In this post we review the data quality training curriculum provided by eLearningCurve, an educational organisation co-founded by Arkady Maydanchik and Dave Wells. Regular readers will have read Arkady's featured articles on Data Quality Pro and he also sits on our expert panel.

Several of our readers have expressed an interest in the online data quality training provided by eLearningCurve so we received unrestricted access to review the data quality training courses currently available.

Review: Data Quality Education From eLearningCurve

Background

Both Arkady and Dave are no stranger to education. Arkady has published the excellent "Data Quality Assessment" and has delivered data quality training courses using the traditional classroom format for many years.

Dave Wells was previously the Director of Education for The Data Warehousing Institute and has many years experience in training and mentoring topics within the information management domain.

Dave takes on the Director of Education role for eLearningCurve whilst Arkady is the managing director so clearly there is a strong educational background within the senior management team.

The format adopted by eLearningCurve is to host training material from recognised experts in the field in an online presentation format combined with pre-recorded audio to provide a more detailed explanation of each topic.

Aside from data quality there are currently other curricula such as data modeling, data governance and master data management. There are plans to extend this in the coming weeks and months.

Following each training module, trainees can go on to take a further online examination to provide a record of their proficiency in each topic area.

Data Quality Training

At the time of writing the data quality curriculum features the following courses by the following practitioners:

• Data Quality Fundamentals  : Instructor: David Wells

• Data Resource Quality Improvement : Instructor: Mike Brackett

• Data Quality Assessment : Instructor: Arkady Maydanchik

• The Data Model Scorecard : Instructor: Steve Hoberman

• Ensuring Data Quality in Data Integration : Instructor: Arkady Maydanchik

After purchasing a course and logging into the system you will see the purchased courses in the main dashboard.

Each course provides a workbook to assist the online training format and allow students to take notes during the training. These include all the slides that you will walk through on the training course.

Once launched, an interactive browser appears which features a slide-style presentation broken down by module accompanied with instructor audio throughout the training.

Along the left hand pane are the different sub-modules and a bio of the teacher who discusses each topic throughout the course.

The student can use the dynamic controls to pause, rewind or jump to specific course content using the left hand navigator and the slide play control as seen below.

Quality of Course Content

I know how much effort Arkady and Dave have put into the eLearningCurve format and content but I was still pleasantly surprised at the quality of the finished product.

I learned a considerable amount going through each course but much of the material is applicable to all levels and backgrounds.

Courses like the Data Quality Fundamentals for example will appeal to both business and technical communities and will serve as an excellent educational tool for senior management who may be unaware of the need for data quality management and the processes involved.

The optional certification examination for each course was excellent and I can think of numerous ways this can benefit individuals and organisations. For those involved in recruiting and building data quality teams, I would certainly make use of the certification process to not only train but assess the ongoing education of the team.

The certification exams are not a walk in the park by any means.

On one course I naively tried to skip some of the modules and go straight to the exam. This was a humbling experience and not one to be repeated. You will certainly need to follow each module, make notes and understand the topics in detail to be sure of a good certification score. This is obviously reassuring as we need to ensure high standards within the profession.

To review the topics included in each course just visit the data quality curriculum page.

In Summary

There are plans to add new courses but as it currently stands the data quality curriculum already has some excellent content and quite a mature curriculum.

I'm really excited about what this means for education and certification in our field. Books are great and have their place but the quality of course and examination content combined with the online presentation and audio format works really well I feel.

I'm sure some people will see the online format as a lesser medium to the live, in-person training but in many ways I actually prefer this approach. In a classroom setting there is often little time to stop and review a section if you are unclear on a topic because the teacher is obviously running to a timetable. With the online format you can go at your own pace and go back to topics that require more attention.

For organisations, I think the online education approach is advantageous as it is a cheaper and more flexible option than taking staff out of the workplace to complete offsite training. The cost of the training course itself is lower and the fact that there are no travel and subsistence fees is also beneficial, particularly in this economic climate.There are also no geographical barriers as previously organisations would typically send their staff to the nearest data quality conference to receive training but with the online format these restrictions no longer apply.

For the individual there is now an affordable certification route for data quality education. The fees are sufficiently low enough that I suspect many people will invest in the courses as part of their own personal career development.

For people entering the data quality profession or taking their careers to the next level I think the training and certification will become a vital asset for demonstrating their proficiency and attractiveness to employers.

Please note that since we carried out this review, eLearningCurve have granted a 10% discount on all data quality training to registered members of Data Quality Pro. For more details of this offer, please click here.