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Johns Hopkins University · on Coursera

Practical Machine Learning

Beginner English Professional CertificateFREE

What you'll learn

Build predictive models in R with the caret package
Create and use training and test sets
Preprocess data and engineer features
Fit trees, random forests, and boosting models
Evaluate models and avoid overfitting
Apply a practical model-building workflow

This course includes

Yes
Certificate
Yes
Mobile access
English
Language
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Instructor

JL
Jeff Leek
Coursera instructor
learners courses instructor rating

Created by Johns Hopkins biostatistics professors Jeff Leek, Roger Peng, and Brian Caffo, whose Data Science Specialization is one of the most-taken on Coursera. The approach is hands-on and R-centric.

Requirements

  • Familiarity with R
  • Basic statistics helps

Who this course is for

  • R users learning machine learning
  • Data analysts in the JHU Data Science track
  • Beginners wanting a practical ML overview

About this provider

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Frequently asked questions

Learners generally see it as one of the stronger courses in the JHU Data Science series and a genuinely practical overview — with the caveat that it's short and doesn't go deep on choosing the right model for a problem.
R — it's built around the caret package. If you specifically want Python ML, a different course (like the UW or DeepLearning.AI ones) is a better fit.
You can audit the full course free on Coursera. A certificate requires a subscription.
Familiarity with R and some basic statistics help. It's practical rather than theory-heavy, so you don't need advanced maths.
It's relatively short, so it teaches the caret workflow well but doesn't give a deep sense of when to use which algorithm — pair it with further study for that.
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