Back to School Again

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The final assignment walks through how a fictitious property management firm could use machine learning to improve their business. If you haven't listened to Episode 3: Machine learning for everyone, we suggest you do that first.

Learn more about Athabasca University and their PowerEd offerings and don't forget to use offer code INGRAM20 if you sign up. We're proudly affiliated with the Alberta Podcast Network - home to fantastic local podcasts. 

I've recently completed Athabasca University's PowerED course, Using Machine Learning for Competitive Advantage. Marcin Mizianty, VP Datascience at AltaML and one of the course subject matter experts, joins me to explain how machine learning can be applied to a variety of industries to solve real-world business problems. 

We talk about...

• How Marcin chose to focus his PhD on AI and became a data scientist before it became such a hot area.
• Hollywood depictions of artificial intelligence and why those are NOT what AI is about! AI is all around us playing useful functions - from fraud detection to spam filters.
• How AltaML has partnered with Dynalife to use computer vision to help them reduce testing time and costs for healthcare testing.
• The steps of a machine learning project, why Marcin feels that defining the business problem is the most important step and who should be involved in this process.
• Marcin's favourite question to help companies find an ML project in their company
• What it means to train a model in non-technical terms (and making sure it works beyond the training data). How to make sure you don't build a model that states the obvious. 
• What Katrina learned about data from taking this course and what characteristics within data you should look for in your data  
• How to locate, assess and prepare your data to make it "machine learning ready"
• What's it REALLY like to be a data scientist and why data science is actually a team sport.
• The role of communication in ensuring a successful machine learning project and helping customers better understand the ROI for their business. 
• The importance of ethics in AI and ML and the role of governance and oversight. 

Learn more about Athabasca University and their PowerEd offerings and don't forget to use offer code INGRAM20 if you sign up. We're proudly affiliated with the Alberta Podcast Network - home to fantastic local podcasts. 

PowerED Director, Jessica Scott joins me to share the story of PowerED and how it’s reshaping the way individuals and companies access professional development. 

We talk about...

• How Jessica's background in media leading digital transformation initiatives was the perfect fit for her current role leading PowerED.
• How PowerED expands AU's offerings into new areas by providing on demand micro-learning courses and certificates for individuals, delivering custom training for corporations and helping organizations develop and build their own digital training strategies.
• The importance and need for skill development that is "just in time, just enough and just for me" and how PowerED helps meet these new realities. 
• Using market research to find the skill gaps and building programs based on the results
• The importance of partnerships and how PowerED has partnered with organizations like the Rick Hansen Foundation to deliver unique programs like Accessibility Certification Training
• How AU helped Amazon deliver its first online version of AWS Academy and won an award for this new offering 
• Why expanding online requires huge investments in infrastructure and resources and how PowerED is positioned to help organizations build turnkey online education solutions 
• Learning management systems, technology and how PowerED delivers an easy to navigate, intuitive, fully responsive and visually appealing online space for learners
• Using rich media and curating content across learning styles (VARK) to fully leverage the online experience
• Micro-learning, micro-credentialing and how they fit into the bigger educational landscape
• Jessica's experience in doing her MBA online and why she is excited to be going back to school again for a PhD online at Athabasca University, of course!

Learn more about Athabasca University and their PowerEd offerings and don't forget to use offer code INGRAM20 if you sign up. We're proudly affiliated with the Alberta Podcast Network - home to fantastic local podcasts. 

They pioneered the world's first online MBA 25 years ago and now, they are boldy creating a fully integrated, immersive "digital campus" to bring online learning to the next level.

We talk about...

• AU's place in the academic landscape within Alberta and its unique focus on "democratizing" access to education by taking learning to the learners
• Moving from delivering "books in a box" in the 70s and 80s to online learning 
• Launching the world's first online MBA in 1994 (on dial up!) and pioneering the use of the internet for education
• Delivering complex STEM courses like chemistry to home-based learners (safely!)
• How online learning can be for everyone and how AU leverages the unique aspects of online delivery to create great learning experiences.
• Where Professors and Instructors fit into the process of designing learning experiences that can be delivered at scale and how this shifts the traditional notion of their role
• The importance of delivering full support systems for learners in an online format, not just the educational content. 
• Why current learning management systems aren't sufficient to provide a fully integrated learning environment and what needs to happen to change this dynamic.
• Future predictions for the fully cloud based "digital campus" and envisioning the university of 2067, the role 5G infrastructure and augmented intelligence will play and why we might one day be learning philosophy from Socrates on the Holodeck. 

Learn more about Athabasca University and their PowerED offerings and don't forget to use offer code INGRAM20 if you sign up. We're proudly affiliated with the Alberta Podcast Network - home to fantastic local podcasts. 

That led to employment in a new industry – cannabis! Dan shares how he manages his study schedule as a busy dad of two young kids, the importance of having a supportive spouse and his impressions of working in the cannabis industry during its early days.

We talk about...

• Starting a degree in his twenties but then finding that life had other plans that led to a career, a series of promotions and a family 
• How a major jolt in the form of a corporate restructuring became the catalyst for Dan to evaluate what he really values and pointed him towards a career in human resources
• Approaching school as a mature student and why spending “adult money” on education means more to him
• Carving out time to focus on studying and learning how much time we actually waste. Scheduling to ensure he can still be present for important family activities 
• Modeling being a student for his kids and reading their textbooks together
• The challenges of working in the early days of the cannabis industry while trying to balance being a student
• Finding a sense of completion in coming back to finish an educational journey that he started over a decade ago

Find out more about cannabis industry training at NorQuest College and Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

Many people might need a break from studying after all that - not Shari-Anne! She then went on to become a Qualified Arbitrator and recently finished coursework towards becoming a Qualified Mediator. We talk about the joys of grad school, running a business, competing with your kids for the best grades and creative ways to fund your education as an adult. 

We talk about...

• choosing the right time to go back to school, while never losing sight of the goal 
• choosing the masters of public administration at Dalhousie University and how it allowed Shari-Anne to leverage her work experience as part of her entrance to the program
• being a role model for her kids and supporting each other in their respective learning
• how scaling back work to focus on school led to the launch of Sage Analytics and the challenges and joys of running your own business
• how to creatively fund your education through a combination of savings, loans, scholarships, bursaries and contract work
• how a masters opened the door to additional credentials
• why Shari-Anne encourages people to consider a career in public service

Connect with Shari-Anne at Sage Analytics
Learn more about funding your education through early withdrawal from RRSPs or the life long learning plan (Canada)
Learn more about provincial education funding opportunities in Alberta here

Her research centres around how leisure, particularly being in nature, can help with resettlement for new immigrants. Jane shares her own immigration story that took her from the UK to South Africa to Canada, why she decided to pursue her PhD and how we are redefining what it means to be retired.

We talk about...

• Leaving apartheid South Africa to raise a family and build a life in Canada
• Jane’s storied career in TV, feature films and then communications strategy
• Returning to university at the age of 60 to get a master’s degree at Royal Roads which led to doing some coursework at the University of Alberta.
• How unanswered questions from a master’s class in global politics and the massive migrations starting to take place in 2012 turned into the desire to do a PhD
• Researching leisure and its role in resettlement
• The process and demands of doing a PhD
• Finding the right supervisor
• Challenges with ageism in the educational system
• The amazing richness of resources in post-secondary libraries

I’m proud to be a member of the Alberta Podcast Network, powered by ATB Financial. Special thanks to our sponsors NorQuest College. 

His deep curiosity and a colleague’s off the cuff comment led him back to the classroom in 2012 and he has recently completed his PhD in Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Alberta. We talk about managing the psychological journey of a PhD, the importance of a great supervisor and embracing the questions as much as the answers.

We talk about....

• the adventures of being an archaeologist including encounters with Federales, lightning strikes and bear attacks 
• how the love of junk, dirt, going to the dump and avoiding calculus led to a career in archaeology 
• the Archaeological Survey of Alberta and its role in managing Alberta geography with respect to archaeological sites within Alberta
• what drove Robin back to school to do a PhD ( and why there is no such thing as low hanging fruit for a PhD!)
• the process of a PhD - the vital importance of having a good supervisor
• making it through the grueling candidacy interview (freaking out is normal)
• managing the psychology of the PhD process 
• formulating your research questions and designing your project
• being comfortable NOT (fully) answering your question

Learn more about the Archaeological Survey of Alberta.