NATIONAL UNIVERSITY

Syllabus

POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA (PGD) in DATA ANALYTICS

Effective From: 2022-2023 Session

 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA in DATA ANALYTICS

Credential: Postgraduate Diploma in Data Analytics

Length of Program: One year
Credits: 40.00

Admissions Requirements
Applicants must have an undergraduate degree. Applicants with an undergraduate degree other than Science,
Technology, Business, or Mathematics/Statistics will need to show proficiency in the Business/ Technology field by
way of extra coursework/work experience and can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

Course Objectives and Outcomes

This course aims to produce technically competent, innovative graduates who will become leading practitioners in the
field of data analytics. Upon completion, graduates will be able to:
 Conduct independent research and analysis in the field of data analytics.
 Demonstrate expert knowledge of the tools, techniques, and technologies of data analytics utilized in both
technical and business contexts.
 Critically assess and evaluate business and technical strategies for data analytics.
 Develop and implement effective business and technical solutions using data analytics.
 Critically appreciate ethical and data governance issues relevant to data analytics.
Students undertaking this course will be exposed to a variety of programming languages/ tools that may include R,
SPSS, Excel, and KOBO.

Career Prospects
This course is designed to meet the ever-growing need for deep skills in Big Data/Analytics and to fill a skills
shortage in Bangladesh as well as around the globe. Graduates from this course will enter the job market in the
positions of Risk Analytics Intern, QA Analyst, Pricing Analyst, Financial Reporting Consultant, Applied Data
Scientist, Data Analyst, Lead Data Scientist, Managed Services Consultant, Revenue Analyst, and various other data
analyst positions. Learners will also avail the huge opportunity to work as freelancer data analysts.

Graduation Requirements
Successful completion of 40 credits.
Must achieve a program CGPA of 2.00 or higher.
Evaluation of the program courses will be held with the theoretical exam at the end of the semester, and lab
experiments with continuous assessment.
Curriculum Framework
Course Code Course Title Credits
First Semester
816801 Fundamentals of Data Analytics 4.00
816803 Introduction to Programming 4.00
816805 Data Analytics: Tools and Techniques 4.00
816807 Database Systems 4.00
816809 Data Analysis and Software Application 4.00
Second Semester
826811 Data Visualization 4.00
826813 Data Governance and Ethics 4.00
826815 Fundamentals of Machine Learning 4.00
826817 Professional Development & Freelancing 4.00
Project/Internship
826818 Special Topics in Data Analytics 4.00
Total Credits 40.00

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 2 of 11

 NATIONAL UNIVERSITY
POSTGRADUATE DIPLOMA (PGD) in DATA ANALYTICS
Detailed Syllabus

First Semester

Course Code: 816801 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 4 contact hours per week
Course Title: Fundamentals of Data Analytics
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-60%, Lab with continuous assesment-40%

Course Objectives: This course will provide essential knowledge on the basic understanding of
the emerging data analytics field. The student will learn the data exploration methods, dimensional
analysis, and some extent of data visualization. The theoretical knowledge and practical lessons
learned from this course will equip the students to absorb their skill sin their respective industries
significantly.

Course Contents:
1. Introduction to Data Analytics: Data overview; State of the practice in Analytics; Key
roles for the new Big data ecosystem.
2. Data Analytics Lifecycle: Overview of data analytic lifecycle; Various phases of data
analytics life cycle; Global innovation network and analysis (GINA).
3. Data Mining Process: Definition; Data extraction as a process; Data mining models-
CRISP-DM, SEMMA; Steps in the data mining process; Data mining process in a data
warehouse, Applications of data mining; Data mining challenges.
4. Review of Basic Data Analytics Methods: Descriptive analytics, Diagnostic analytics,
Predictive analytics; Prescriptive analytics.
5. Business Intelligence Trends and Big Data Trends: What is big data and why it is
important; 5V’s of big data; Goals of big data; Big data architecture, analytics &
techniques; Future trends of big data.

Practical:
Review of basic data analysis methods using MS Excel and R.

Textbook:

 EMC Education Services (2015). Data Science & Big Data Analytics. Wiley.
 Michael Minelli, Michele Chambers, Ambiga Dhiraj (2013).Big Data, Big Analytics:
Emerging Business Intelligence and Analytic Trends for Today's Businesses, Wiley.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 3 of 11

Course Code: 816803 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Introduction to Programming
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40%, Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: This course introduces students to computing science and programming. It
includes fundamental concepts and terminologies of computing science, program design, and
fundamental building blocks for programming in a high-level language. At the end of this course,
the successful students will be able to: explain the process of program design and development;
design a GUI by using objects (forms and controls) and managing properties of controls; design a
program to solve a well-defined problem; and implement a program from a design using
structured programming.

Course Contents:
1. Programming in general: Program development cycle; Programming tools – flowcharts,
pseudo code.
2. Programming in C#, NET: Forms, controls, properties, events; Numbers, variables,
constants; Strings; Input and output using text boxes; Built-in functions – numeric
functions, strings functions.
3. Programming in Python: Basics, Data types and Control structures, Modularization and
Classes.
4. Methods: Value returning and void; Scope of variables; Value and reference parameters.
5. Decisions: Relational and logical operators; Switch statements
6. Structure: Repetitions, Arrays, Classes, and Fundamental algorithms in C# and Python.
7. Files: Reading and writing text files in C# and Python.

Practical:
Writing short programs in C# and Python for various statistical computing and simulations.
Textbook:

 Gaddis, Tony (2017). Starting Out with Visual C#. Fourth Edition, Pearson.
 Mark Lutz (2013).Learning Python, O'Reilly Media.

Course Code: 816805 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Data Analytics: Tools and Techniques
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40% , Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: This course will provide knowledge regarding the advanced tools and
techniques that are used for various data types. The concentration will be given to the application
of suggestive tools in sophisticated software packages rather than enormous theories crunching.
Students will learn the possible solutions for the situations of the respective problem for which the
data was generated.

Course Contents:

1. Overview of Data Analytic Tools.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 4 of 11

 2. Descriptive Measures of Data (Basic statistical measures): Types and measurement
scales of data; Measures of central tendency; Measures of dispersion.
3. Inferential Decision from Data (basic estimation and test of hypothesis): Basics of
inferential statistics; Power of test and p-value; Confidence intervals and tests of means
and proportions.
4. Correlation and Regression: Simple and multiple correlations; Simple and Multivariate
linear regression; Logistic Regression; Additional Regression Models.
5. Classification: Overview; Decision Trees; Naïve Bayes; Diagnostics of Classifiers.
6. Time Series Analysis: Decomposition of time series data; Plotting time series data; Box-
Jenkins Methodology; ARMA models; ARIMA models.
7. Text analysis: Text Analysis Steps; Collecting Raw Text; Representing Text; Term
Frequency-Inverse Document Frequency (TFIDF); Categorizing Documents by Topics;
Determining Sentiments.

Practical:
Solution for various real-life situations depending on the observed data.

Textbook:

 EMC Education Services (2015). Data Science & Big Data Analytics– Wiley.

Course Code: 816807 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Database Systems
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40% , Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: This course will provide the student with knowledge of database concepts.
Emphasis will be placed on database design, development, and querying using DBS installed on
both LAN and cloud environments. Concepts covered include ER modeling, normalization, and
database design theory. Hands-on activities will allow students to create, maintain and query
various databases. An introduction and overview of stored procedures, triggers, and data
warehousing will also be covered.

Course Contents:
1. Overview: Purpose of Database Systems; Database Languages; Database Design;
Database Engine; Database and Application Architecture; History of Database Systems.
2. Relational Models: Structure of Relational Databases; Database Schema; Relational
Query Languages; The Relational Algebra; Introduction to SQL; Intermediate SQL;
Advanced SQL.
3. Database Design: Database Design Using E-R Model; Relational Database Design.
4. Application Design and Development: Complex Data Types; Application
Development.
5. Big Data Analytics: Big Data; Data Analytics.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 5 of 11

 6. Storage Management and Indexing: Physical Storage Systems; Data Storage
Structures; Indexing.
7. Query Processing and Optimization: Query Processing; Query Optimization.
8. Transaction Management: Transactions; Concurrency Control; Recovery Systems.
9. Parallel and Distributed Databases: Database-System Architecture; Parallel and
Distributed Storage; Parallel and Distributed Query Processing; Parallel and Distributed
Transaction Processing.
10. Advanced Topics: Advanced Indexing Techniques; Block chain Databases.

Practical:
Processing different types queries for data preparation using SQL.

Textbook:
 Abraham Silberschatz, Henry F. Korth, S. Sudarshan (2019). Database System
Concepts. Seventh Edition, McGraw-Hill, New Delhi, India.
 Kroenke. Database Concepts. Latest Edition. Prentice Hall.
 Renee M. P. Teate (2021). SQL for Data Scientists. Wiley

Course Code: 816809 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Data Analysis & Software Application
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40%, Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: This course will provide the student with knowledge of various data
collection and data analysis software packages and their uses from database concepts. Emphasis
will be placed on hands-on activities that will allow students to create, maintain and explore
different queries and questions from various datasets.

Course Contents:
1. Data collection and organization in KOBO Toolbox: Introduction; Getting started with
KoBo Toolbox; Creating a project; Adding questions; Implementing skip checks;
Implementing validation logic; Deploying the form & collecting data; Configuration, data
entry & uploading; Viewing and downloading data.
2. Analysis of quantitative data using SPSS: Introduction to statistical analysis; Data
manipulation and data transformation; Computing descriptive statistics; Different types of
graphs: Bar chart, Pie chart, Histogram, Scatter plot, etc.; Test of hypothesis: Z-test, t-test,
Chi-square test, F-test, Nonparametric test; Correlation and Regression: simple and
multiple correlations, simple and multiple regression, logistic regression; Analysis of
Variance (ANOVA): CRD and RBD; Factor Analysis and Discriminant Analysis
3. Qualitative data analysis with NVivo: Introduction to NVivo; Designing an NVivo
project; Coding foundation; Advanced coding; Cases, classifications, and comparisons;
Surveys and mixed methods; Querying data; Working with multimedia files; Social media
data; Teamwork in NVivo.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 6 of 11

 4. Data Analysis with R: Introduction to R; Data manipulation using Tidyverse; Control
flow and functions; Data visualization with GGplot; Exploratory data analysis; Correlation
and regression; Basic machine learning techniques.

Practical:
In-practice lessons with KOBO, SPSS, NVivo, andR.

Textbook:
 Garrett Grolemund, and Hadley Wickham (2017). R for Data Science: Import, Tidy,
Transform, Visualize, and Model Data, 1st Edition, O’ Reilley Media.
 Gareth James, Daniela Witten, Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani (2013). An
Introduction to Statistical Learning with Application in R, Springer.
 Kristi Jackson and Pat Bazeley (2019). Qualitative Data Analysis with NVivo. Third
Edition, SAGE Publications Ltd.
 Stephen A. Sweet and Karen A. Grace-Martin (2011). Data Analysis with SPSS: A
First Course in Applied Statistics- 4th Edition, Pearson.
 References for SPSS, NVivo & KOBO manuals.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 7 of 11

 Second Semester

Course Code: 826811 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Data Visualization
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40%, Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: This course introduces data literacy required as a key twenty-first-century
skill. Students will learn the nature of data across different domains and the concepts and skills of
data visualization by understanding, questioning, and problematizing how data are generated,
analyzed, and used. Students will be able to apply its concepts and skills to visualize their own
data, interpret the findings, and examine the impacts of the data-driven decision.

Course Contents:
1. Introduction: Introduction to data visualization; Brief history of data visualization.
2. Principles: Data graphics; Static graphics; Data visualization through their graphic
presentation; Graph-theoretic graphs, High-dimensional data visualization;
Multivariate data glyphs: principles and practice; Linked data views; Visualizing
trees and forests.
3. Methodologies: Linked micro-map plots; Grand tours, projection pursuit guided
tours, and manual control; Multidimensional scaling; Multivariate visualization by
density estimation; Structured sets of graphs; Regression by parts: fitting visually
interpretable models with GUIDE; Smoothing techniques for visualization;
Visualizing cluster analysis and finite mixture models; Visualizing contingency
table; Mosaic plots and their variants; Matrix visualization; Web-based statistical
graphics using XML technologies.
4. Application: Reconstruction, visualization, and analysis of medical images;
Exploratory graphics of a financial dataset, Graphical data representation in
bankruptcy analysis, Visualization tools for insurance risk process.
Practical:
Lab experiments on data visualization in Excel, R, and Python.
Textbook:
 Chun-houh Chen, Wolfgang Härdle, Antony Unwin (2008). Handbook of Data
Visualization, First Edition, Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.
 Sosulski, K. (2018). Data Visualization Made Simple: Insights into Becoming
Visual. New York: Routledge.
 Hadley Wickham (2016). ggplot2, Elegant Graphics for Data Analysis, Springer.
 Winston Chang (2012). R Graphics Cookbook, O'Reilly Media.
 Jake VanderPlas (2016). Python Data Science Handbook: Essential Tools for
Working with Data, O'Reilly Media.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 8 of 11

Course Code: 826813 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Data Governance and Ethics
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-60% , Lab with continuous assesment-40%

Course Objectives: This course will provide an understanding of data governance policy and
ethical considerations while working as a data analyst. The students will be able to critically
interpret the governance and regulatory frameworks associated with the capture, processing, and
stewardship of data. They will also gain skills to critically interpret the roles and responsibilities of
data security, privacy, and data protection. Learners will also build their capacity to analyze and
evaluate the intersection of data and ethics in socio-technical environments.
Course Contents:

1. Data Governance: Data quality and provenance; Data management-Roles and

responsibilities. Management of data policies, processes, and procedures; Data integrity &
security; Risk management; Models and tools for data governance.
2. Privacy and Data Protection: The right to privacy - constitutional and statutory
protections, privacy, and the European Convention on Human Rights and EU Charter of
Fundamental Rights; Common law protection; Data Protection Regulation Scope,
processing of personal data, legitimate bases; Principles of data protection; Sensitive data;
Issues of consent; Rights, supervision and enforcement; Data Protection in practice
includes international transfers, surveillance, cloud computing, and auditing; The current
reform of the area.
3. Ethical Issues Pertaining to Data: Ethics and Computing - examining moral problems
when using the Internet - spam, censorship and free speech, the anonymity offered by the
Internet; Ethical issues that arising from the increasing use and pervasiveness of
information technology and socio-technical systems; Health technology; Pervasive
monitoring and tracking; Image, video and sound capture; Identity; Perpetuity of data
storage; Trans nationality; Copyright; IOT.

Textbook:
 Katherine O'Keefe, Daragh O Brien (2018). Ethical Data and Information Management,
Kogan.
 Herman T. Tavani (2013). Ethics and Technology, Wiley.

Course Code: 826815 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Fundamentals of Machine Learning
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40%, Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: In this course, students will learn to apply machine learning concepts to
analyze data and make predictions. Students will learn how to collect and wrangle data, explore
data using statistics and visualizations, transform data for further modeling, model data using
machine learning algorithms to predict data patterns, and evaluate these model-based predictions.
Course Contents:

1. Supervised learning Vs. Unsupervised learning.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 9 of 11
 2. Maximum likelihood.
3. Naive Bayes.
4. Logistic regression.
5. Gradient descent.
6. Regularization.
7. Information theory.
8. Decision trees.
9. Representation learning / PCA.
10. Clustering.
11. Latent variable models.
12. Neural networks

Textbook:
 Shai Shalev-Shwartz and Shai Ben-David (2014). Understanding Machine Learning:
From Theory to Algorithms. Cambridge University Press. Available free online.
 Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani, and Jerome Friedman (2009). The Elements of
Statistical Learning: Data Mining, Inference, and Prediction, 2nd Edition. Springer.
Available free online
 Gareth James, Daniela Witten, Trevor Hastie, Robert Tibshirani (2013). An Introduction
to Statistical Learning with Application in R, Springer.
 Jake VanderPlas (2017). Python Data Science Handbook: Essential Tools for Working
with Data, O'Reilly Media.

Course Code: 826817 Credits: 4 Class Hours: 04 Contact hours per week
Course Title: Professional Development and Freelancing
Course Evaluation: Theoretical exam-40% , Lab with continuous assesment-60%

Course Objectives: This course will connect students’ education in the program and their work
experiences to their post-graduation goals, whether that is obtaining a new job, earning a
promotion, and/or freelancing. The goal is for students to focus on professional development
topics so they feel confident in marketing their skills after graduation and have concrete materials
that will make them stand out to employers and/or clients. By the end of the class, students should
be aware of job search trends, the targeted documents necessary to be employable after graduation,
and the importance of networking. Students will also learn job-search skills specific to the online
communications field such as writing resumes and cover letters, presenting analytic works
effectively, networking, and facing data-analytics job interviews. They will also be able to execute
tactics that establish themselves as industry experts and explore additional sources of income.
Course Contents:

1. Career Development Theories; Conducting Career Research.

2. Networking; Networking Tools; E-Portfolios.
3. Conducting a Targeted Job Search; Resumes and Cover Letters.
4. Interviewing; Effective job presentation.
5. Decision Making; Best Practices in the Workplace.
6. Setting Business Goals; Working with Clients.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 10 of 11

 7. Client Documents and Forms – Proposals, Bids, Contracts, Policies, and Procedures;
Creating Forms (ex. Needs Assessments).
8. Project Organization; Requests for Proposals.

Textbook:
 John J. Sonmez (2015). Soft Skills. Manning Publications, Shelter Island, NY 11964.
 Kevin Donlin (2000). Résumé and Cover Letter Secrets Revealed! Available online for
free.
 Adam Sinicki (2019). Thriving in the Gig Economy: Freelancing Online for Tech
Professionals and Entrepreneurs. Apress Media LLC.

Course Code: 826818 Credits: 4 Class Hours:

Course Title: Special Topics in Data Analytics

Students will get an opportunity to conduct innovative research for Data Analytics in an industry
of their choice. This course will provide students with the required breadth to jumpstart their
careers in the Data Analytics field. During the first quarter of the Second semester, students will
be asked to select a specialized topic according to his/her interest and submit a thesis/experimental
project report during the semester final examination. The work will be supervised by an internal
supervisor and the submitted thesis/report will be evaluated by an expert in a similar research
field.

Syllabus for PGD in Data Analytics, National University Page 11 of 11