Machine learning is one of the most interesting careers in the field of data science. The aim of data science is to identify hidden trends and patterns by analyzing raw data. After gaining the insights, it becomes easier to make predictions for future events. Here, machine learning is what combines computer science and statistical analysis to harness predictive power. So, anyone willing to start their career as a data scientist or data analyst needs to have in-depth knowledge of machine learning.
Today, many professionals are embarking on a career as machine learning engineers. Their first step is often leaned towards taking an online free machine learning course. And why not? As a beginner, it is often difficult to judge whether any paid course is worth your time and effort; most of them claim to offer the best training material but do not stand up to the expectations. This is the reason many opt for a free course to gain foundational knowledge first. You may, however, be concerned about the quality of learning content being compromised in free courses. The good news is that some reliable training platforms offer high-quality study materials to help you learn machine learning from scratch.
Read on to find out what those free online ML courses are!
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Machine Learning (SkillUp by Simplilearn)
Take this machine learning basics program if you want to gain a foundational understanding of this technology. You will explore some important concepts like time series modeling, data processing, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, linear regression, logistic regression, and text mining. The program involves 7 hours of in-depth video content with 90 days of access. You will be awarded a course completion certificate as well.
The program is suitable for business analytics, software developers, information architects, analytics managers, and anyone willing to gain job-ready machine learning skills. It is recommended to have a basic understanding of mathematics, statistics, and Python programming before taking this course.
Introduction to Machine Learning Course (Udacity)
Learn the end-to-end process of investigating data through an ML lens with this introductory course by Udacity. The instructor will make you familiar with extracting and determining useful features that best represent datasets. You will become aware of some of the crucial machine learning algorithms and how to analyze their performance. The course duration is around 10 weeks and involves rich learning content and interactive quizzes. A number of important topics are covered in this course, such as Naive Bayes, Support Vector Machines, decision trees, regressions, outliers, clustering, and feature scaling.
After completing this course, you gain the foundational knowledge required for other courses like web and application development, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data science.
Machine Learning Crash Course (Google)
Learn the machine learning core concepts and best practices directly from Google experts by enrolling in this crash course. The program features 25 lessons with 15 hours of content, over 30 exercises, real-world case studies, and interactive visualizations of ML algorithms in action. You will be able to explore topics like measuring loss, the difference between machine learning and traditional computer programming, working of gradient descent, the effectiveness of an ML model, representing data, and building deep neural networks.
Google offers other helpful tutorials if you are entirely new to machine learning, like Introduction to Machine Learning Problem Framing, NumPy Ultraquick tutorial, Pandas Ultraquick tutorial, and so on. One should be familiar with Python programming, linear equations, and statistical means as well before taking the course.
Introduction to Machine Learning (NPTEL)
NPTEL is a platform where courses from renowned Indian institutes are available. The platform offers the Introduction to Machine Learning course from the prestigious Indian Institute of Technology. Currently, the course for the year 2022 is designed by IIT Kharagpur. It will give you a clear understanding of machine learning and its algorithms. It covers some of the most popular supervised learning algorithms like Naive Bayes, decision trees, logistic regression, and support vector machine. The instructor will introduce you to neural networks, deep learning, feature reduction, computational learning theory, and more.
You can complete the course in 8 weeks after enrollment, and you need to take an associated exam as well. Basic programming skills, algorithm design, probability, and statistics are recommended before taking the course.
Machine Learning with Python (Cognitive Class by IBM)
IBM is another reputed technology company that offers a free course on machine learning. This beginner-level course with 3 hours of video content helps you dive into the foundations of machine learning, the types of machine learning, and how is statistical modeling related to it. Popular algorithms like classification, regression, clustering and dimensional reduction are discussed in the course. Further, it covers popular ML models like random forests, train/test split, and root mean squared error.
As a prerequisite, you need to have familiarity with Jupyter notebook, Python programming, and data analysis with Python. Just sign up for the course, and you can start accessing the lectures. The program focuses on practical learning by including real-world problems that can be solved by applying machine learning.
With so many options at hand, which course would you pick to start your machine learning journey?