15 Best Free Online Data Analytics Courses

1. Free Course Trial – Business Analytics Specialization by Wharton University (Coursera)

Duration: 4-6 weeks

This Specialization provides an introduction to big data analytics for all business professionals, including those with no prior analytics experience.

This course teaches students how data analysts describe, predict, and inform business decisions in the specific areas of marketing, human resources, finance, and operations.

Students will also develop basic data literacy and an analytic mindset that will help them make strategic decisions based on data.

In the final Capstone Project, students will apply their skills to interpret a real-world data set and make appropriate business strategy recommendations.

What you’ll learn:

Explain how data is used for recruiting and performance evaluation.
Model supply and demand for various business scenarios
Solve business problems with data-driven decision-making.
Understand the tools used to predict customer behavior.

2. Professional Certificate Course in Data Analytics (Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur)

Duration: 40 Hours

In this course, students will gain the skills to demystify data and strengthen their data analytics skills.

The course is delivered through live sessions by industry experts, hands-on labs, and live masterclasses from IIT Kanpur faculty.

This Data Analytics course in India prepares students to be data-driven while solving daily organizational problems and help create effective and dynamic business strategies.

Below are some of the key features of this program:

Program completion certificate from E&ICT Academy, IIT Kanpur
Masterclasses delivered by distinguished IIT Kanpur faculty
12+ hands-on projects aligned to various industry verticals
14+ practical tools and frameworks to bring positive impact to your work
Live sessions on the latest AI trends, such as generative AI, prompt engineering, explainable AI, and more.
Seamless access to integrated labs and capstone projects in 3 domains
Regular live online classes conducted by experienced industry experts

Skills Covered

Data Analytics
Statistical Analysis using Excel
Data Analysis using Python and R
Data Visualization Tableau and Power BI
Linear and logistic regression modules
Clustering using Kmeans
Supervised Learning

3. Free Course Trial – Marketing Analytics by University of Virginia (Coursera)

Duration: 3 weeks at 5 hours a week

This course gives students the tools to measure brand and customer assets, understand regression analysis, and design experiments as a way to evaluate and optimize marketing campaigns.

Students, after the completion of the course leave with a solid understanding of how to use marketing analytics to predict outcomes and systematically allocate resources.

What you’ll learn

How to build and define a brand architecture and how to measure the impact of marketing efforts on brand value over time.

How to measure customer lifetime value and use that information to evaluate strategic marketing alternatives

How to design basic experiments so that you can assess your marketing efforts and invest your marketing dollars most effectively.

How to set up regressions, interpret outputs, explore confounding effects and biases, and distinguish between economic and statistical significance

Below are the skills you’ll gain after completion of this program:

Marketing Experiments
Customer Lifetime Value
Regression Analysis
Marketing Analytics
Brand Equity

4. Post Graduate Program in Data Analytics by Purdue University (Simplilearn)

Duration: 11 months

In this course, students get to learn essential topics like Python, R, ML, Data Visualization, Generative AI, Explainable AI, ChatGPT, and more, using an interactive learning approach with live sessions led by global experts.

Below are some of the key features of this program:

Post Graduate Data Science certificate and Purdue alumni association membership
Generative AI and Prompt Engineering: Dedicated course with live sessions
Learn about ChatGPT, DALL-E, Midjourney & other prominent tools
Masterclasses delivered by Purdue faculty and IBM experts
Industry-relevant capstone projects in 3 domains
25+ hands-on projects with seamless access to integrated labs
Exclusive hackathons and Ask Me Anything sessions by IBM
8X higher engagement in live online classes by seasoned academics and industry professionals

Skills Covered

Generative AI
Prompt Engineering
ChatGPT
Explainable AI
Large Language Models
Explainable AI
Conversational AI
Exploratory Data Analysis
Descriptive Statistics
Inferential Statistics
Model Building and Fine Tuning
Supervised and Unsupervised Learning
Ensemble Learning
Data Visualization
Database Management

5. Business Analytics: From Data to Insights (Wharton Executive Education)

Duration: 3 months

This Wharton’s three-month online certificate program provides managers and leaders an understanding of how analytics can help improve their decision-making process.

The Business Analytics program is designed to give participants an understanding of how to look at data and identify insights, improve their ability to make long-term predictions, and prescribe future actions to help make better business decisions.

6. Applied Business Analytics (MIT Executive Education)

Duration: 6 weeks

In this program, you will learn a practical framework that includes data models, decisions, and value, building confidence in using data to improve decision-making.

Upon completion of Applied Business Analytics, you will know which analytics approach is the most appropriate for your situation, and more importantly, how to tackle big data and leverage it for better business outcomes.

This program is meant for anyone who wants to understand the business applications for analytics can benefit from this program, whether for a functional area of practice or for general management.

7. Predictive Analytics using Python by the University of Edinburgh (edX)

The University of Edinburgh offers a Predictive Analytics Using Python course on edX.

The course is designed for data analysts and data scientists to teach how to prepare data, using Python, for predictive modeling, data mining and advanced analytics using a range of statistical and machine learning methodologies on real-life datasets.

The course is part of the MicroMasters® program, which is an online postgraduate-level qualification offered through edX, designed to advance your career by providing deep learning in specific career fields.

The videos from the course have been open licensed and are freely available for learners to view, download, learn, and re-use.

8. Free Course Trial – Customer Analytics by Wharton University (Coursera)

Duration: 11 hours (approximately)

Wharton University offers a course on Customer Analytics on Coursera. The course is part of the Business Analytics Specialization and is taught in English.

The course is designed to provide an overview of key areas of customer analytics, including descriptive analytics, predictive analytics, prescriptive analytics, and their application to real-world business practices.

The course is taught by four of Wharton’s top marketing professors and includes 5 modules.

Students will gain a foundational understanding of customer analytics and learn how to make informed business decisions.

Skills you’ll gain

Predictive Analytics
Customer Analytics
Regression Analysis
Marketing Performance Measurement And Management

9. Marketing Analytics by Columbia Business School (edX)

Duration: The course is 12 weeks long and requires 8-10 hours of work per week.

Columbia University offers a course on Marketing Analytics on edX.

The course teaches students how to develop quantitative models that leverage business data, statistical computation, and machine learning to forecast sales and marketing impact for customer relationship management, market segmentation, value creation, communication, and monetization.

The prerequisites for the course are undergraduate probability, statistics, and calculus. Familiarity with R or a similar programming language is also recommended.

Skills acquired after the course:

Demand forecasting using customer-base models and statistical approaches
Market segmentation methods and best practices for identifying potential customer segments and focused targeting.
Computation of Customer Lifetime Value for analyzing customer, brand loyalty and forecasting revenue in the short and long run
Factors to consider while designing and introducing new products to the market
Calculating Optimal Pricing for products and services to get the best ROI
Assessing Marketing ROI for making better and data-driven decisions

10. Data Analytics bootcamp (university of maryland global campus)

Duration: 9 months

The Data Analytics Bootcamp with University of Maryland Global Campus offers an immersive, robust curriculum that assists students in developing analytical and technical skills needed for success in the field of data analytics.

Within the curriculum, students will master analytics and visualization tools like SQL, Microsoft Power BI, Excel, and Python.

And they will be able to demonstrate your skills through 20+ hands-on mini projects as well as a capstone project, ultimately creating a tangible portfolio that can be shared with prospective employers.

11. Introduction to Data Analytics by IBM (Coursera)

Duration: 31 hours

This course presents students with a gentle introduction to Data Analysis, the role of a Data Analyst, and the tools used in this job.

Students will learn about the skills and responsibilities of a data analyst and hear from several data experts sharing their tips & advice to start a career.

This course will also help students to differentiate between the roles of Data Analysts, Data Scientists, and Data Engineers.

What you’ll learn:

Explain what Data Analytics is and the key steps in the Data Analytics process.

Differentiate between different data roles such as Data Engineer, Data Analyst, Data Scientist, Business Analyst, and Business Intelligence Analyst

Describe the different types of data structures, file formats, and sources of data

Describe the data analysis process involving collecting, wrangling, mining, and visualizing data

Skills you’ll gain.

Data Science
Spreadsheet
Microsoft Excel
Data Analysis
Data Visualization (DataViz)

12. Advanced Business Analytics Specialization by University of Colorado Boulder (Coursera)

Duration: Approx. 19 hours

The Advanced Business Analytics Specialization is a 5-course series offered by the University of Colorado Boulder on Coursera.

The specialization is designed to help students gain practical skills in extracting and manipulating data using SQL code, executing statistical methods for descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analysis, and effectively interpreting and presenting analytic results.

The specialization is suitable for intermediate-level learners with no previous experience necessary.

Skills you’ll gain

Data Analysis
Data Visualization (DataViz)
Mathematical Optimization
SQL

13. Data Analytics Essentials (Texas McCombs)

Duration: 25-30 hours per week

This Data Analytics Essentials course is offered by the University of Texas at Austin.

The course is designed to equip students with the necessary skills to become a data analyst.

The program is 16 weeks long and includes expert online instruction, live sessions by industry experts, and three hands-on projects with specific industry-relevant applications.

The curriculum covers foundational concepts and major skills and tools required to excel as a data analyst, including Python foundations, business statistics, data visualization, and querying data with SQL.

Upon completion of the course, students will receive a certificate of completion from the University of Texas at Austin.

14. Data Analytics Job Guarantee Bootcamp (Springboard)

Duration: 6 months

Springboard offers a Data Analytics Bootcamp that provides practical skills for problem-solving and strategic thinking through the use of data and analytics. The course is designed to be completed in six months, part-time, and is 100% online.

The curriculum covers a wide range of topics, including Microsoft Excel for Business Analytics, Financial Analysis, Economics for Data Analysis, Statistics for Data Analysis, Visualization Tools, and more.

The course also includes AI learning units and an interactive learning series to help you develop the skills you need to succeed in the high-demand field of data analytics.

Springboard data analytics graduates have been hired by top companies such as Microsoft, Amazon, and Google.

15. Marketing Analytics by University of California (edX)

Duration: 16 weeks

The University of California offers a course on Marketing Analytics on edX.

This course is designed to help learners develop the skills of a marketing analyst and learn how to collect and analyze data to uncover valuable insights from it.

This course teaches students how to use probabilistic model and optimization tools to model customer demand forecast, price sensitivity, lifetime value and how to leverage such data to make optimal decisions when designing new products, and marketing strategy.

FAQs on the Best Free Online Data Analytics Courses

Are there free online data analytics courses available?

Yes, there are free courses and MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) on platforms like Coursera and edX. However, paid courses often offer more comprehensive content and support.

What are the career prospects after completing a data analytics course?

Data analysts are in high demand across various industries. You can find opportunities in finance, healthcare, marketing, and more, with roles like data analyst, business analyst, or data scientist.

What are the key skills or tools I will learn in a data analytics course?

Skills include data visualization, statistical analysis, machine learning, and proficiency in tools like Python, R, and data analysis software.

How do I stay motivated during an online data analytics course?

Set clear goals, create a study schedule, join online forums or communities, and periodically review your progress to stay motivated.

Do I need specific software or hardware for an online data analytics course?

Requirements vary by course, but a computer with internet access is essential. Specific software and hardware needs will be mentioned in the course details.

Conclusion

Many online courses offer certificates upon completion, while some platforms also offer degree programs.

We’ve come to the end of this article.

What is Data Analysis?

Benefits of Data Analytics

List of the Best Free Online Data Analytics Courses