For a graduate certificate $3000 is actually quite pricey. At smaller Universities in Europe it is possible to earn a MSc in Business Intelligence & Data Mining via distance for just €4000 (http://www.itb.ie/StudyatITB/bn518BID.html). Plus their focus almost exclusively on open source software such as RapidMiner.
8 hours lecture online per week + whatever offline work, for 4 semesters. That format, at minimum passes the "sniff test". I think four semesters at that rate is long enough to legitimately teach the content.
My only question now is how well received is it by the world at large? Has anyone hands on experience with ITB?
From what I understand, the degree is more or less a structured way to become really versatile in RapidMiner. The relationship between the software development team and those teaching the degree is very close ( http://rapidminerresources.com/index.php?page=training / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidMiner ). Therefore I suspect the core motivation for those choosing this degree is to reach a high level of proficiency in that particular software by studying with one of its developers, and earning on the way an MSc from a state university. It is a legitimate university, but don't expect any employer going wild about it.
Just as a disclaimer: I have not relationship with ITB or RapidMiner. A while ago I played around with the software because some of the tutorials are really interesting and very accessible for someone like me who lacks a deep statistical understanding(i.e. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXIKydgGbYk).
This prospect makes me more interested. Learning theory is nice, but I'm interested in these topics primarily because I'm interested in the data and that requires proficiency in a good tool.
It's a bit more than half the price for a course that is half as long, so as such the pricing seems fair enough. Also it's not just a random certificate, but a certificate issued by a well known University. I'm sure ITB is a fine university, but it's hardly got serious name recognition, so I don't think that an argument can be made that an MSc from ITB will be worth more than a graduate certificate from UW.
The problem with certificates is, that you really have to look very closely to understand what was covered. For example Stanford has a range of certificates, some taking as little as about one day of work, the others a few semesters. There are so many factors involved such as professional, undergraduate, graduate, for-credit, for continuous education credit, and so on. Therefore I became somewhat skeptical of them as they almost always require more explanation than available on a CV (if we are talking brand value here).
