Hint: start with the free stuff

If you desire to learn a recent skill in Data Science, it may well be really tough to choose which course to take.

Once I was searching for my first online Data Science coding course in 2019, I couldn’t recover from this sense of and I spent way too long trying to choose between different options. Then, after I finally made a choice and spent £20 on a course, I soon found that it was the unsuitable one for me, and I didn’t even finish it.

In line with research, I’m not the just one — studies by the Open University (2015) and ResearchGate (2018) have estimated that completion rates of online courses will be as little as 3%.

Yep, 3%.

Since my disastrous first attempt in 2019, I’ve taken (and finished!) many other courses and have learned vital lessons about the right way to pick the correct course and maximise its value. In this text, I’ll share a few of the very best courses I’ve taken and share 5 key considerations that I exploit to assist me determine between courses. That is the recommendation I wish I’d heard back in 2019, and, if it’s helpful for you, it will mean loads when you clicked my ‘Follow’ button — only one% of my readers do!

One among the largest misnomers I’ve encountered amongst Data Science learners is that $$$ courses = higher courses.

Truth be told, nonetheless, a few of the very best resources are completely free. Free platforms like YouTube, freeCodeCamp and Towards Data Science host 1000’s of high-quality online courses covering virtually every data skill, they usually’re at all times my first port of call every time I would like to learn something. Because they’re free, it’s very easy to “try before you purchase,” which suggests they’re a terrific method to test the course’s suitability before you commit to spending money or embarking on the entire course.

For instance, after I needed to learn git/GitHub in 2021, I attempted a bunch of various free courses on YouTube and eventually selected this one by Tech With Tim. It was short (40 mins), free, and had a lot of social proof (high views/rankings), and covered all the pieces that I needed to get me up and running. For those who’re starting a recent topic from…