There is an increased demand on Big Data jobs in the market worldwide.Companies like Oracle , IBM , Microsoft , Dell and others have spent more than $15 billion on software firms specialising in data management and analytics , according to Wikipedia.

Google Trends reveals that the overall searches online for the term “Big Data” has increased dramatically since January of 2011.Until then there was little to zero demand.Additionally the term “Big Data Jobs” saw an increase since April of 2012.

Most interested areas in the world are India and USA.

I have already published many articles on free online courses where you can enhance your knowledge , among them there are Big Data departments.

This list focuses on Big Data Free Courses alone

Udemy

Their slogan…”Own your future by learning new skills online”.An online learning marketplace where 13 million+ students are taking courses in everything from programming to yoga – to photography and much more.You can learn at your own pace , on any device.

Udemy offers 4 free courses on Big Data.

• Hadoop starter kit – Hadoop in real world
• Big Data Internship program – Big Data Trunk
• Crowdfund investing 101 – Davis Jones , MBA , co-founder of Eazl
• Data analytics using Hadoop eco system – Durga Gadiraju

If you want to move further there are 101 paid options.

For a full review on Udemy continue here.

edX

Global access to quality education.They connect learners to the best universities around the world.

edX lists 29 Big Data courses at this time.24 out of them are free and listed below.The majority of them are open for you to enroll now but some are upcoming or archived.

• Big Data in Education – Columbia University
• Big Data for smart cities – IEEE
• Biostatistics for Big Data applications – UTMBx
• Big Data Analysis with Apache Spark – Berkeley
• Processing Big Data with Azure HDInsight – Microsoft
• Knowledge management and Big Data in Business – Hong Kong Polytechnic University
• Wiretaps to Big Data – Cornell University
• Data analytics in health – Ku Leuven
• Machine learning for data science and analytics – Columbia
• Introduction to data storage and management technologies – IEEE
• Enabling technologies for data science and analytics : The internet of things – ColumbiaX
• Learning from data – Caltech
• Implementing real time analysis with Hadoop in Azure HDInsight – Microsoft
• Implementing predictive solutions with Spark in Azure HDInsight – Microsoft
• Explore statistics with R – Karolinska Institutet
• Evidence based stakeholder Marketing – Australian National University
• Distributed machine learning with Apache Spark – Berkeley
• The beauty and joy of computing – Berkeley
• Introduction to Apache Spark – Berkeley
• Introduction to management information systems (MIS) : a survival guide – Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
• Observation theory : Estimating the unknown – TUDelft
• Introduction to metrics for smart cities – IEEE
• Medicine in the digital age – RICE
• Supply chain technology and systems – MIT

For a full review on edX continue here

Stanford University

There is a section with free content , called Center for Professional Development in which you can access seminars , webinars and lectures presented by Stanford faculty , industry experts and senior researchers.You have to submit your name and email address in order to move on.

Not the typical course structure but still you can extract valuable information.

Coursera

Their mission is to provide universal access to the world’s best education.A platform that partners with top universities and organisations worldwide.

Here you can access video lectures and video assignments for free in most courses.This way you have the opportunity to explore the course and decide if it is something you want to pursue.

Financial aid is available for learners who can not afford the fee.

There are 340 related topics so I will demonstrate only a few examples

• Big Data , Genes and Medicine – State University of New York
• Big data analysis with Scala and Spark – Ecole polytechnique federale de Lausanne
• Emerging technologies – from smartphones to IoT to Big Data – Yonsel University
• Big Data science with the BD2K-LINCS data coordination and integration center – Icahn school of medicine
• Data science at scale – University of Washington
• Big history : connecting knowledge – Macquarie University
• Applied data science with Python – University of Michigan

For a full review on Coursera continue here

Future Learn

A diverse selection of courses from leading universities and cultural institutions around the world.They believe that learning should be enjoyable , social experience , so their courses offer the opportunity to discuss what you are learning with others.

A private company owned by the Open University . with the benefit of over 40 years of their experience in distance learning and online education.

You can track 9 Big Data free courses

• Big Data : Data Visualisation – Queensland University of Technology
• From data to decisions – Queensland
• Mathematical modelling – Queensland
• Measuring and predicting human behaviour – University of Warwick
• Statistical inference and machine learning – Queensland
• Data to Insight : an introduction to data analysis – University of Auckland
• Introduction to linked data and the semantic web – University of Southampton
• Business analytics using forecasting – National Tsing Hua University
• Web science – how the web is changing the world – Southampton

Udacity

Learn to solve data rich problems and apply this knowledge to your big data needs.Whether you are a newcomer or looking for additional training , they have introductory , advanced and industry specific courses to meet your learning goals.

Free big data courses you can track.In order to filter out the paid courses click the free courses box on the left hand sidebar.

• Deep learning – build a digit recognition program – Google
• Intro to data analysis : Investigate a dataset – MongoDB
• Intro to computer science : final project – MongoDB
• Design an A/B test – Google
• Intro to machine learning : Identify fraud from enron email – kaggle
• Data visualisation and D3.js -MongoDB
• Intro to Hadoop and MapReduce – Cloudera
• Real time analytics with Apache Storm – Twitter
• Data analysis with R – Facebook
• Intro to descriptive statistics – MongoDB
• Intro to inferential statistics : Test a perpetual phenomenon – MongoDB
• Data wrangling with MongoDB – MongoDB
• Model building and validation – AT&T
• Reinforcement learning : train a smartcab to drive – Georgia Institute of Technology

CodeSchool

Experienced and engaging instructors take you through course material , step by step , in high quality video lessons.

Try R – Learn the R programming language for data analysis and visualisation.This software programming language is great for statistical computing and graphics.

• Using R
• Vectors
• Matrices
• Summary Statistics
• Factors
• Data frames
• Real world data

Dell EMC

Data lakes for Big Data – Learn about the value , opportunity and insights that Big Data provides.Get introduced to the federation business data lake solution to leverage the full power of big data to drive major business strategies.

Microsoft Virtual Academy

Free Microsoft training delivered by experts to build your skill and advance your career.Seamless learning experience , manage your learning plans , track your progress , access experts through live Q&A , member-only offers.

There are many Big Data courses from which you can choose in various levels (beginner , intermediate , advanced)

• Implementing big data analysis
• Getting started with Microsoft big data
• Big Data and business analytics immersion v3.1
• Building blocks : big data and machine learning
• Transform big data into intelligent action with advanced analytics
• Big Data analytics with HDInsight : Hadoop on Azure
• Design and implement big data & advanced analytics solutions
• Orchestrating data and services with Azure data factory
• Data science and machine learning essentials
• Column store

and more…

Final Words

Education never stops.This is one of my favourite slogans.And Big Data is the Big Game of the decade.The salaries have increased and students are taking their chances.

Don’t let another year pass by , start now.

I hope you enjoyed my list and I will continue to add more resources to this same thread , whenever possible.

Another article has finished , here on Web Market Support.I am waiting for your comments and thoughts.

Did you take any of the courses listed below?..Then I would like to hear from you , share your experience with the rest of us.

Till next time , your online partner.

Working While in College