The Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) held its second Data Science Massive Open Online Courses (MOOC) 2016/17 programme today at Heriot-Watt University, Putrajaya Lakeside Campus.

The programme recorded a 45 percent pass rate from 646 students enrolled in the programme.

Data Science MOOC has attracted 1,111 data science professionals over the last two years.

Participant, Kanagalingam K. said, “This experience has allowed me to upskill and understand the value of big data, putting me in better position to explain its impact to my customers. The digital environment forces us to adopt quicker, analytics is important for us stay relevant.”

Lee Chi Siong, a student from UTAR who also participated in the course said, “After joining the programme I believe that I have a competitive advantage over my peers as most companies are looking for specific certifications as prerequisites”.

This is the second data science course of its kind. Together with other talent initiatives conducted by the data science center called, ADAX, MDEC is on track to meet 2020 targets of training 20,000 data professionals. Currently, about 5,500 have been created.


MDEC Data Science MOOC offered a range of courses by key partners including Coursera, SAS, and EMC. In the first cohort, 499 participants joined the programme, with a completion rate of 42 percent. Combined, the programme has attracted 1,111 participants in the last two years.

ADAX conducts regular technical classes, courses, hackathons, job trainings, and tech labs to develop and strengthen the talent pool for the big data industry.

Ir Dr Karl Ng Kah Hou, Director of MDEC’s Data Economy division said, “This is one of several strategic initiatives under MDEC’s Big Data Analytics framework.

The demand for analytics has grown exponentially, thus creating a need for talents that are able to uncover insights from Big Data. With our intervention in talent development programmes since 2015 and the introduction of the ASEAN Data Analytics Exchange (ADAX) earlier this year, we are on track to meet our target of 20,000 by year 2020”.