If you’re interested in learning Data Science, you’ve probably heard about the traditional way of doing it — by taking expensive courses at a university. But what if you don’t have a lot of time or money to spend?
Luckily, you don’t have to spend a lot of time or money to learn Data Science. There are many free resources available online, including helpful interactive tutorials, online courses, and videos.
Here are a few to get you started!
What Is Data Science?
Data Science is a multidisciplinary course that helps you gather more insights from vast amounts and increasing volumes of data that organizations collect.
Data Science involves preparing and performing Data Analysis and consequently showing the results to reflect common behaviors and patterns in business for stakeholders to understand business and make decisions.
Data scientists cleanse, aggregate, and manipulate data to prepare for different types of analytical processes.
Data Analysis involves developing and using several AI models, algorithms, and analytical tools driven by various software, which go through extensive, massive chunks of data to reveal patterns and behaviors.
These patterns are then converted to forecasts and analyses, which are used to make decisions in a business and test new mechanisms.
What Does a Data Scientist Do?
The previous section shows that a scientist’s work revolves around many computer sciences and pure science skills. They are way more technologically advanced than a Data Analyst. A data scientist does the following regularly:
- They apply mathematics, statistics, and scientific methods to large chunks of data
- Then, they use a plethora of techniques and software for preparing and evaluating data. This includes everything from SQL to data mining and data integration
- Using predictive data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), like machine learning and deep learning, they produce insights into the data
- They also create applications that can make data processing and calculations automatic and easy
- Data scientists also help illustrate the meaning of the analysis results to those who run the business, like stakeholders who may not have the technical know-how to understand data
- They explain how different insights from data can be leveraged to help solve various business problems
Why Become a Data Scientist?
There are several reasons why you should become a data scientist. The benefits are never-ending, and it is the best career option for people into data analytics and science.
A few reasons we could list for why you should become a data scientist include the following:
- If you have a passion for mathematics, statistics, or science and are familiar with languages like Python and SQL
- If you like working with large volumes of data and extract insights from them
- The pay is impressive, and data scientists have a lot of work perks
- If you are someone who has the power to draw conclusions or spot patterns in vast data chunks
- You get to make a massive impact on the company’s decisions
- Your work will never become monotonous; you will keep exploring different pieces of data, draw new patterns, new conclusions
- You acquire several skills along the way
How Much Python Do I Need to Know to Enter Data Science?
Most people beginning their career in Data Science or who wish to pursue a career in the same field often have the required Python knowledge.
You need to learn at least one language out of R or Python. But you’ll also have to learn a bit of SQL irrespective of the programming language you pick.
You can learn a lot as you go about your job. However, you need to have a more than average, if not advanced, proficiency in Python to help you in your Data Science career.
How To Become a Data Scientist
There are several ways you can become a data scientist. For starters, you can join a course in your school or university entirely inclined towards Data Sciences. They will provide you the proper course structure to pave the path in Data Science.
However, if you are already done with college and wish to explore a new field, or if you want to try out Data Science while studying another course, you can go for several online courses on the internet.
These courses have videos, assignments, and tests to help you gather more knowledge in Data Science.
16 Free Courses to Learn Data Science
If you are looking to learn Data Science online for free, you have come to the perfect place. We have curated a list of 16 free online courses you can sign up for.
These courses will walk you through Data Science, right from the basics to the advanced levels.
Free Courses on Coursera
- IBM Data Science
- Taught by: International Business Machines
- Offers: Professional Certificate
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- IBM Data Analyst
- Taught by: IBM
- Offers: Professional Certificate
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- Machine Learning
- Taught by: Stanford University
- Offers: Professional Certificate
- Rating: 4.9 out of 5 stars.
- Level: Mixed
- Data Science Math Skills
- Taught by: Duke University
- Offers: Professional Certificate
- Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- Introduction to Web Development
- Taught by: University of California, Davis
- Offers: Professional Certificate
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars.
- Level: Beginner
- Data Science Fundamentals with Python and SQL
- Taught by: IBM
- Offers: Specialisation
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- Applied Data Science with Python
- Taught by: University of Michigan
- Offers: Specialization
- Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
- Level: Intermediate
- Python and Statistics for Financial Analysis
- Taught by: The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
- Rating: 4.4 out of 5 stars
- Level: Intermediate
- SQL for Data Science
- Taught by: University of California, Davis
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- Computer Science: Programming with a Purpose
- Taught by: Princeton University
- Rating: 4.7 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- Machine Learning for All
- Taught by: University of London
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
- Introduction to Business Analytics: Communicating with Data
- Taught by: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
- Rating: 4.6 out of 5 stars
- Level: Intermediate
- Python for Everybody
- Taught by: University of Michigan
- Offers: Professional Certificate
- Rating: 4.8 out of 5 stars
- Level: Beginner
Free Courses on Data Camp Website
- Introduction to Python
- Taught by: Data Scientist Hugo Bowne-Anderson
- Duration: 4 hours
- What you learn: Basics of Data Analysis in Python and scientific computing with NumPy
- Intermediate Python
- Taught by: Data Scientist Hugo Bowne-Anderson
- Duration: 4 hours
- What you learn: Creating visualizations using Matplotlib and using pandas to manipulate DataFrames
- Data Manipulation with Pandas
- Taught by: Richie Cotton, Curriculum Architect at DataCamp
- Duration: 4 hours
- What you learn: Using Python to manipulate data and calculate summary stats
Summing Up
This article walked you through all the courses available online for free. Yes, no costs at all!
Of course, you can sign up for Data Science classes in your university or register for paid online coaching courses. But the courses mentioned here are no less when it comes to knowledge and developing the skills for this field.
Happy learning!
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