Web-based analysis of data mining and decision support education

This note discusses some aspects of the international offer of machine learning, data mining and decision support education, based on investigations of the materials available on the world-wide web. The aim of this investigation was to provide starting points for an analysis that could be used to enhance the educational offer in this area in general, and knowledge transfer from academia to industry and business sector in particular. In addition to general findings concerning the collected materials such as contents, target audience, and teaching materials, we discuss issues such as connections with real-world problems. The work has been done as part of the activities of SolEuNet, a network of expert teams from academia and business sponsored by the European Commission, offering tools and expertise designed to meet customized data mining and decision support needs. For SolEuNet, the aim of the analysis of educational programs was to enhance its own educational offer by finding prospective market niches and by identifying useful guidelines for seminar and courses design. In this paper we report on these investigations with the aim of providing readers with insight into state of the art and trends of education in machine learning, data mining and decision support as reflected on the web, and to give useful links to materials that could help when designing and preparing courses.