Data science is a rapidly growing tech field that’s transforming business decision-making. To break into this field, you need the right skills. Fortunately, top institutions like Harvard and IBM offer free online courses. These courses cover everything from basic programming to advanced machine learning. In this article, we’ve listed some of the best free courses from Harvard and IBM. They are great for beginners and intermediate learners who want to boost their data science skills.
Harvard’s CS50’s Introduction to Programming with Scratch is a great starting point for anyone with zero programming experience. It uses Scratch, a visual programming language where you create code by dragging and dropping graphical blocks—ideal for beginners.
Course Overview
Functions: Instructions that perform specific tasks.
Return Values: Results provided by functions.
Conditions: Logic that decides if actions should happen.
Loops: Repeat certain actions.
Variables: Store information.
Course Features
Helps you create animations, games, and interactive art.
Prepares you for advanced programming in languages like Java and Python.
Enrollment Details
Free course with an option to get a certificate for $299.
Part of Harvard’s broader CS50 curriculum.
Checkout the this free Harvard data science courses here.
2. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence with Python
This course dives into artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) with Python. It’s designed for those who want to get hands-on with AI.
Course Overview
Graph Search Algorithms: Navigate data structures.
Reinforcement Learning: Learn how agents make decisions based on rewards and penalties.
Machine Learning Principles: Explore techniques that help systems learn from data.
Designing Intelligent Systems: Learn to build systems that think and learn.
Course Features
Understand AI concepts and algorithms.
Be proficient in Python for AI.
Work on machine learning libraries and design intelligent systems.
Enrollment Details
The course also offers a verified certificate for $299.
You can find more details of this Harvard free data science courses here.
3. Introduction to Data Science with Python
This course focuses on teaching practical skills in data science using Python. It gives you hands-on experience solving real-world problems.
Learning Outcome
Coding in Python for statistics and modeling.
Working with libraries like Pandas, NumPy, and Matplotlib.
Running machine learning models like linear regression and classification models.
Enrollment Details
A certificate is available for $299.
Click here to explore this Harvard free data science course.
4. Machine Learning and AI with Python
In this course, you’ll dive deeper into machine learning techniques and their applications.
Learning Outcome
Build and evaluate machine learning models.
Understand decision trees, random forests, and gradient boosting.
Identify and reduce data bias in machine learning models.
This course teaches the basics of effective data visualization using the R programming language and ggplot2 package. You’ll learn to communicate data-driven insights through visuals.
Learning Outcome
Create custom plots.
Analyze real-world data from health, economics, and infectious diseases.
Whether you’re a complete beginner or looking to upskill your data science knowledge, these free courses from Harvard and IBM can be really helpful. So, pick the course that fits your goals and start your data science journey today!
Data Analyst with over 2 years of experience in leveraging data insights to drive informed decisions. Passionate about solving complex problems and exploring new trends in analytics. When not diving deep into data, I enjoy playing chess, singing, and writing shayari.