Educator Info and Resources:
Teaching with Predictive Analytics


Predictive Analytics book

Teach with Predictive Analytics

BONUS: Watch the author's popular geek rap music video for a substantively educational song about predictive analytics that engages students

What professors should know about this book:

Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die has served as a textbook at more than 30 colleges and universities (18+ as required reading). A former computer science professor at Columbia University, author Eric Siegel wrote this introduction to be conceptually complete. In the table of contents, the words in parentheses aside each chapter's "catchy" title reveal an outline that covers the fundamentals: 1) model deployment, 2) ethics, 3) data, 4) predictive modeling, 5) ensemble models, 6) question answering, and 7) uplift modeling.

However, this book is not in the formal style of a textbook. Much to the contrary, the author sought to deliver an entertaining, engaging, relevant work that illustrates the concepts largely via anecdotes.

To guide reading assignments, here are the chapter dependencies:

Predictive Analytics delivers unique value as what may be the only book that provides all three of the following:

  1. Fully accessible and engaging to non-technical readers, new-comers of any background
  2. Conceptually complete coverage of the core technical concepts
  3. Full industry overview of predictive analytics' value across all sectors; focuses on real-world usage, illustrated via hundreds of brand-name examples

New content: A much-needed warning regarding bad science. Among other additions, the Revised and Updated edition's Chapter 3, "The Data Effect," now includes an in-depth section about an all-too-common pitfall and how we avoid it: How to successfully tap data's potential without being fooled by random noise, ensuring sound discoveries are made. This issue could not be more important for our next emerging generation of practitioners.

After reviewing a near-final draft of this new book section, Dr. A J Nigl of the University of California, Irvine's Business School Extension Program said, "An excellent job of handling such a potentially complicated topic in a non-technical manner sprinkled with Siegel's usual healthy dose of humor... and will cause readers to think about potential pitfalls in the interpretation of predictive analytics and modeling outcomes. I respect the author's desire to make sure new entrants to the field of predictive analytics understand the need to address issues like spurious outcomes and illusory predictive relationships. It is a very important topic and he did a great job explaining it without being overly technical or pedantic. The true assessment of a book chapter's worth is if it makes people think and this chapter revision certainly made me think."

BONUS: If you adopt Predictive Analytics as a text for your course, you can arrange for free access to the audiobook version for your students by contacting the author, Eric Siegel.

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Predictive Analytics: The Power to Predict Who Will Click, Buy, Lie, or Die

Geek Rap Video

Praise for the Book:

"A mesmerizing and fascinating study."

— The Seattle Post-Intelligencer

"This is Moneyball for business, government, and healthcare."

— Jim Sterne, founder, eMetrics Summit; chairman, Digital Analytics Association

"Simultaneously entertaining, informative, and nuanced. Siegel goes behind the hype and makes the science exciting."

— Rayid Ghani, Chief Data Scientist, Obama for America 2012 Campaign

"Predictive Analytics is not only a deeply informative dive into a topic that is critical to virtually every sector of business today, it is also a delight to read."

— Geoffrey Moore, author, Crossing the Chasm

"The Freakonomics of big data."

— Stein Kretsinger, founding executive of Advertising.com; former lead analyst at Capital One

"The future is right now — you're living in it. Read this book to gain understanding of where we are and where we're headed."

— Roger Craig, record-breaking analytical Jeopardy! champion; CEO, Cotinga

"Littered with lively examples..."

— The Financial Times

"Siegel is a capable and passionate spokesman with a compelling vision..."

— Analytics Magazine

"A must read for the normal lay person..."

— Journal of Marketing Analytics

"A clear and compelling explanation of the power of predictive analytics, and how it can transform companies and even industries."

— Anthony Goldbloom, Founder and CEO, Kaggle.com

"Both sophisticated and fully accessible to the non-quantitative reader. It's got great stories, great illustrations, and an entertaining tone."

— From the book's foreword by Thomas H. Davenport, coauthor, Competing on Analytics

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