19 Free Data Science Courses by Harvard and IBM

Introduction

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.

Contents

Harvard Free Courses

1. Introduction to Programming with Scratch

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

Enrollment Details

Certificate option is available for $299.

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5. Data Science: Visualization

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.
Learn to spot flaws in common visualizations.

Enrollment Details

Certificate available for $219.

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6. Data Science: Probability

Harvard’s Data Science: Probability course provides a thorough understanding of probability theory and its importance in data science.

Learning Outcome

Understand random variables, independence, and expected values.
Conduct Monte Carlo simulations.
Use the Central Limit Theorem in data analysis.

Enrollment Details

Get a certificate for $149.

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7. Data Science: Inference and Modeling

This course covers statistical inference and modeling techniques, often using election forecasting as a case study.

Key Topics

Estimations, margins of error, and confidence intervals.
Bayesian modeling techniques.
Aggregating data for better accuracy.

Enrollment Details

A certificate is available for $149.

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8. Data Science: Wrangling

Data wrangling is essential for any data science project. This course teaches you to clean and prepare data for analysis using R.

Learning Outcome

Import and clean data from various sources.
Use tidyverse tools for data manipulation.
Perform web scraping.

Enrollment Details

A certificate is available for $149.

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9. Data Science: Machine Learning

This course provides an introduction to machine learning concepts and focuses on building predictive models.

Learning Outcomes

Apply machine learning algorithms.
Perform cross-validation.
Build a movie recommendation system.

Enrollment Details

Certificate available for $149.

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10. Data Science: Linear Regression

Linear regression is a fundamental statistical method, and this course teaches how to use it to analyze real-world data.

Learning Outcome

Understand linear regression theory.
Implement linear regression in R.
Evaluate model performance and make predictions.

Enrollment Detail

Certificate available for $149.

You can find details of this Harvard University free data science course here.

IBM Free Courses

1. What is Data Science?

This course provides a broad introduction to the field of data science and covers its core principles.