Data Mining

Coursera Data Mining Specialization starts on Feb. 2015

Coursera is starting a Data Mining Specialization curriculum (apparently for free)

How to Learn Data Mining as Fast as Possible

My brother is currently in a Math PhD program and thinking about dipping after getting a masters and start steering his career more towards CS. He has a decent knowledge of programming and had one internship working with the Navy analyzing social media (I believe he got to use some R but is by no means a master of it.) However, of course he doesn't want to leave school before he is employable. He was wondering what the best way to learn more about data mining is without spending a lot of time on the theory. Are there any good resources that teach data mining from a more practical stance? I always default to websites like coursera (https://www.coursera.org/specialization/datamining/20), but I was wondering what other types of resources might be available on this subject.

TL;DR How do you learn the programming required for data mining to land a job ASAP?

Thanks.

Which of the two MOOCs will be a better option? Illinois DM Specialization or Stanford's Massive Data Mining?

I want to make sure by the end of the course I would have enough artifacts to apply for intern positions in Data Science. I am currently in the r&d department of a company for 6 months and my work is going to involve ml and stats. Right now brushing on stats using Duda Hart.

Option one : University of Illinois Data Mining Specialization. https://www.coursera.org/specialization/datamining/20/faqs

Option two : Mining Massive Datasets by Stanford. https://www.coursera.org/course/mmds

I have 6 months, and along with the current internship's experience and one of the above courses I want to be able to apply to data positions as an intern in companies in the states.

Getting good practical artifacts is one thing which would help. What else could I do in this period of 6 months to make my CV strong enough for companies abroad? Please help.

I am not willing to pay a total of 300$ unless the difference in the courses is really really worth it.

Coursera's Specialization Opinions

Coursera has a ton of specializations within the data science realm. There's Data Science, Genomic Data Science, Big Data, Data Mining, Machine Learning, Data Analysis, and a few more.

What are your opinions about these tracks? If you have taken multiple, how do they compare? If you are currently in one, how do you think it's going? Do you have ideas on how they could be better?