5 Places to Take Online AI Courses While You Ride Out COVID-19

If you are working from home with your activities restricted to combat the spread of COVID-19, this might be a good opportunity to take some online courses. Need some topic suggestions? The wide-scale embracement of artificial intelligence and machine learning for applications like real-time streaming analytics and continuous intelligence is driving demand for people with skills in these areas.

Fortunately, there are many places to turn that offer courses for free or very low costs. Some are self-paced and can be done at your convenience. Others are conducted live and include interactive participation. Completing some of the courses are the first steps to certifications or advanced degrees.

See also: AI Job Skills In Big Demand

Below is a sampling of five online learning organizations with courses on AI and data science you might want to check out while we ride out the virus. This is not an exhaustive collection. Many universities and vendors offer courses, too. Use this as a starting point to find an online course from one of these groups or others that matches your interests and professional needs.

Alison: Alison has over 1000 courses available; all are free to complete, and new courses are added weekly. It offers a range of courses that teach the basics of data science, where the participant can learn how to extract information from structured and unstructured data using scientific methods, processes, algorithms, and systems, and then turn this data into useful resources. Its data analytics training courses cover data mining, evaluation, and clustering, which are important in business, commercial, and government sectors.

Some courses to explore include:

• Data Analytics – Introduction to Machine Learning
• R for Data Analysis

Coursera: Coursera offers online access to classes from 149 colleges, universities, and other organizations in 29 countries. For example, they have courses from the University of São Paulo in Brazil, the University of London in the UK, the Indian School of Business of India, Yonsei University in Korea, and institutions like Yale and the University of Pennsylvania. Many of Coursera’s classes are available for free, but some do require a small fee. It offers many courses in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning.

Some courses to explore include:

• Machine Learning offered by Stanford
• Machine Learning Specialization offered by University of Washington
• Introduction to Artificial Intelligence offered by IBM

FutureLearn: FutureLearn offers a diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions from around the world. A variety of courses are available covering many aspects of artificial intelligence. Signing up for many of the courses allows free access to one course for a limited time (four weeks).

Some courses to explore include:

• Digital Skills: Artificial Intelligence developed by Accenture
• Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) Technologies for Business Planning and Decision-making developed by Coventry University and the Institute of Coding

edX.org: Founded by Harvard and MIT, edX is home to more than 20 million learners, the majority of top-ranked universities in the world, and industry-leading companies. As a global nonprofit, edX is fulfilling the demand for people to learn on their own terms. It offers both courses and MicroMasters® programs in many data sciences-related topics, including about 60 courses or programs focused on artificial intelligence.

Some courses to explore include:

• Deep Learning Essentials developed by the University of Montreal
• Ethics in AI and Big Data developed by The Linux Foundation
• Fundamentals of Artificial Intelligence developed by Columbia University

Udemy: Udemy is an online learning and teaching marketplace with over 100,000 courses and 24 million students. It offers many courses, from basics to advances in data sciences, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. Many courses are available at rates as low as $10.99.

Some courses to explore include:

• Advanced AI: Deep Reinforcement Learning in Python created by Lazy Programmer Inc.
• Artificial Intelligence Masterclass created by Hadelin de Ponteves, Kirill Eremenko, SuperDataScience Team
• Machine Learning, Data Science, and Deep Learning with Python created by Sundog Education by Frank Kane