Author: admin

Respond to each discussion post.

Other than the fact that the title of the course contains both Business Intelligence AND Data Analytics, these two concepts seem like separate things, right?

Well that’s what this week’s discussion is going to find out.

While we won’t address data visualization in depth in this course, data visualization is never very far from any discussion of data analytics, so I’d like everyone (ALL students, not just the initial post group) to get acquainted with Google’s Ngram Viewer: .

Basically the Ngram Viewer allows you to see a graph of the occurrence of a given word or phrase over a specified period of years in the entire corpus of books contained in the Google Books collection. You can also enter several words or phrases to compare the evolution of usage over time. The default (sample) ngram on the day I visited was a comparison of Albert Einstein,Sherlock Holmes,Frankenstein which resulted in

Your tasks and the discussion topic(s) this week: 1. All students should use Ngram and try various combinations of

• business intelligence,
• data analytics, and
• data science.

You might try allied terms such as

• data analysis and
• big data.

Be sure to change the years. You’ll definitely want to include the current year, and I think you’ll quickly find that years before 1900 (sometimes later) don’t show much. Think about what the graph is showing you regarding the usage of these various terms. Be aware that even if you enter the current year, Ngram may change that year depending on the data available (currently, it seems to default to 2008 as the most recent year available).

2. Initial post group: In addition to the Ngram exercise, members of the initial post group should also conduct a web search for definitions of at least business intelligence and data analytics. I’m sure you’ll find more than a few sites willing to compare the two. The topic this week is as follows:

Compare and contrast the terms business intelligence and data analytics. That is, how are they similar? How are they different? You should include in your initial post a brief discussion of the Ngram findings and a brief discussion of your search for definitions.

3. Reply group: In addition to the Ngram exercise, members of the reply group should also conduct a web search for definitions. Your role is to build on an initial post with additional insights and information that will further the discussion.

You may want to include a snip image, particularly of any Ngram that you create. Information about creating a snip of an image from your screen is given below in Additional Info. Note: LEO does not allow you to directly cut and paste an image into a discussion. You will need to save the file as an image and then click the small camera icon to insert the image. This is tedious but a good skill to learn.

Additional info:

If you want to delve deeper into Ngram (not required), you may have a look at wildcards and other .

If you’re not sure how to ‘snip’ an image from your screen or browser, here’s a tutorial from and another from . Please take care to take snip only of the image you want to share, NOT your entire screen.