You learn this by doing it badly first, with someone watching.
Watching a demonstration produces the feeling of understanding. Opening a blank file produces the actual skill. Our modules are arranged so that most of your time is spent in the second state, and so that when you get stuck, someone answers.
Four decisions that shape everything else
- Files, not slides
- Every topic arrives as a file with something wrong with it, or a question that can't be answered until you build something. Concepts are introduced when you need them to get unstuck, which is when they stick.
- Small groups, real answers
- Sessions are capped at 18 people. That number exists so an instructor can look at your screen during the working block and so questions get answered in the session rather than in a queue afterwards.
- Feedback in writing
- You submit two exercises per module and get written comments on each — what worked, what will break later, and one thing to do differently next time. Comments are specific to your file, not a rubric score.
- Nothing is claimed that we can't observe
- We can tell you what you'll practise and what you'll produce. We can't tell you what an employer will make of it, so we don't. There are no outcome statistics on this site because we don't collect any that would be honest.
Ninety minutes, roughly a third of it you working
The shape is the same every week, so nobody has to guess what's coming. Cameras are optional. Questions in the chat are read out and answered by name.
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Review — 10 minutes
Two or three submitted files from last week, shown with permission and discussed without names attached to mistakes. Most weeks the interesting file is the one that nearly worked.
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Demonstration — 15 minutes
One technique, shown at working speed on a real file, including the wrong turns. You don't type along; the recording is there for that.
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You work — 30 minutes
You open the exercise file and attempt it. Instructors move between breakout rooms; you can share your screen or stay quiet. Getting stuck here is the point of the session.
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Walkthrough — 20 minutes
The exercise is solved together, usually two ways, with a discussion of which one you'd want to maintain in six months.
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Questions and the new file — 15 minutes
Open questions, including ones about your own work, and a look at what's due next week. Anything unanswered goes to the module thread and gets a reply within two working days.
Two to three hours, on your own schedule
The self-paced part is where the module is actually learned. It is deliberately modest in volume so that it survives a busy week.
The exercise file
One main task per week, taking most people 60–90 minutes. Always a file rather than a quiz, and always something with a defensible right answer plus at least one reasonable alternative.
Short reference notes
Two or three pages per week: what was covered, the shortcuts used, and links out to primary documentation. Written to be reread later, not to be read once.
The module thread
A written space for questions between sessions, answered by an instructor within two working days. Answers are visible to the group, because someone else usually had the same question.
We're six hours ahead of Toronto, and we plan around it
Being based in Zaandam means our afternoon is your morning. That works well for one thing and badly for another, so we've been explicit about both.
| Zone | Live session | Practical note |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific | 09:00–10:30 | Early, but before most workdays get loud |
| Mountain | 10:00–11:30 | Comfortable mid-morning |
| Central | 11:00–12:30 | Runs into lunch |
| Eastern | 12:00–13:30 | Lunch hour; the most common slot |
| Atlantic | 13:00–14:30 | Early afternoon |
| Newfoundland | 13:30–15:00 | Early afternoon |
We do not run evening Eastern sessions, because that would be the middle of the night here and we would teach badly. If a daytime slot doesn't work for you, the fully self-paced route uses the same files, the same feedback and the same instructor thread.
What we don't do
Some of these are things learners reasonably ask for. We'd rather say no clearly here than disappoint someone after they've paid.
- No job placement or referrals. We have no employer network and don't pass names on.
- No outcome promises. No employment rates, no salary figures, no "in twelve weeks" framing.
- No accreditation. Our certificate records participation. It is not a licence, credential or regulated qualification in any province or country.
- No consulting or done-for-you work. We teach; we don't take on client datasets or build files for organisations.
- No regulated advice. Nothing taught here is financial, legal, tax, medical or immigration advice, whatever the example dataset happens to contain.
- No advanced specialisation. We stop where the foundations end. For programming, statistics or enterprise BI platforms, we'll point you to better-suited providers.
If a module isn't right for you, we'd rather tell you first
Write to us with what you're working on and what keeps going wrong. We'll say which module fits, which doesn't, and whether something free would serve you better at this stage.