knowledge I needed, and was able to apply that knowledge. Also, I really loved my classmates. The kinds of students that are attracted to this program are really admirable.  I made many friends, and we really worked as a team on our projects. Those two years were some of the best in my life.

That’s wonderful!

~We’d like to thank everyone for their generosity in sharing their perspectives about the learning experience at HSE. We encourage anyone who is interested in developing in-demand data analytics skills, gaining hands-on project experience, and earning a master’s degree from the #1 ranked Russian university, to explore the new Master of Data and Network Analytics program from HSE on Coursera today!