So, you want to find the best online course for data analytics. Many online courses claim they will teach you this skill but finding the right one can be tough.
This post is a good place to start your search for an answer. It features some of the top online data analytics programs and also includes information on which skills these courses cover, as well as how much time it takes to complete each one.
Table of Contents
Best Online Course for Data Analytics
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate
The Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate provides you with the skills to become a data analyst without having to spend four years at college studying math and statistics. This program includes more than 180 hours of instruction and hundreds of practice-based assessments, which will help you simulate real-world scenarios that are critical for success in your workplace.
This Certificate will help you gain a broad understanding of the entire field of data analytics, as well as allow you to explore different areas that interest you. You’ll learn how to work with large sets of data using tools like SQL and Tableau, clean messy datasets, analyze text patterns in spreadsheets and perform statistical analysis.
The four courses in this certificate program cover everything from basic statistics through advanced data set manipulation with methods that are used by Google engineers on a daily basis. Each course also includes practice problems designed by industry experts that will help prepare you for working with real-world datasets at your current place of employment or when you land a new job as a junior data analyst.
Time Commitment
6 Months
10 Hours/week
Udacity Data Analyst Nanodegree
The Udacity Data Analyst Nanodegree Program will help you master the skills needed to work with complex datasets using the Python programming language, one of the hottest tech skills today.
Udacity’s new Data Analyst Nanodegree program addresses the core competencies you need to be a successful data analyst head-on.
This course starts slow and covers the basics of statistics, machine learning, and more.
Then it moves into how to use Python and Tableau, giving you a strong foundation in data analysis fundamentals. You’ll also learn how to create compelling visualizations that tell a story with data.
The Data Analyst Nanodegree then steps into more complex topics involving Python and SQL together as well as how inferential statistics can help you make sense of complex data sets.
Then you will learn how to apply supervised learning models, such as decision trees, logistic regression, random forests, and neural networks; all while building real-world projects that will help you put these concepts into practice immediately
If your goal is to start a career as a data analyst working with big data, this is your chance to learn cutting-edge tools and technologies through a project-based curriculum in collaboration with Kaggle experts who have worked on data science competitions spanning multiple industries
Best of all, the Udacity Data Analyst Nanodegree program can help you become a successful data analyst in just 4 months with a set of challenging projects graded by mentors with real-world experience.
Plus, after completing this course, you’ll also have all the skills you’ll need to move on to more advanced Udacity programs including the Machine Learning Engineer Nanodegree.
Time Commitment
4 Months
10 Hours/week
Georgia Tech Data Analytics for Business
Georgia Tech’s online course on Data Analytics for Business was designed by a team of experts in academia and industry with one goal in mind – to give people like you the skills needed to apply data analytics effectively at work…in just 10 weeks.
In this course you’ll learn how to use R – an open-source programming language for statistical analysis – and R Studio – an integrated development environment (IDE) for R – to ask questions about data, analyze it using basic techniques like descriptive statistics and regression, visualize your findings, and create interactive dashboards
The course covers all the fundamentals required by anyone who wants to be able to think carefully and systematically about how data and data analytics can improve business performance.
We’ve taken the time to review many of these other online courses, so we can confidently say that the Georgia Tech Data Analytics for Business MicroMasters Program is one of the best in this space.
Time Commitment
10 Weeks
10-12 Hours/week
Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization
The Johns Hopkins Data Science Specialization offers an in-depth introduction to the field. It’s designed for students of all levels, from beginners who have never touched code before to experienced data scientists looking to sharpen their skills.
Johns Hopkins has designed this online course to teach you everything you need to know about data science. This 10-course specialization includes video lectures from top professors as well as interactive coding exercises using the R programming language.
The specialization covers everything you need to know to become a true data scientist, including R programming fundamentals, getting and cleaning data sets, and exploratory analysis techniques with a focus on visualizing data.
It also covers the basics of regression analysis and inference using regression models such as linear or logistic regression, clustering algorithms (k-means), recommendation systems (collaborative filtering), deep learning methods (neural networks), text mining, and more
In addition, you’ll also learn how to use GitHub for managing projects and sharing code so you can get real-world experience working with industry-standard tools used every day in fortune 500 companies.
Finally, this specialization culminates in a capstone project where students must apply their knowledge by analyzing datasets gathered from web APIs to solve real-world challenges facing academia, governments, and industries.
Time Commitment
11 Months
7 Hours/week
Applied Data Science with Python Specialization – University of Michigan
The Applied Data Science with Python Specialization course was designed by experts from the University of Michigan for people who want to learn how to apply data science techniques in real-world scenarios.
This specialization will walk you through five projects that will help you develop your programming skills and introduce you to important concepts like machine learning and natural language processing.
If you are looking for an applied approach to learning data science then this course specialization is right for you. This 5-course online program will teach you everything from basic Python programming techniques all the way through building your own machine learning models with scikit-learn.
Each course in this specialization was specifically designed so that they build upon one another as you progress through them – so if you decide to take on the challenge of learning a new programming language we can assure you that it won’t be boring or overwhelming at any point along the way.
Time Commitment
5 Months
7 Hours/week
IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate
The IBM Data Analyst Professional Certificate is an online course that will help you learn how to take full advantage of complex data sets with Python libraries like Pandas and Numpy.
This certificate offers 9 courses designed by IBM experts which cover topics such as data wrangling and data mining. It also teaches you how to visualize data with Python libraries like Matplotlib and how to build dashboards with IBM Cognos Analytics.
With this professional certificate from Coursera, you’ll gain a foundational understanding of analytical tools used in businesses today.
Some of the key topics you will learn about include representing data with different types of charts, plotting techniques in Excel, and you’ll also work with databases using SQL queries.
Plus, this certification was created by industry experts at IBM who have worked on projects involving data analytics for Fortune 500 companies across various industries including retail, healthcare & education sectors, etc…
So, if you are looking to build the skills to apply for a junior data analyst position, or if you want to pursue further studies then this course covers everything you need to get a leg up in the competitive data analytics field.
Time Commitment
11 Months
3 Hours/week
University of Amsterdam Data Analytics for Lean Six Sigma
The University of Amsterdam’s Data Analytics for Lean Six Sigma online course will teach you everything you need to know about data analytics for Lean Six Sigma improvement projects.
You will learn how to interpret your results using Minitab software, which is an industry-standard tool for analyzing and visualizing data sets in many industries (including healthcare).
At the end of this course, you will have all the skills needed to analyze your own real-life problem with proper statistical techniques.
Whether you’re taking a 6-sigma certification or just want to be able to read data from your projects, this course will get you up to speed with what’s possible in the world of lean six sigma data analytics.
Time Commitment
11 Hours
University of Illinois Data Analytics Foundations for Accountancy I
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Data Analytics Foundations for Accountancy program will help you learn the skills you need to become proficient with data analytics.
This course is designed for accountants who want to quickly learn how to use the Python programming language and other tools such as Pandas, Numpy, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Scikit-Learn, and SQL databases.
Best of all, you will gain practical experience using these tools by solving real-world problems encountered in a business environment. By the end of this specialization, students will have developed expertise in both advanced statistical techniques as well as powerful data visualization capabilities.
If you want an edge over other students in your accounting program and are committed to pursuing a career as a data analyst or accountant then this is the right choice for you. With this courses expert instructors, top-notch curriculum, and convenient learning format, you will be getting access to the best online data analytics course for accountants available today
Time Commitment
66 Hours
UCDavis Health Information Literacy for Data Analytics Specialization
The UCDavis Health Information Literacy for Data Analytics Specialization provides students with both foundational knowledge and practical skills needed to succeed in analyzing healthcare data. This specialization will help you make sense out of big health care datasets so you can take action on them to improve patient outcomes, quality, efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and more.
This online course will provide you with an in-depth understanding of health informatics and how to use it to improve healthcare delivery. You’ll also learn about current trends in technology as well as best practices for managing patient care, and you’ll gain hands-on experience by working on projects that will help you better communicate healthcare decisions with your newfound data literacy.
Best of all, upon completion of this specialization, you’ll be prepared to enter high-demand careers across a wide range of positions in the healthcare sector.
Time Commitment
4 Months
3 Hours/week
University of Adelaide Big Data Analytics
The University of Adelaide’s Online Course in Big Data Analytics will teach you the fundamentals of how to use advanced machine learning techniques that can be applied to any business problem.
This course covers topics like how to identify patterns in your data using probabilistic and statistical models using highly scalable open-source big data frameworks.
This fully online course will teach you how to use RStudio and sparklyr (an interface between RStudio and Apache Spark) for machine learning tasks on big data sets.
You’ll also learn about supervised learning methods like linear regression, logistic regression, decision trees, random forests, and deep neural networks as well as how to use sparklyr and H2O to train deep neural networks.
The University of Adelaide online course on Big Data Analytics will give you all the tools and knowledge you need to get started as quickly as possible. If you’re interested in learning more about all this course has to offer, click here to read the full syllabus.
Time Commitment
10 Weeks
8-10 Hours/week
UCSan Diego Big Data Analytics Using Spark
UCSan Diego’s Big Data Analytics Using Spark will teach you how to leverage PySpark within Jupyter notebooks for performing all kinds of data analysis using the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS).
UCSan Diego’s Big Data Analytics Using Spark gives you the opportunity to learn how to use powerful big data technologies like Apache Spark and Scala.
You’ll also learn about the tradeoffs involved in choosing between various computational models and algorithms, as well as how best to clean your datasets before analyzing them.
Plus, this course will go over some advanced techniques for modeling your data through machine learning methods like classification and regression analysis using MLlib.
This course offers hours of video lectures and interactive assignments designed by renowned instructors from UC San Diego that will teach you everything you need to know about Hadoop/Spark/Scala so you can ace your next job interview or get promoted into a new higher-paying position.
Time Commitment
10 Weeks
8-10 Hours/week
Columbia University Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics
Columbia University’s Statistical Thinking for Data Science and Analytics Online Course will help you become a better problem solver by learning how to recognize patterns in data. You’ll be able to use this knowledge when analyzing social media posts, marketing campaigns, customer behavior trends, etc.
Plus, the skills learned in this course can be used in any industry that deals with large amounts of information such as healthcare, education, finance, etc.
This course provides all the knowledge and practical experience needed for anyone interested in becoming an entry-level data scientist. The instructors in this course will guide you through all of the necessary steps from understanding statistics basics (means, medians, modes), moving on to probability theory and Bayes rule, then finally you’ll learn how to use this information to build predictive models using linear regression analysis.
Time Commitment
4 Weeks
9-12 Hours/week
Getting Started with Data Analytics on AWS
Getting Started with Data Analytics on AWS will walk you through all the steps needed to get started with AWS data analytics using Athena, S3, Cloudtrail, and QuickSight.
This BigData Micromasters will cover everything from how to develop big data algorithms and scale your workflows across the AWS platform.
By the end of this course, you will understand at a high level how cloud-based data analytics works as well as have hands-on experience with common datasets used by analysts today.
Time Commitment
1 Week
1-4 Hours/week
RIT Data Analytics and Visualization in Health Care
RIT offers the most comprehensive online data analytics course for healthcare professionals. This course covers everything from current market forces affecting the industry to best practices when it comes to collecting data and analyzing it with industry-leading software.
RIT’s Data Analytics and Visualization in Health Care will teach you how to extract and analyze complex data sets while providing best practices for visualization so you can easily identify trends in your data.
This course also covers artificial intelligence (AI) and its implications on extraction and analysis of complex data sets as well as visualizations including dashboards, maps, graphs, tables, etc.
In the end, by taking this course you will be better prepared to create complex data visualizations using common healthcare data sets.
Time Commitment
8 Week
8-10 Hours/week
AWS Certified Data Analytics Specialty
The AWS Certified Data Analytics Specialty exam is a difficult test to pass. It’s also very important for your career and certifications are always great to have on your resume.
Too many people fail the AWS Certified Data Analytics Specialty exam, and it’s not because they don’t know how to solve problems. It’s that they have no idea what kind of questions will be asked on the test.
The biggest problem is that most people study for this exam without any context or guidance about where to focus their time studying. This leads them to waste countless hours reading through irrelevant material. They end up with a deep knowledge of topics like RDS, S3, and DynamoDB instead of practical skills related to data analytics using these services.
This course will help you pass the AWS Certified Data Analytics Specialty Exam with flying colors. The instructors have put together an extensive set of videos that walk through every single question type on this certification exam so that you can get in some quality practice time without having to look at another book or website ever again.
Best of all, this course is very affordable for students on a budget since it’s usually on sale for under $20 on Udemy
