Top 10 Courses on Coursera in 2020

Learning through courses on Coursera is one of the best way to hone your skills.

Przemek Chojecki
Data Science Rush
7 min readMar 7, 2020

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Learning online is the best way to work on your skills after work. Not only you can complete courses from renowned universities and organisations, you will be in contact with top teachers and in the end you will gain a certificate. In this text I will review top 10 most popular courses on Coursera in 2020. Unsurprisingly most of them are about data science and machine learning.

Best courses on Coursera — data science, machine learning, IT, social sciences

Top 10 Courses on Coursera

The list goes as follow:

  1. Google IT Automation with Python by Google
  2. The Science of Well-Being by Yale
  3. IBM Data Science by IBM
  4. Machine Learning by Stanford
  5. Python for Everybody by University of Michigan
  6. Google IT Support by Google
  7. Deep Learning by deeplearning.ai
  8. Data Science by Johns Hopkins University
  9. Fundamentals of Engineering Exam Review by Georgia Tech
  10. Social Norms, Social Change I by University of Pennsylvania and UNICEF

Let’s now discuss them one by one.

Google IT Automation with Python by Google

Google IT Automation with Python by Google

This new beginner-level, six-course certificate, developed by Google, is designed to provide IT professionals with in-demand skills — including Python, Git, and IT automation — that can help you advance your career.

Knowing how to write code to solve problems and automate solutions is a crucial skill for anybody in IT. Python, in particular, is now the most in-demand programming language by employers.

This program builds on your IT foundations to help you take your career to the next level. It’s designed to teach you how to program with Python and how to use Python to automate common system administration tasks. You’ll also learn to use Git and GitHub, troubleshoot and debug complex problems, and apply automation at scale by using configuration management and the Cloud.

The Science of Well-Being by Yale

The Science of Well-Being by Yale

In this course you will engage in a series of challenges designed to increase your own happiness and build more productive habits. As preparation for these tasks, Professor Laurie Santos reveals misconceptions about happiness, annoying features of the mind that lead us to think the way we do, and the research that can help us change. You will ultimately be prepared to successfully incorporate a specific wellness activity into your life.

IBM Data Science by IBM

IBM Data Science by IBM

Data Science has been ranked as one of the hottest professions and the demand for data practitioners is booming. This Professional Certificate from IBM is intended for anyone interested in developing skills and experience to pursue a career in Data Science or Machine Learning.

This program consists of 9 courses providing you with latest job-ready skills and techniques covering a wide array of data science topics including: open source tools and libraries, methodologies, Python, databases, SQL, data visualization, data analysis, and machine learning. You will practice hands-on in the IBM Cloud using real data science tools and real-world data sets.

Machine Learning by Stanford

Machine Learning by Stanford

Machine learning is the science of getting computers to act without being explicitly programmed. In the past decade, machine learning has given us self-driving cars, practical speech recognition, effective web search, and a vastly improved understanding of the human genome. Machine learning is so pervasive today that you probably use it dozens of times a day without knowing it. Many researchers also think it is the best way to make progress towards human-level AI.

In this class, you will learn about the most effective machine learning techniques, and gain practice implementing them and getting them to work for yourself. More importantly, you’ll learn about not only the theoretical underpinnings of learning, but also gain the practical know-how needed to quickly and powerfully apply these techniques to new problems.

Finally, you’ll learn about some of Silicon Valley’s best practices in innovation as it pertains to machine learning and AI.

Python for Everybody by University of Michigan

Python for Everybody by University of Michigan

This Specialization will introduce fundamental programming concepts including data structures, networked application program interfaces, and databases, using the Python programming language. In the Capstone Project, you’ll use the technologies learned throughout the Specialization to design and create your own applications for data retrieval, processing, and visualization.

Google IT Support by Google

Google IT Support by Google

This 5-course certificate, developed by Google, includes innovative curriculum designed to prepare you for an entry-level role in IT support. A job in IT can mean in-person or remote help desk work in a small business or at a global company like Google. The program is part of Grow with Google, a Google initiative to help create economic opportunities for all Americans.

Through a mix of video lectures, quizzes, and hands-on labs and widgets, the program will introduce you to troubleshooting, customer service, networking, operating systems, system administration and security. You’ll hear from Googlers with unique backgrounds whose own foundation in IT support served as a jumping off point for their careers. By dedicating ~5 hours a week, you can complete in under six months.

Deep Learning by deeplearning.ai

Deep Learning by deeplearning.ai

If you want to break into AI, this Specialization will help you do so. Deep Learning is one of the most highly sought after skills in tech. We will help you become good at Deep Learning.

In five courses, you will learn the foundations of Deep Learning, understand how to build neural networks, and learn how to lead successful machine learning projects. You will learn about Convolutional networks, RNNs, LSTM, Adam, Dropout, BatchNorm, Xavier/He initialization, and more. You will work on case studies from healthcare, autonomous driving, sign language reading, music generation, and natural language processing. You will master not only the theory, but also see how it is applied in industry. You will practice all these ideas in Python and in TensorFlow, which we will teach.

You will also hear from many top leaders in Deep Learning, who will share with you their personal stories and give you career advice.

Data Science by Johns Hopkins University

Data Science by Johns Hopkins University

This course covers the concepts and tools you’ll need throughout the entire data science pipeline, from asking the right kinds of questions to making inferences and publishing results. In the final Capstone Project, you’ll apply the skills learned by building a data product using real-world data. At completion, students will have a portfolio demonstrating their mastery of the material.

Fundamentals of Engineering Exam Review by Georgia Tech

Fundamentals of Engineering Exam Review by Georgia Tech

The purpose of this course is to review the material covered in the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE) exam to enable the student to pass it. It will be presented in modules corresponding to the FE topics, particularly those in Civil and Mechanical Engineering. Each module will review main concepts, illustrate them with examples, and provide extensive practice problems.

Social Norms, Social Change I by University of Pennsylvania and UNICEF

Social Norms, Social Change I by University of Pennsylvania and UNICEF

This is a course on social norms, the rules that glue societies together. It teaches how to diagnose social norms, and how to distinguish them from other social constructs, like customs or conventions. These distinctions are crucial for effective policy interventions aimed to create new, beneficial norms or eliminate harmful ones. The course teaches how to measure social norms and the expectations that support them, and how to decide whether they cause specific behaviors. The course is a joint Penn-UNICEF project, and it includes many examples of norms that sustain behaviors like child marriage, gender violence and sanitation practices.

This is it, the list of top 10 courses on Coursera right now. Stay tuned for more news on online education, Coursera, data science and machine learning.

You can also watch a video version of this text, where I discuss top 10 courses on Coursera on my YouTube channel:

My YouTube channel: top 10 on Coursera

*disclaimer: the above links are affiliate, thank you for your support*

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Przemek Chojecki
Data Science Rush

AI & crypto, PhD in mathematics, Forbes 30 under 30, former Oxford fellow.