Best online courses on Data Analytics: Training/Certification

“Data is the new Gold” 

Don’t just believe me, ask tech titans like Facebook, Amazon, and Google how they make billions milking and analyzing your data and use that information to sell you products, and services you require the most.

But that’s just one aspect of Data science, It has its roots everywhere from Ecological surveys to stock market to scientific research. 

Comprehending, and analyzing raw data is an art more marketable than any other skill in the digital world and lucky for you, there are multiple online mediums you can learn Data Analytics from, that too from industry professionals, I’ll tell you how later in this article and will set a clear road map for you to follow, so make sure you read till the end.

Why learn Data analytics? 

Whether it’s for improving the customer experience or to outrun competitors in sales, every good company requires a Data Analyst to draw results out of bulk data incomprehensible to everyone else in the room. Data analytics may be new but it’s the hottest domain to expertise in the current market. 

It also exposes you to many other interlinked duties including Project management, Sales optimization, and Prototype testing. These additional experiences clear your path to a better job role making you a jack of all trades.

Needless to say, the Data Science skills topped up with certification will make your resume shine in a different light as well.

There’s a never-ending list of online courses on Data analytics on the Internet, but you don’t have to go through all that.

We’ve assembled the top online courses on Data analytics for you to get started;

• Beginner’s guide to Data analytics: Udemy

The world of Data is vast and many jumping into it without a proper guide lose track eventually giving up on their goal to become Data science experts.

The Beginner’s guide to Data analytics offered on Udemy is where you should start learning about data, it’s scope, strategies and tools used for analysis. 

The very selling point of this course is proving resources and guidance that have been unavailable for decades making it a great struggle for newcomers to get started with Data analytics. 

• Contents:

The course is a 90 minutes boot camp training that familiarises you with the concept of Data, Its types, Pipelines, Tools and terminologies used by industry experts.

• Booklet of fundamentals 
• Introduction to Data Analytics 
• Data analytics vs Data science 
• Data tools
• Movement of data: Pipelines 
• Steps to become an analyst 

• Advantages:
  •  Access to the fundamentals booklet
  • Certification 
  • Lifetime access 

• Disadvantages:
  • Nothing regarding SQL
  • Short span

• Best for whom:

Students intending to start their career in Data analytics and anyone seeking a career change should most certainly enroll in this online Data analytics course

• Pricing: $45

Learn more: https://www.udemy.com/course/learndata/

• Introduction to Data Analytics for beginners: Simplilearn

If you wish to build a steady understanding of Data sciences to use it in your professional life but don’t like too much theory, Simplilearn has brought the Introduction of Data Analytics for people just like you.

The course concentrates more on the real life case studies and practical work rather than engaging you with boring notions that make you sleep. It includes mini lectures that cover basics of Data analytics including terminologies, Perimeters, tools, and frameworks.

• Contents:

The course has a unique activity based learning approach that allows you to not just Learn but have fun learning Data science.

• data types
• Frequency analysis 
• Data visualization
• Data science methods of Analytics
• Data Frameworks
• Data trends

• Advantages:
  • Different plans for teams and individuals
  • Challenges, case studies, and activities 
  • Certification 

• Disadvantages:
  • Concepts too compressed 
  • Only self assessment 

• Best for whom:

This course is for people who want to get a thorough understanding of Data science to improve their business culture or to enhance their skill sets for better jobs. 

• Pricing: $95.99 Rs

Learn more: https://www.simplilearn.com/introduction-to-data-analytics-training-course

• Learning Data analytics: Linkedin Learning

It is a standard course for everyone who deals with data representation, and analysis. The instructor Robin Hunt is a master analytic serving multiple big brands to get better results by refining and optimizing various departments using data science. 

In this online Data analytics course, Robin shares her secrets of a successful and fulfilling career in data analytics, and covers everything a newcomer needs to know. 

The course is centred around Microsoft Excel to mine, inspect and analyse data and requires you to know at least the basics of Excel. 

• Contents:

The Linkedin Data analytics training contains the following;

• Introduction 
• Roles of a data analyst
• Fields, syntax, and types
• Data interpretation 
• Repurposing and comparing data
• Charts and representations

• Advantages:
  • Quick and interactive 
  • Excel based course
  • Q&As and communities

• Disadvantages:
  • Not generalistic 
  • Lacks practicals

• Best for whom: 

Professionals working on excel to analyse data or create infographics for team meetings willing to learn secrets and strategies taught nowhere else.

• Pricing: $29.99/month

Learn more: https://www.linkedin.com/learning/learning-data-analytics-2/defining-data-analysis-and-data-analyst

• Business Analytics Specialization: Coursera

Business analysis specialization offered by the University of Pennsylvania and digitally conducted on Coursera is a set of 4 Data analytics courses curated in order to teach business owners and executives how to manipulate data to predict the best course of action for business operations like recruiting, financing, and marketing. 

The specialization is a Data literacy program that will enable you to confidently assess and understand complex data structures that shape a business. 

There are 5 courses each touching a specific notion of business data analytics. Out of these 5 courses, the first 3 courses require no prior knowledge. 

• Content:

The specialization contains the following courses packed with value and guidance:

• Customer analysis 
• Operation analysis 
• People analysis 
• Business analysis 
• Analytics for Business capstone 

• Advantages:
  • Multiple instructors
  • Real life projects and assessment 
  • Certification by the University of Pennsylvania 

• Disadvantages:
  • Gets too technical after the 3rd course
  • No basic knowledge of Excel is shared

• Best for whom:

Businesses and executives struggling to achieve their full potential due to a lack of data analytics in their business model should enroll in this online Data analytics course 

• Pricing: $399/ year for all courses

Learn more: https://www.coursera.org/specializations/business-analytics

• Pluralsight Hands on data analysis course:

Many learners, whether individually or in teams don’t like to invest their time and money in a lot of different courses to master one skill. If you’re one of them, Pluralsight will perfectly fit your needs. 

This course is designed to take you from novice to master in a matter of a couple of weeks. The course starts with the very basics of Excel and slowly takes you to the advanced arena of Data analytics where you will be introduced to complex technical concepts such as SQL, visual data charts, data modeling, and big data analysis. 

• Content:

The videos, especially the ones opening any particular section are kept very short so that you can take this online data analytics course even if you have a hectic schedule. 

• Data analytics introduction 
• What is Excel 
• Using Excel
• Analysing and Massaging data 
• Database
• SQL
• Warehousing 
• Big data analysis

• Advantages: 
  • All in one Data analytics course 
  • Visually rich content
  • Extremely specific 

• Disadvantages:
  • Fast paced
  • Updated rarely 

• Best for whom

I would suggest this courses to students studying data formally and data professional who need a total recall of data analytics quickly 

• Pricing: $29/month

Learn more: https://www.pluralsight.com/courses/data-analytics-hands-on

• Business Analytics Nanodegree-Udacity:

In terms of support and student guidance, Udacity has been my favorite for years.

Udacity has tie ups with top companies and enterprises that allows you to work on projects the companies deal with in real life to build your experience before you enter the corporate Data world. 

It’s more like an internship than a course. Your assignments are all checked by Professional practitioners who correct your mistakes and provide constructive feedback to you. That’s not all, once you finish this course, you get access to Udacity’s career guidance cell. Udacity’s expert career coaches guide you how and where you can apply your newly learned data analytics skills to land a great job and make a living.

• Content:

Each of the following segments come with a project to complete:

• Introduction and welcome 
• Data analytics and possibilities
• SQL
• Data visualization 
• Data charts on tableau

• Advantages: 
  • Excellent and fast student support
  • Direct expert assessment 
  • Real life practical assignments 
  • Certification 

• Disadvantages:
  • Only experience based
  • Offered in one language 

• Best for whom:

This is one of the best online courses on Data analytics for people who want to prepare themselves for a Data analyst’s job

• Pricing: $500 for 3 months on discount 

Learn more: https://www.udacity.com/course/business-analytics-nanodegree–nd098

• Big data analysis: Edx

If you work with huge data sets and are responsible for making right predictions for businesses, industries, and markets by analysing the data, you should absolutely take the Big data analysis course available on EDx.

It’s an Intermediate and Advanced level course that deals with a fair amount of coding, matrix, regressions, and dataframe models. Hence it goes without saying that it soon turns very technical and complex. I wouldn’t suggest newbies jump into this course before reading the qualifications on the EDx website. 

• Content:

The course is powered by University of Adelaide, a trusted name in Data science industry:

• Regressions 
• Data modelling 
• Types of models and regressions 
• Predictive analysis 
• Big data
• Deep learning
• Machine Learning 

• Advantages:
  • Advanced training 
  • Certification  
  • Flexible and self paced

• Disadvantages:
  • Only available in English 
  • Too technical for non-professionals 

• Best for whom:

This online data analytics course is designed only for professionals already having a fair experience in Data analytics but struggling with predicting conclusions out of Big data.

• Pricing:
  • Free
  • Premium at $199 with certificate

Learn more: https://www.edx.org/course/big-data-analytics-2

• Introduction to Business Analytics – Ed2go

Who in the corporate world doesn’t want to make better decisions both for business and career. “Introduction to Business analysis” by Ed2go is one of the most appropriate courses to begin your journey to make better business decisions using the immense untapped potential of data analytics and calculated predictions. 

The course contains 24 hours of on demand video lectures that should ideally take 6 to 12 weeks to complete. It is divided into 11 major sections including financing, forecasting, surveying, and risk analysis 

• Content:

Here’s the following you will equip yourself with:

• Decision making 
• Probability 
• Surveying 
• Analysis of decisions 
• Forecasting
• Modelling
• Financial analysis 
• Management & Risk analysis 

• Advantages:
  • Detailed coverage 
  • Availability of an instructor 

• Disadvantages:
  • No access to necessary tools 
  • Inclined to theory

• Best for whom:

Business professionals who are seeking strategies to make right  and calculated decisions to optimize various departments and to generate maximum results.

• Pricing: $149

Learn more: https://www.ed2go.com/courses/business/operations/ilc/introduction-to-business-analysis

• Data analyst with R- Datacamp

For you coding enthusiasts who love solving real life problems with your programming skills, Datacamp has developed a Data Analyst course that will open numerous gates of opportunities. 

This online Data analytics course employs multiple versions of R to teach you how to store, refine, fatch, visualise and manipulate data to collect valuable information that will eventually be used in research, development, and strategy building.

The course is divided into 19 different sections called tracks, each track has an instructor and is several hours long.

• Content:
  • Introduction 
  • Intermediate R
  • Data manipulation 
  • Joining data
  • Data visualization 
  • Reporting
  • Data importing
  • Data cleansing 
  • Case studies 
  • SQL

• Advantages:
  • Extremely affordable 
  • Easy language 
  • Project practices
  • Certificate provided 

• Disadvantages:
  • Lengthy in span
  • No student community 

• Best for whom:

Basically coders and programmes who would like to explore more career options or want a career change are great candidates for this online Data analytics course. 

• Pricing: $12.42/month

Learn more: https://www.datacamp.com/tracks/data-analyst-with-r

Ok amigos!

It’s the end of our list of top online data analytics courses. 

As always, I’ll share pro tips to remember and my favorite picks from the list as a reward since you read this article from start to end.

Here’s my top 3 favorite online data analytics courses

1. Beginner’s guide to data analytics: Udemy

2. Udacity’s nanodegree program

3. Data analyst with R: Datacamp

How to choose:

• Assess your needs: what do you want to learn, your level, the time you can invest. Keep all this under consideration while making a choice. 
• The Budget: Everything at last boils down to how much money are you willing to spend to acquire the skill.

Learners with a small budget should get started with Udemy and further expand their skill on affordable platforms like Datacamp 

• Your goal: Some courses in the list above are focused towards theory while others are exclusively prepared to give you the industry experience. If all you want is to clear an interview, Pluralsight will work wonders for you but in case you need in-depth knowledge and experience, nothing beats Udacity’s nanodegree 

Hope what I shared was of value to you!

I wish you a happy journey in the world of Data.

Thank you.