After a lot of turmoil that the year 2020 brought in terms of business disruption, challenges to ensure business continuity, remote working becoming the new norm, among others, many companies and institutes introduced and developed free courses for the data science and AI enthusiasts to make the most of the lockdown. From various ivy league institutions to major organisations across the globe, several courses were made free this year. As the year 2020 comes to an end, we list a few such courses in AI and data science that were made free and are still available for tech enthusiasts to avail. The courses are listed in no particular order.
Coursera launched free courses
In March this year, as lockdown ensued, to uplift the learners and help the community in the critical time, Coursera decided to launch new, free resources, as well as sharing impressive course collections, community discussions, and expert interviews. The courses were made free for anyone, anywhere. Aimed at helping the candidates take the first step in exploring a new career path, it made courses in areas such as data science, cloud technology and more, which can be availed even now.
Free nanodegree programs by Udacity
To support learners in acquiring new skills with their nanodegree programs, Udacity announced to offer one free month on one of 40 premium nanodegree programs. It said that while their courses usually take about four to six months to learn a high-tech skill such as machine learning, data analytics or software development, if learners devoted more time, they could acquire skills in as little as a month. Some of the courses it offers are on machine learning, cloud, technology, programming languages, data science courses and more.
Free Course by edX
In the light of COVID-19 pandemic, edX announced free courses through its Remote Access Program to assist universities by delivering educational content for their students. It not only provided their students with free access to courses and programs not just from their universities, but from all edX partners participating in the initiative.
Free course on data visualisation using Tableau by Great Learning
This course by Great Learning covered a free data visualisation course on Tableau, which is one of the leading BI tools. A 1.5-hour video-based course, it covers concepts such as Tableau fundamentals, visual analytics, introduction to data visualisation, and more. The course intends to help students lay a path towards building a career in Tableau and business intelligence.
Free course on data science, machine learning, data analysis by Udemy
The crash course by Udemy covers a wide range of topics such as concepts in data science, machine learning, data analysis, data visualisation using Python and R Programming, deep learning and more. While the online video content is free, instructor-led support and certification include fees. The 8-hour long programme is aimed at beginners and covers concepts on complex theory, algorithms, coding libraries and more.
Free course by AWS on edX
The course titled ‘Amazon SageMaker: Simplifying ML Application Development’ is conducted by AWS instructors on concepts such as integrating ML into apps, using Jupyter Notebook to train a model with SageMaker, publishing validated models and more. This month-long course includes lectures by experts, discussions and demonstrations.
Free course by Harvard University
This 4-week course by Harvard University called High-Dimensional Data Analysis is for intermediate level. It covers various aspects in data science such as mathematical distance, dimension reduction, multiple dimensional scaling plots, factor analysis, dealing with batch effects, and more. It also covers a brief introduction to machine learning concepts while focusing on clustering analysis, prediction algorithms such as k-nearest neighbours and more.
Free AI course by AI4ALL
In March earlier this year, AI4ALL announced a free AI course module that could be availed by high-school teachers with a free online lesson to engage students around AI’s role in the current crisis. The course called ExploreAI aimed at supporting the community by sharing relevant, free curriculum and teaching resources. It covers courses on how AI can be used to tackle varying parts of COVID-19 outbreak.
IIT Kanpur to offer free statistics course
To help students gain skills in statistics, IIT-Kanpur offered free statistics courses in assistance with a professor from the department of mathematics and statistics — professor Shalabh. With a wide range of topics such as regression analysis, sampling theory, linear regression analysis and forecasting, introduction to R, and more, the course can be downloaded from the IIT Kanpur’s website.
Free data science course by Alteryx
To help graduates and unemployed data workers to acquire new skills, Alteryx announced the introduction of three data science courses along with a collaboration with Udacity to offer complimentary access to Udacity for 30 days. Called ADAPT, the course engages, encourages and enables candidates to gain concepts from data fundamentals to predictive analytics.
Free online courses by Amazon’s Machine Learning University
Amazon announced to make the online courses by its Machine Learning University, which were previously available only to Amazon employees, available to the public. With an aim to help meet the increasing demand for individuals with ML expertise, the MLU classes will be available via on-demand video, along with associated coding materials. The course covers topics such as natural language processing, computer vision, and more while addressing various business problems.
Yann LeCun’s deep learning course made free
The deep learning course by Yann LeCun called the Deep Learning DS-GA 1008 at the NYU Centre for Data Science was made free. The courses which are accessible online will be led by LeCun along with Alfredo Canziani, an assistant professor of computer science at NYU. The 14-week course will cover various techniques in deep learning such as supervised and unsupervised deep learning, embedding methods, metric learning, convolutional and recurrent nets, and more. The course prerequisite includes DS-GA 1001 Intro to Data Science or a graduate-level machine learning course.
IIT Kharagpur launched two free online courses on data
IIT Kanpur recently announced two new free online courses on data science on the SWAYAM NPTEL platform. These courses are suitable for UG students with science and engineering backgrounds, apart from working professionals in the analytics domain. The two courses are called Essentials of Data Science With R Software – 1: Probability and Statistical Inference and Essentials of Data Science With R Software – 2: Sampling Theory and Linear Regression Analysis. From basic mathematical and statistical concepts to sampling theory and regression analysis, the courses cover a wide range of topics. The courses are 12 weeks each and will be conducted from 18 Jan to 9 Apr 2021.
Click here for details on Part I of the course.
Click here for details on Part II of the course.
IIT Madras launched two free online courses on AI
Recently, IIT-Madras, in association with NPTEL platform, launched two new free online courses on artificial intelligence. The two courses are called — AI: Constraint Satisfaction and Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation and Reasoning. The free courses aim to help students gain problem-solving capabilities using artificial intelligence. The duration of these two courses is eight weeks and 12 weeks, respectively, and will begin from Jan 2021. While the courses are free, the institute is offering an e-certificate for successful candidates with a minimum cost of ₹1000.
