What’s the best online course you’ve ever taken?
The best course that I’ve taken is technically a pair of courses, back in spring 2023. I was getting my Applied Associate’s Degree in Data Analysis from a local community college. The entire process was slapped together, since I had originally only planned on getting a Technical Certification in Data Analysis, and I wanted to complete the coursework as quickly as possible. As part of the slapped together process, I had to learn Python across two separate courses in a single semester.
The community college offered 8-week options for courses in 16-week semesters; twice the learning rate for the same amount of credit as a 16-week course. For the first half of the spring 2023 semester, I took the intro to computer programming course, which was the prerequisite course for the Python course. I took the intro the Python course in the second half of the spring 2023 semester.
I had a pre-existing interest in computer programming, and I had wanted to learn how to handle programming languages for a while. Despite this interest, nothing came about. There are multiple reasons for this. Depression, self-doubt, perfectionism paralysis, undiagnosed neurodivergence, life stress, etc. The spring 2023 semester was my opportunity to finally get things done. This is why these two courses are collectively my favorite online course.
Through these courses I gained the technical skill that I will need for my upcoming Master of Science degree in Data Analytics – Social Science from Western Governors University.
My second favorite online course is from the 8-week summer 2022 semester. Intro to SQL. Depending on my mood, this might be my favorite online course. I had casual access to a controlled Oracle Relational Database while learning how to properly create and manage SQL queries.
Ultimately both SQL and Python are at the core of my programming language needs.
Leave a Reply