10 Best Data Mining Courses To Grow Your Data Skills

Data mining—the process of analyzing large sets of data for trends and patterns—is one of the most in-demand data skills today. And so whether you’re a data science professional looking to upskill, or if you’re completely new to data, a data mining course can be a great way to boost your career.  

But with so many options available, how do you know which one to pick? It can be hard to tell, especially if this is your first experience with online courses. From the syllabus and tutors to schedules and pricing, there are a lot of factors you need to consider before making a decision, and with so many courses available, this isn’t a quick and easy process. 

That’s why we compiled this comprehensive list of our favorite data mining courses to help speed things up for you. Our selection includes both paid and free courses with varying durations to suit all tastes and goals. Whether you’re planning a career change or studying for fun, this list will have something for you.

Is a Data Mining Course Worth It?

Data mining courses are a great way to learn practical skills in data mining and analysis. With online materials, you can follow along with tutorials and lectures at your own pace and learn how to mine valuable business insights from formerly incomprehensible data.

10 Best Data Mining Courses

Data Science Career Track – Springboard

Rating

Course Report: 4.64 out of 5 (1,295 ratings)

Overview

The Springboard Data Science Career Track covers everything from data wrangling to advanced machine learning and aims to take students from beginner-level programmers to job-ready graduates. The curriculum is delivered by industry expert tutors, and students are supported throughout the course through 1:1 sessions with their personal mentor and career coach.

Best For

Students need to have a basic knowledge of a general-purpose programming language like Python, R, Java, or C++ to enroll in the course. However, if you’re not quite there yet, you can take the 8-week prep course before starting the career track at no extra cost.

Duration

The course lasts six months at 15-20 hours per week, or eight months when including the prep course. 

Price

The upfront price of the career track is $9,900, with monthly payments, deferred tuition, and credit loans available. 

Data Mining Specialization – University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on Coursera

Rating

Coursera: 4.5 out of 5 (1,892 ratings)

Overview

In this data mining specialization course, you can learn how to mine both structured and unstructured data. Modules on pattern discovery, clustering, text retrieval, text mining, and analytics will teach you the details of the mining process. You’ll then learn the best practices for visualizing data and presenting your findings. 

Best For

This course is aimed at students with a basic knowledge of probability, statistics, and programming with multiple languages.  

Duration

At the suggested pace of four hours per week, you can complete this course in around eight months. 

Price

Anyone can audit this course for free, or pay the $39 monthly subscription to access project grading and qualify for a certificate. 

Mining Massive Datasets – Stanford Online on edX

Rating

Trustpilot: 3.4 out of 5 (1,264 ratings)

Overview

In association with Stanford Online, this course on mining massive datasets covers a range of topics, including:

• MapReduce systems and algorithms
• Social-network graphs
• Clustering
• Dimensionality reduction
• Machine learning algorithms 

Best For

This is an advanced course aiming to take experienced computer science graduates into the field of data mining. 

Duration

Students study 5-10 hours per week on average and complete the course in seven weeks, but the course is self-paced and can be worked through at any speed. 

Price

You can gain limited access to this course for free, or purchase the verified track for $149.

Data Science A-Z™: Real-Life Data Science Exercises Included – Kirill Eremenko on Udemy

Rating

Trustpilot: 2.4 out of 5 (964 ratings)

Overview

The Data Science: A-Z course on Udemy will walk you through the entire data science journey and show you how to fix the common problems data scientists face. You’ll also learn the skills needed to resent your findings and communicate the value of your data to your audience.

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Best For

The only prerequisite listed for this course is a passion for success, but you will also need a computer. 

Duration

Students can progress through the 21 hours of content on this course at any pace.

Price

This course is available for a one-time purchase of $99.99.

Data Mining for Business in Python – Diogo Alves De Resende on Udemy

Rating

Trustpilot: 2.4 out of 5 (964 ratings)

Overview

The self-paced course on Udemy focuses specifically on mining data with Python and introduces nine useful algorithms, including supervised machine learning, unsupervised machine learning, and explainable artificial intelligence. The syllabus also focuses on explaining data mining applications in business and how insights can guide stakeholder decisions.

Best For

To make the most of this course, you’ll need some background knowledge of probability and statistics, as well as some basic skills in Python.  

Duration

There are nine hours of content for students to work through at their own pace. 

Price

The upfront cost of this course is $19.99.

Fundamentals of Data Mining – UC San Diego Division of Extended Studies

Rating

Course Report: 4.66 out of 5 (39 ratings)

Overview

UC San Diego offers a number of data science courses, including this Fundamentals of Data Mining course. Aimed at experienced programmers, this course covers topics such as Bayesian learning, association rules, classification and prediction methods, and linear regression.

Best For

It is recommended for students to complete the Statistics for Data Analytics and Linear Algebra for Machine Learning courses with UC San Diego, or have commensurate experience before enrolling in this course. 

Duration

The course runs for approximately two months. 

Price

The cost for this course is $725, and it is offered in the fall and spring.

Data Mining Course – KDnuggets

Rating

Facebook: 4.9 out of 5 (36 ratings)

Overview

The syllabus for this course begins with introductory material before moving on to different methods for classifying, analyzing, and visualizing data. You’ll then learn about modules covering different applications of data mining within the business and the future of this field. 

Best For

The curriculum for this course is suitable for advanced undergraduate students or first-year graduate students in computer science and related fields. The course is completely self-paced and taught through video lectures and readings. 

Duration

This is described as a one-semester course and contains 19 modules.

Price

This course is offered for free and was funded by an education grant. 

Data Mining With R: Go From Beginner to Advanced! – Geoffrey Hubona on Udemy

Rating

Trustpilot: 2.4 out of 5 (964 ratings)

Overview

This program focuses on data mining with the R programming language and aims to take students from beginner to advanced levels. The course begins with basic data types and structures and ends with advanced cluster analysis examples, covering a large amount of ground in a short course. 

Best For

This is a beginner-friendly course that welcomes anyone with interest in data mining and analysis. The course also uses free software that anyone can download.

Duration

There are 80 lectures totaling 11 hours and 54 minutes.

Price

You can buy this entire course for $84.99.

Data Mining – Great Learning

Rating

Course Report: 4.74 out of 5 (193 ratings)

Overview

As a free certificate program, the Data Mining course at Great Learning is a useful tool for beginners in data science to test out their affinity for the field. Covering a range of topics from regression analysis to machine learning, you’ll receive a useful introduction to all of the key data mining concepts.

Best For

Advertised as intermediate level, basic knowledge of data science is recommended in order to get the most out of this course. 

Duration

The course contains two and a half hours of video lectures.

Price

You can take the entirety of this course free of charge and gain lifetime access.

Data Science Foundations: Data Mining – LinkedIn Learning

Rating

G2: 4.4 out of 5 (563 ratings)

Overview

Designed as an entry-level course into the world of data science, this curriculum will teach you how data is collected and prepared for analysis and how this results in meaningful information. Students will get hands-on experience through task-based lessons covering topics such as data clustering, text mining, and association analysis.

Best For

Described as a beginner and intermediate course, LinkedIn Learning’s Data Science Foundations is aimed at anyone aiming to enter the data science industry. The course is self-paced and doesn’t include any deadlines.

Duration

The duration of this course is approximately five hours. 

Price

LinkedIn Learning is a paid subscription service that costs $39 a month.

How Do You Choose a Data Mining Course?

Not all data mining courses have the same content or are aimed at the same audience, so it’s important to check a few more things than the title before signing up. Here are some things to consider when picking an online course.

Syllabus

From courses that cover data mining from scratch to advanced courses focusing on a niche, there are a lot of different areas a data science course can cover. If you want to find the right course for you, check out the syllabus before signing up. Some providers will have the syllabus right on their web page, while others might require you to download it or fill in a form to request a more detailed version. 

Quality and Expertise of Instructors

Regardless of your reasons for studying, you deserve the best education you can get, and that means having the best teachers. For practical career courses like data mining, professional experience is more relevant than PHDs and high educational honors. Learning from a mining specialist who has worked as a data scientist before will help you gain a better understanding of the industry and the role, as well as data mining skills.

Career Guidance

High-quality courses that aim to produce job-ready graduates often provide career guidance to help students define their career goals and refine their resume and interview skills. This is a great resource to have if you’re hoping to start a career in data science, so we highly recommend favoring courses with this benefit. 

Reviews and Ratings

While a course might say all the right things on its website, it doesn’t mean much if they don’t produce satisfied customers. Before signing up for a data mining bootcamp, it’s best to check out sites and forums like Coursereport, Career Karma, Indeed, and Reddit to see what the community and alumni have to say.

Pricing

The pricing of data mining courses can be extremely varied, with both free programs and programs costing upwards of $10,000. This means that, depending on what you want from your course, you may not need to pay any money at all. If you do want the full 1:1 tutor experience and job guarantee, however, be sure to consider the different payment options available to you and read the terms and conditions. 

Time Commitment

No course website wants to scare potential students away by advertising strict schedules and deadlines, but that doesn’t mean they don’t exist. In some cases, you need to read a little closer to find out exactly how flexible the course is. In general, online courses either have live sessions which require schedules and a set time commitment or use recorded lectures only, which allow the course to be completely self-paced. In this case, the website might include a suggested number of hours per week, but you’re free to deviate from this.

Projects and Practical Experience

Choosing a course with projects not only provides you with practical experience—it also gives you content to include in your professional data science portfolio. We recommend looking for online data mining courses with projects that cover areas such as:

• Machine learning and deep learning
• Anomaly and outlier detection 
• Mining algorithms 
• Regression analysis
• Sentiment analysis
• Linear regression
• Statistical programming
• Model building
• Probability distribution
• Analytic tools
• Market basket analysis
• Cluster analysis
• Predictive models

Certificate

Data mining certification courses provide graduates with an official certificate upon completion that you can list on your resume and display on LinkedIn. This is beneficial if you’re planning to search for an entry-level data mining job after you’ve finished studying, as the certificate program can act as a qualification and proof of your skills. 

Making the Most Out of Your Data Mining Course

Understanding how online data mining courses work is essential to getting the most out of them, so ask yourself the following questions to get the most out of your course.

How Does the Course Work?

Courses will typically walk you through the entire data science process, covering the business goals data scientists aim to discover valuable insights on and the mining techniques they use to do this. Video lectures are used to provide mining tutorials on complex topics, so you can follow the process step by step. Students typically use special software to complete practical data mining projects that you then hand in to be graded. Some courses also include a capstone project at the end of the course, which makes a great addition to your professional portfolio.

What Should You Expect To Learn During a Data Mining Course?

Most courses will teach you basic mining principles and how to turn your analysis into actionable insights relevant to business intelligence. Understanding the application of data in business is an important part of the mining process, and some courses will focus on this as much as the mining itself. 

What Will Your Schedule Look Like?

If you choose a self-paced course, your schedule will be completely determined by you and can even change week by week if necessary. If you choose a course with a time commitment and live sessions, your schedule will either include weekday evening classes or weekend classes. 

FAQs About Data Mining Courses

We’ve got the answers to your most frequently asked questions. 

Since you’re here…Are you interested in this career track? Investigate with our free guide to what a data professional actually does. When you’re ready to build a CV that will make hiring managers melt, join our Data Science Bootcamp which will help you land a job or your tuition back!