Best Data Science Courses Online, Certificate, Training Program

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Believe it or not, we are living in an era where every bit of data is becoming precious day by day.

Hence a need for a data scientist arises who can study the data, extract valuable information and insights (data mining) using tools and techniques from fields likes maths, statistics, computer science, etc.

Simply put, Data science is a multifaceted field where a data scientist deals with the deep analysis of a gargantuan amount of precious data (raw data) and converts them into valuable business information.

What is data science salary?

There is a huge demand for data scientist in the industry currently as data has become the ‘key’ in driving business growth and innovation.

Data scientist are expected to be highly skilled in different domains and not just restricted to the coding part, they are highly sought after and well paid too.

According to glassdoor survey, the average data scientist salary is in 6 figures U.S dollars.

What are the training programs of data science?

There are a handful of data science online courses that are good quality wise and can help you show a path on your preparation to become a data scientist.

IBM Data Science Professional Certificate – Coursera

The rigorous 9 courses from IBM teaches you the required skills sets and techniques for mastering data science concepts.

The certification program is aimed at beginners and no particular programming knowledge required enrolling to this course.

You will practice several hands-on assignments in IBM cloud using real data science tools and real–world data sets.

In addition to the professional certificate you receive from Coursera, IBM provides a digital badge as an accreditation to your data science skills.

You can learn the course for free or opt for a $39 monthly subscription if want to access to the graded materials and certificate.

Key Learning’s:

Data science Overview (What is Data Science)
Learn about Data Science tools : Jupyter Notebooks, R Studio and Apache Zeppelin (Open Source Tools for Data Science)
Steps involved in tackling a data science problem (Data Science Methodology)
Introduction to Python Programming (Python for Data Science)
Foundational knowledge of data extraction using SQL (Databases and SQL for Data Science)
Learn how to analyse data using Python libraries : Pandas, NumPy, SciPy and Scikit –learn (Data Analysis with Python)
Use of data visualization libraries in Python: Matplotlib, Seaborn and Folium (Data Visualization with Python)
General overview of Machine Learning algorithms (Machine Learning with Python)
Hands –on experience working with real data Capstone project (Applied Data Science Capstone)

Data Science Specialization – JHU Coursera

Another popular data science tutorial online worth enrolling is this extensive 10 course specialization from John Hopkins University.

A familiarity in Python fundamentals and regression is a prerequisite before enrolling.

The whole 10 course specialization will take around 8 months to complete, however you can opt to pick and choose to learn any individual course in depth.

In order to earn a certificate, it is mandate to complete the hands-on project and opt for monthly subscription plan.

Key Learning’s:

Introduction to main tools and ideas in the data scientist’s toolbox
Learn how to program in R and use R for effective data analysis
Know the basic ways to obtain data
Exploratory techniques for data summarization. Detailed explanation of plotting systems in R and how to construct data graphics
Concepts and tools behind reporting modern data analysis in a reproducible manner
Understand the fundamentals of statistical inference
Novel uses of regression models
Basic concepts of prediction functions (overfitting, errorsets, etc) and machine learning (regression, classification, Naive Bayes, etc)
Data products basics using Shiny, R packages and interactive graphics.
Data Science Capstone project to get a hands-on experience with data from real world

MicroMasters Program in Statistics and Data Science – edX

EDX in partnership with Massachusetts Institute of Technology offers a Micromasters program in Statistics and Data Science.

It is one of your best bet to get an online degree in data science (graduate level) given the content quality and the University standards.

It is comprised of four online courses and a virtually proctored exam to get a hands-on training with the tools and methods used in data science.

The best part, you can use the program credential to apply to their MIT doctoral program or get a credit to pursue master degree in data science online in other universities across globe.

Key Learning’s:

Master the foundations of data science, statistics and machine learning
Know how to use probabilistic modeling and statistical inference to analyse big data
In-depth introduction to machine learning with hands-on Python projects
Develop and build machine learning algorithms
Understand all basic probability concepts:

Microsoft Professional Program in Data Science – edX

MPP designed by Microsoft is another noteworthy and comprehensive program for data science learning.

It introduces you to the basics of data science tools and programming language and prepares you with the necessary skills to further advance in data science.

It comprises of a total 10 courses with one final project to earn a verifiable certificate.

All the courses are self paced and you can take the courses for free if you don’t want to get certified from them.

Key Learning’s:

Use Microsoft Excel to explore data
Use Transact-SQL to query a relational database
Create data models and visualize data using Excel or Power BI
Apply statistical methods to data
Use R or Python to explore and transform data
Follow a data science methodology
Create and validate machine learning models with Azure Machine Learning
Write R or Python code to build machine learning models
Apply data science techniques to common scenarios
Implement a machine learning solution for a given data problem

Professional Certificate in Data Science (Harvard X) – edX

The Harvard University training program in data science is an intensive 9 course program that teaches data science skill sets in R programming environment.

Also, if you come from a stats background and not from a Python world, this is the best data science specialization you should opt for.

As with any other popular MOOCs course, you can entirely audit the course for free if do not need a verified certificate.

Key Learning’s:

Fundamental R programming skills
Statistical concepts such as probability, inference, and modeling and how to apply them in practice
Gain experience with the tidy verse, including data visualization with ggplot2 and data wrangling with dplyr
Become familiar with essential tools for practicing data scientists such as Unix/Linux, git and Github, and RStudio
Implement machine learning algorithms
In-depth knowledge of fundamental data science concepts through motivating real-world case studies

Data Scientists – Udacity Nanodegree Program

Udacity’s Nanodegree programs are known for high quality content with real world industry projects, detailed project reviews from experts, mentorship, community support, recognition certification and job assistance.

Apart from Coursera and edX, Udacity is the next go to platform to find best online courses for data science.

Some prerequisites before you enroll in this data science Nanodegree program: Python programming with their data analysis library such as NumPy, Pandas and Matplotlib, SQL programming, Statistics, Calculus, Linear Algebra and data visualization.

It has two terms and the duration to finish their courses along with projects is 7 months.

You will receive an industry recognized Nanodegree certification and access to their hiring partner network once you complete the Nanodegree program.

Term 1: Machine Learning for Data Scientist

Term 2: Applied Data Science

In case, you are not willing to opt for the entire Nanodegree program, you can check their free introduction to data science course.

It gives you the foundation knowledge in data manipulation, data analysis with statistics and ML, data communication and working with big data.

Data Science A-Z: Real-Life Data Science Exercises Included – Udemy

This is right now the best data science course online at Udemy.

Taught by Kirill and SuperDataScience Team, the course has got amazing feedbacks and huge enrollments so far.

There are no prerequisites to take this course and you get full time access to the course materials and course completion certificate.

Key learning’s:

How to use Tableau for Data mining
Advanced Data mining with Tableau
Data modelling with linear and logistic regression
Building a robust geo demographic segmentation model
Data wrangling, handling errors and SQL programming
Data communication
Present data science projects to stakeholders

The Data Science Course 2019: Complete Data Science Bootcamp – Udemy

This is equally a good data science online course at Udemy if you want a thorough and in-depth understanding of data science toolkits.

Created by 365 careers, both the reviews and enrollment figures are top notch.

As of now, it has 20.5 hours on-demand video with 70 articles and 115 downloadable resources.

Key Learning’s:

About the field of Data Science
Descriptive statistics ,Inferential statistics and Hypothesis testing with practical examples
Introduction to Python and advanced python tools
How to use advanced statistical methods in Python
The role of mathematics in data science
Introduction to neural networks
Build a neural network from scratch with NumPy
Introduction to TensorFlow in deep learning
In-depth understanding of DNN’s : Overfitting, Initialization, gradient descent, etc
Hands-on experience with deep learning with a business case example

Data Science courses – Data Camp

Data Camp can be a good starting point for beginners to practice coding exercises particularly in either Python or R.

Also, Data Camp is the popular choice to get some hands-on practice exercises in R.

Some courses are free to audit and for some you need monthly subscriptions.

Some of the best data courses worth checking in DataCamp:

Introduction to R

Python Data Science Toolbox

Introduction to Data Science in Python

Data Analysis and Statistical Inference

Linear Algebra for Data Science in R

Marketing Analytics in R: Statistical Modeling

Cluster Analysis in R

Data Science Certification Course using R – Edureka

Edureka offers a data science certificate online course if you are R professional working on a big data project.

A basic understanding of ‘R” is a pre-requisite before you enroll to this course.

You get a certificate of completion with live projects, practical assignments and lifetime access to the course material, 30 hours of live instructor-led online classes, etc.

Key Learning’s:

Conceptual understanding of statistics, time series and text mining
Expertise in ML algorithms such as K-Means clustering, decision trees, random forest, Naive Bayes, etc using R
Introduction to deep learning concepts
Statistical Inference, data extraction, wrangling and exploration

Data Scientist Master’s Program – SimpliLearn

Similar to how coursera specialization works, SimpliLearn data scientist master program has a total of 7 elaborate courses and capstone project to earn the master certificate.

It is a comprehensive data science certificate program online and helps you master the required skills and tools to become a data scientist.

You can learn the individual courses if you want to gain mastery in a particular skill set and get an individual certificate on that course.

Learning Paths:

Course 1: Data Science Certification Training – R programming

Course 2: Data Science with SAS training

Course 3: Data science with Python

Course 4: Machine Learning

Course 5: Big Data Hadoop and Spark Developer

Course 6: Tableau Dekstop 10 Qualified Associate Training

Becoming a Data Scientists in Python – Dataquest

Dataquest has a data science path track to help you learn the required skills to become a data scientist.

The path with a series of learning steps helps you pick and choose Dataquest course based on skill level.

Each course has a set of real world data for you to practice hands-on and portfolio ready projects

Which data science certification is the best?

Below is our pick of best data science certificate online programs that gives you the required industry recognition to work on big data projects or help get a job in data analytics.

Data Science Council of America (DASCA)

DASCA is a famous credential body for data science profession and is highly valued by a large number of employers around the world.

They have two prestigious international credentials for data scientist as of now: SDA (Seniors Data Scientist) and PDS (Principal Data Scientist)

You have to pay a one-time certification fee that includes Data science handbooks, online learning, digital badging and credential-kit.

Check the certificate link to know more on eligibility requirements and certification process.

EMC DSA Certification – Dell

Dell acquired storage leader EMC in late 2016 and came up with a data science associate professional certification program.

The EMC DSA certification allows data science professionals to acquire experience and knowledge when you are working in big data or other data analytics project.

The Data Science Certificate – Harvard Extension

The professional graduate certificate in data science requires you to complete one statistics course, two electives and one data science course.

Also, the average cost for completing this data science certificate online is $11,000.

Might be a bit costly, but if you really need to take this certificate as your job profile demands it or you are venturing into the field of data science , in either case, it is totally worth the investment.

It takes on an average 1.5 years to three years to complete all the 4 courses online.

In case you want a master degree in data science online, check their data science degree program.