A couple of months ago, when I decided to strengthen my skillsets with Python, I was searching for some resource which would help me to learn Python and at the same times could help me understand some basic concepts of data analytics.
Believe it or not, real time data analytics is a monster.. From the very next day, since I searched about Python resources on Google, Facebook started showing me sponsored posts about some good tech tutorials, I checked them all, some were OK.. Some were good but too expensive.
And Finally I found, DATACAMP. A Facebook sponsored post took me to DataCamp and I immediately fell in love with it.
DataCamp is dedicated to DATA. On this website one will get tech training of languages and concepts which end in Data Analysis.
Currently, DataCamp is offering major courses on Python, R, SQL and SPARK.
Some of the courses are free to access to everyone and advanced courses are paid.
DataCamp also lets us track upcoming courses and so that users can plan accordingly.
Main reasons why I was drawn to Datacamp were,
iPython :-
It is an interface which DataCamp uses for all concept based exercises. iPython is pretty user friendly and fresh.
In the left side we can see summary of concepts taught in previous video and at right side we see an embedded code editor to practise the problems.
It also has a guide, which assists us if our submitted code is incorrect.
Course Instructors :-
I have taken many MOOCs previously and I understand each instructor has their own style of teaching stuff.
But DataCamp doesn’t create a course like a newbie. They are very thorough with the time of videos, the content they want to be covered in the videos and the instructors are very clear about what they are talking.
Technical knowledge of the instructors is deep and it is clearly understood from the way they deliver content.
Some of the instructors are lecturers at various universities, some of them are founders of Data Analytics start-ups and some are even contributors to most famous modules and frameworks of Python.
Exercises :-
Probably the best thing about courses at DataCamp. The first course I enrolled to was ‘Intro to Python for Data Science’. Now the course is made to learn data science, however, instructors also covered many fundamentals of Python, along with Libraries like NumPy which are widely used for data science.
This course was 4 hours long; it had 11 videos which teach us data science and Python concepts and 57 exercises. Don’t be afraid, these are not exercises which had given you sleepless nights during college. DataCamp makes sure that for each concept discussed in the video, there must be something ‘Hands-On’ available to try out on our own. This is the best thing I believe, if you are looking forward to learn something new.
Experience Points:-
You know, once you get out of college and start working into the industry, the overload of work inevitably takes a toll on your learning capabilities and enthusiasm.
Previously too I have taken many online courses and trust me, there are many many courses which I started and didn’t complete.
DataCamp has made a trick here, to keep us engaged in the course, they assign experience points to our profile. For each video we watch and exercise we successfully complete, we get points. These accumulating points has a good psychological impact. It makes you watch another video, solve another exercise. Thanks to this trick, I stayed interested and completed my course. 😀
The question which remains is, “ Will the courses and certifications done at DataCamp be useful in professional growth ? “. I firmly believe that there is no course of anything which can teach you everything. Courses give us a head-start in particular field and guidance about how to acquire required knowledge quickly.
My Verdict on DataCamp:-
Despite of being a fairly new player in tech tutorials niche, DataCamp certainly has made its impact.
My personal experience with DataCamp is excellent. The efforts I took for acquiring Python and Data Analytics knowledge along with my previous Data Warehouse knowledge helped me to get invitations for recruitment process within organization.
With 1.4M users and reputed clients like Facebook, HP, Apple which are using DataCamp groups for training, it looks like DataCamp is here to stay.
You can Visit DataCamp here.
