Top Free Online Data Science Courses for 2024

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We are 3 months away from the new year. Wow, time passes quickly. That being said, how many of you can say that you are on the right track to achieving your goals, whether they are first quarter goals, learning goals, etc.?

It's hard. It's hard to stay on top of everything and achieve all your goals.

If learning data science was one of your 2024 goals, KDNuggets is here to help make your journey to learning new skills and changing careers a smooth one.

I have put together a list of FREE online data science courses that will help you build a solid foundation of data science knowledge, skills, and best practices to have a great career in the world of data.

Of: Data Camp

Link: Understand data science

If you are new to the world of data science, the first thing you need to understand is the basics. With no coding required, this free course will define what data science is.

You'll dive deeper into what a data science workflow is and how data science is applied to real-world problems. Once you have a good understanding of the field, you will end up learning about the different roles within the data science field.

Of: Harvard University

Link: Introduction to programming with Python

Have you decided to choose Python as your programming language? Great idea.

It's been a popular programming language for some time and now you can learn it with this self-paced course that will take you approximately 10 weeks to complete. This course has been designed specifically for students who have no prior programming experience or knowledge and want to transition into the world of data science by learning Python.

The following topics are covered: functions, variables, conditionals, loops, exceptions, libraries, unit testing, file I/O, regular expressions, object-oriented programming, and more.

Of: Data Camp

Link: Python Data Science Toolbox

As it has been the most popular programming language for a few years now, there is nothing wrong in perfecting the Python programming language.

With no coding experience or skills required, Part 1 of the Python Data Science Toolbox course teaches you how to effectively analyze and visualize your data. With 13 videos included in this course, you'll move from data manipulation to data plotting with Matplotlib.

Of: Harvard University

Link: Data Science: R Basics

Maybe you haven't opted for Python and maybe you've decided to choose R as your programming language. Whatever you decide to do, it's always good to start with the basics. Harvard University offers a Data Science: R Fundamentals course that helps you build a solid foundation in the R programming language, from learning to organizing, analyzing, and visualizing data.

The course is free; however, you can pay for a verified certificate for $149.

Of: stanford online

Link: Statistical learning

I say it all the time and I will say it again: it is very important to learn about statistics in data science. This edX statistical learning course will provide you with the main tools used in statistical modeling and data science.

Covers the following topics: an overview of statistical learning, linear regression, classification, resampling methods, linear model selection and regularization, going beyond linearity, tree-based methods, support vector machines, deep learning , survival modeling, unsupervised learning and multiple testing.

Of: Google

Link: Google data analysis

You've probably heard a lot about this course: it's very popular. It consists of 8 sections, where you will learn about daily data usage, best practices, and processes you should expect in your new data science/analytics jobs.

You will learn how to clean and organize data for the analysis process and perform calculations using spreadsheets, SQL programming and R. It doesn't stop there, you will improve your analytical skills by creating data visualizations and also learning about tools like Tableau.

Of: Coursera

Link: Specialization in machine learning

This course has been developed by Andrew Ng, Founder and CEO of Landing ai, Founder of deeplearning.ai, and Co-President and Co-Founder of Coursera. He has built a machine learning specialization made up of 3 courses:

These courses are free; however, there is a fee if you wish to become certified.

These 7 courses will help you develop skills in different aspects of data science, to ensure you have the skills and knowledge you need to be great at your job in data science.

For example, working to master the Python programming language or the R programming language. Understand the importance of learning statistics in data science and how it affects the analysis process. Last but not least, put everything together and apply it to machine learning, for example, regression and recommendations.

Happy learning!

nisha arya is a data scientist, freelance technical writer, and KDnuggets editor and community manager. She is particularly interested in providing professional data science advice or tutorials and theory-based insights into data science. Nisha covers a wide range of topics and wants to explore the different ways in which artificial intelligence can benefit the longevity of human life. Nisha, a great student, seeks to expand her technological knowledge and her writing skills, while she helps mentor others.