7 Things You MUST Consider When Buying an Online Course

Most Rewarding Criteria For Choosing An Online Course

Last year in September, I started my data science journey. So far it has been a complete bliss, except for the occasional memory lapses of committing myself. Several people have approached me asking how did I go about choosing the best online course.

I wanted to share my perspective, and what I have learned. Mostly, to answer the question; If I were to go back at the start of my journey, what I would do and what I would steer clear off. This will be from a data scientist perspective; hence, I am not familiar with non-tech courses such as pottery.

1.?Where are you in your learning pathway?

The first thing is to ask yourself where are you on this journey. Do you have any prior coding knowledge? Learning is all about finding the gap in your knowledge and skills and then bridging it.

Learning is a step by step process not Olympic jumping. Knowing where you are and where you want to go, will help you figure out which stepping stones you will need to first go through before you get there. This is why most online tech courses require students to have the prerequisite knowledge on some subjects, programming languages or tools.

For example, if you want to take a data science course, you will be required to be fairly acquainted with Python, SQL, R, and Statistics. Though prerequisites are not mandatory, ignoring them will make your learning time-consuming, extremely demanding, and exhaustive when trying to just tag along.

This can be very demotivating as you can easily get left behind or stuck.

Start where you currently are in your learning journey, and continue putting one foot in front of the other; you will get there.

2.?Platform vs non-platform (cost and reviews)

There are many IT training platforms, probably over a hundred. Just to name a few: Pluralsight, Skillsoft, Udacity, Microsoft Learn, Udemy, LinkedIn Learning, Fast Lane, EDX, Coursera, and CBT nuggets.

Each platform has its pros and cons. Some are expensive, and others cheap. Platforms such as EDX and Udacity offer certificates from well-known education institutions and corporations. What you can get in Coursera, is not necessarily what you will get in Udemy.

What are you looking for in a course?

Personally, I didn’t think a certificate would have offered me much of an edge when it came to finding a job. Hence, my priorities are not the same as those of a person looking to get AWS certification courses.

I wouldn’t recommend YouTube and other online free Google resources as the only path of learning if you are still a beginner; rather, they should supplement your learning. Credible online courses offer you a structured learning path. It will be so perplexing if you don’t know which topics to cover and which are irrelevant.

3.?Curriculum

It is very easy to get caught up in the fallacy of assuming that an online course is a shortcut to traditional education; it’s not!

There is no way that four years of almost daily weekday learning can be distilled into 50 hours of an online course.

That’s why it is very important to know what the course will be covering.

Most courses in an effort to attract as many students piles up everything into one course by offering shallow knowledge.

You don’t want a course that makes you a jack of all trades and a master of none. That’s why you should focus on specialized knowledge courses instead of generalized ones.

You can google any curriculum for any learning path you take. If you are taking data science, here is the?curriculum guide?shared by Giles McMullen on?YouTube. Compare the online course coverage with what is required in the curriculum.

4.?Specialized Knowledge vs General knowledge

This brings us to the fourth criterion. Does the online course provide you with specialized knowledge or general knowledge? This is arguably the most important question to answer before buying a course.

Picking a course that offers deepened understanding of a specific framework or library is better than ‘all in one for 10$.’

Don’t get me wrong, generalist courses will get you acquainted with your area of study but will leave you with a limited understanding.

Start with a generalized learning course followed by specialized courses.

It is of great importance to know what specifically you want to learn. One bite after the other instead of gulping everything at once.

Once you are familiar with prerequisite programming languages in Data Science, going for a specific ‘Statistical Modelling’ is much more rewarding than all in one DS course.

5.?What to look for in a course?

The next step is deciphering the best criteria for picking one course from the already selected five courses.

If you are still a newbie in the field, determining the content quality is next to impossible. Nothing is more misleading than picking a course based solely on ratings.

C’mon reviews can be bought or even forged and also the best instructor is not necessarily who has the most reviews.

You get the point; optics is not everything. Have a look inside and read between the lines.

How often is course content updated? Make sure there are other credible resources other than 2-minute video clips. Assessments with deadlines will motivate you to go through the course material and do an actual project. Access to the instructor cannot be understated.

Lastly, if you want to remain motivated to complete the course make sure you join the community. This overrides your introversion. You will get a reason to hang around even when you don’t feel like it.

There is an African Proverb by?Martha Goedert?that says “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

6.?Time commitment (No magic wand)

This final bit changes everything, you can get all four but if you fail the last one, it’s over.

When it comes to Tech training courses one hour to complete assumes you are solely watching, if you are doing coding practices along, one hour is more like three hours.

Besides, what your instructor (expert) can do in ten minutes, will often take you (student) half an hour or more.

So, plan your time wisely and adjust to your learning pace.

You should never compare yourself to an instructor when doing a coding exercise. Instructors are at an expert level; they have done this for thousands of hours. How long did it take you to understand basic algebra when you were in grade 3 and eventually you still got it?

Personally, it took me more than a year to figure out why we had to find x when it was still there.

7.?One course at a time

It is easier to pile up courses in your online learning catalog due to the captivating marketing tactics of ‘9.99$ for the next 24hours.’ As?Tina Huang?cautioned in her YT video, this will make you even more unlikely to start or continue learning due to the paradox of choice.

What determines how impactful your learning will be in your career is not the quantity of courses but of time. The commitment to complete learning a single course is better than piled up partially covered courses. When it comes to upskilling, time spent begets quality.

Keep practicing and add as many projects as you can to your portfolio. Then start applying for jobs. Go beyond watching the clips, read external resources, and actually get something done.

The worst words that you could ever say before or after buying an online course are

“It could have been me” by Halsey