HowtoUsethisBook
Throughouryearsofteachingthismaterialwehavedevelopedanunderstandingofwhat
isareasonableamountofmaterialtocoverinaone-semesterintroductorymoduleandon
two-semestermoreadvancedmodules.Tofacilitatetheuseofthebookinthesedifferent
contexts, the book has been designed to be modular—with very few dependencies
betweenchapters.Asaresult,alecturerusingthisbookcanplantheircoursebysimply
selectingthesectionsofthebooktheywishtocoverandnotworryaboutthedependencies
betweenthesections.Whenpresentedinclass,thematerialinChapters1,2,9,10and11
typicallytaketwotothreelecturehourstocover;andthematerialinChapters3,4,5,6,7,
8normallytakefourtosixlecturehourstocover.
In Table 1 we have listed a number of suggested course plans targeting different
contexts.AllofthesecoursesincludeChapter1(MachineLearning forPredictive Data
Analytics)andChapter11(TheArtofMachineLearningforPredictiveDataAnalytics).
Thefirstcourselisted(M.L.shortdeep)isdesignedtobeaone-semestermachinelearning
course with a focus on giving the students a deep understanding of two approaches to
machinelearning,alongwithan understandingofthe correctmethodologytousewhen
evaluatingamachinelearningmodel.Inoursuggestedcoursewehavechosentocoverall
of Chapters 4 (Information-based Learning) and 7 (Error-based Learning). However,
Chapter 5 (Similarity-based Learning) and/or 6 (Probability-based Learning) could be
used instead. The M.L. short deep is also an ideal course plan for a short (1 week)
professional training course. The second course (M.L. short broad) is another one-
semester machine learning course. Here, however, the focus is on covering a range of
machinelearningapproachesand,again,evaluationiscoveredindetail.Foralongertwo-
semester machine learning course (M.L. long) we suggest covering data preparation
(Section3.6),allthemachinelearningchapters,andtheevaluationchapter.
Therearecontexts,however,wherethefocusofacourseisnotprimarilyonmachine
learning. We also present to course paths that focus on the context of predictive data
analytics. The course P.D.A short defines a one-semester course. This course gives
studentsanintroductiontopredictivedataanalytics,asolidunderstandingofhowmachine
learningsolutionsshouldbedesignedtomeetabusinessneed,insightintohowprediction
modelswork andshould beevaluated, andincludes oneof thecase studies.The P.D.A
shortisalsoanidealcourseplanforashort(1week)professionaltrainingcourse.Ifthere
ismoretimeavailablethenP.D.AlongexpandsontheP.D.A.shortcoursesothatstudents
gain a deeper and broader understanding of machine learning, and also includes the
secondcasestudy.