Ready to learn coding or data science?
Like many of us, your 2023 New Year’s resolution may include learning new skills or obtaining a new credential. Keeping your skills up to date is one of the best things you can do to remain in demand and also have a job you enjoy. The web offers many choices for either free or paid classes.
Online Learning
Coursera
Best known for high-tech courses, Coursera is a platform to find self-paced classes and entire degree programs from leading universities and companies. Most have no pre-requisites. You will find Data Science, Databases, Computer Science, Machine Learning, and other specialties. If you want to complete a credential that will be respected by top employers, Coursera is the place for you.
Udemy
If you’re looking for courses with reviews from students for a wide range of either professional topics or personal development like music, cooking, photography, Udemy has it all. Courses on Udemy tend to be offered by individual experts, rather than educational institutions. Their platform has reviews so you can drill into the best course for your goals.
Skillshare
Skillshare classes are created by individuals and lean toward creative skills desirable for a career as an online entrepreneur. Writing, copy editing, youtube video editing, ebook publishing, etc. Courses by experts who have been there.
EdX
Begun as a consortium of top universities like Harvard and MIT that wanted to make more of their learning opportunities available online, the EdX platform now spans other classes and has some personal development and personal interest courses.
Coding bootcamps
If a more immersive experience is more your style, to learn software development and other tech topics, a bootcamp might be the right choice for you. Rather than learning one topic at a time in individual semester-long courses, a coding bootcamp typically has students build working prototypes in a 3 to 6 month timeframe through intensive hands-on learning that brings together a variety of technical topics.
This is a burgeoning educational market and making a choice of course providers can be tough. Enter Switchup, who gathered a guide for ratings and descriptions of dozens of bootcamps. Some are fully online and others offer a hybrid option. If you have the choice, I recommend starting with in-person instruction and labs for the first few weeks at least to get your footing if it’s your first time learning coding.
A couple of well respected programs:
University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill
If you know of other sites you recommend for online training courses, please tell us in the comments.