WhyTheJohnsHopkinsDataScienceCertificateProgramIsAWinner

I've had a good look at the new Data Science Certification program from Johns Hopkins on Coursera 
and it looks like the first one to crack the code on what is needed for the future.

It gets many things right and they all add up to make it likely to be 
a huge success compared to other such programs.

What does it get right?

a) Makes all 9 classes available at once on Cousera
b) Makes each class a uniform 4 weeks long
c) Makes all class material for each class, available all at once 
(this allows working people to take the class in bursts on weekends)
d) Runs all classes every month starting at the start of the calendar month
e) Covers the material in sufficient focus in each class to be meaningful and challenging
f) Each class costs 49$ if you want to get official verified certification - free if not.

Of all these c) is THE most important followed closely by d) 
as people who work often have critical time and slack time not uniformly distributed.
I tested it by talking the first class (Data Scintists Toolkit) and was able to finish 
all the material and quizzes in one day. 
Granted it is very simple but - here's the kicker - my daughter who just finished freshman year 
at UCB and doesn't know any programming finished all lectures and quizzes in two days. 
And she's new to most of the material.
Next she's taking the R Programming class followed by Data Cleaning.

Now I'm hoping someone e.g Berkeley does an iPython version of this class.
If there's enough interest I might expand the material at http://learnds.com along these lines.

Kudos to Jeff Leek, Roger Pend and Brian Caffo of Johns Hopkins !!