Online courses to learn more about data visualization

The data-related skills are becoming more cross-cutting. The data analytics has become essential for take decisions in organisations of all sizes and sectors. But to communicate the results of the analytics to the different interlocutors, it’s necessary to work with graphics, visualisations and narratives that allow a simple and easy appreciation of the conclusions. As a result of this, the search for profiles capable of working with the most important data visualization tools has grown.

To develop in this area, it’s necessary to have a miminum knowledge of statistics and analytics, but also to know the trends in design and in visual communication. On the market, we can find a lot of courses or MOOC that could help us to learn more about this skills in a online and flexible way.

General courses about data visualization

There are many schools that offer courses for those people who don’t want to specialise in a particular tool, but they prefer to get an overview of the data visualization.

Big Data: data visualization

• Imparted by: the Autonomous University of Barcelona, in Coursera.
• Duration: 9 hours, in 4 weeks.
• Language: spanish
• Price: free

This MOOC is an introductory course that explain the key concepts of the massive data visualization, through examples in different contexts. The aim of this course is that the students could learn to formulate the problem and choose the best tool. It has 4 modules, one per week: the context for the present data visualization, analitycs tools and data visualization, the creation process of the data visualization and others issues about data visualization.

Fundamentals of data visualization

• Imparted by: Marco Russo (In Udemy)
• Duration: 2 hours
• Language: English
• Price: Free

This course is designed to teach the students how to create modern and complete data visualizations. This MOOC starts with a basic notions about the application of data visualization and what it is used for. After a simple introduction, the students will learn how to interact with the different graphics, how to differentiate between Bussiness Analitycs and Data Analytics, or how to understand data visualization through practical examples.

Data journalism and visualization with free tools

• Imparted by: Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas
• Duration: 30 hours (6 weeks)
• Language: Spanish
• Price: Free

This course is available for free to anyone who is interested in data journalism, visualisation and the tools that the market offers for free. Thanks to this course, the students can learn how to search and collect data, how to find stories inside them, how to prepare data and how to make visualisations.

Specific course about different visualization tools 

On the other hand, those who want prefer more specific training in one of the most popular data visualization tools, can find a lot of options on the internet.

Fundamentals of Data Visualisation with Tableau

• Imparted by: University Austral (In Coursera)
• Duration: 8 hours
• Language: Spanish
• Price: Free

Tableau mixes a graphical interface with common elements of Business Intelligence tools. This course is for users who have never worked with this tool or want to learn more about it, without previous technical or analytical knowledge. It explains fundamental concepts of data visualisation and how to use the various tools offered by Tableau.

Create and share reports with Tableau Public!

• Imparted by: Adrian Javier Tagüico (through Udemy)
• Duration: 1,5 hours
• Language: English
• Price: requires payment of a fee.

This course shows you how to create dynamic and intuitive reports, dashboards and stories step by step thanks to Tableau Public. The students will learn how to import data sources (using example public data), how to prepare the data, how to model the data and how to create visualisations, using filters (data segmentation, interaction of visualisations or different options in each visualisation). In this case, you will need a basic knowledge of data types.

Google Data Studio – Data Visualization and Dashboards

• Imparted by: Start-Tech Academy (In Udemy)
• Duration: 4 video hours. You could do it in 6 hours.
• Language: Spanish
• Price: requires payment of a fee.

Data Studio is a free tool from Google to make very visual reports with analytical data, and it allows their automation. The aim of this course is that the students learn how to create all kinds of graphics in Google Data Studio, as well as to learn more about the specific advanced characteristics of the tool. This is a start course for preople who don’t have previous knowledge.

Data Visualization with Kibana

• Imparted by:  Start-Tech Academy (in Udemy)
• Duration: 5.5 hours
• Language: English
• Price: requires payment of a fee.

Course to learn the basic skills of Kibana, an open software code that is part of the Elastic Stack product pack. The students can learn from basic security issues (users, roles and spaces), to how to create advanced visualisations or dashboards, using the Kibana Query Language (KQL).

Grafana

• Imparted by: Sean Bradley (In Udemy)
• Duration: 6 hours
• Language: English
• Price: requires payment of a fee.

Grafana began as a part of Kibana, but now is a completely independent tool. In this course you will learn how to explore graphic panels, statistics, indicators, bars, tables, text, heat maps and logs. It includes everything from installing different data fonts (MySQL, Zabbix, InfluxDB, etc.) and the creation of dynamic dashboards with automatic display placement, the installation the server SMTP, or the configuration notification channel by email or Telegram

Data visualization library courses

In addition to the previous generic tools, there are also more specific visualization libraries on the market. These libraries are more versatile, but require that the students know the programming language where the library is implemented. Some examples of courses in this area are:

Data visualization course with Python

• Imparted by: Abraham Requena (In Open webinars).
• Duration: 3 hours
• Language: Spanish
• Price: for free

This course focuses on two Python’s libraries: Matplotlib and Seaborn. The course starts with an introduction where is discussed the importance of visualisation and graphic types. Then, the work with each of the libraries, including exercises, is discussed.

Data Visualization with Python

• Imparted by: Complutense University of Madrid
• Duration: 40 hours (8 weeks)
• Language: Spanish
• Price: requires payment of a fee.

This course focuses on the development of visualizations using Python. After an introduction about the key aspects for create and effective data visualisations, the course focuses on the development of data visualizations in Python using Matplotlib and Plotly. The course uses the Jupyter Notebook environment. You will need a minimum knowledge of Python and data analysis with Pandas.

Bid Data: data visualization. Introduction to R and ggplot2

• Imparted by: Autonomous University of Barcelona (in Coursera).
• Duration: 9 hours
• Language: Spanish
• Price: Free

This is the fourth course of the specialised programme "Big Data - Introduction to the practical use of massive data". This programme has been designed to motivate and teach the students key concepts about data visualisation, as well as to provide them with criterium for formulating problems and choosing the correct tool for each visualization. This course is divided into four main modules with different subjects, for example, contexts, tools or creation processes for data visualizations.

All this courses are just an example of all the offer in the market. If you know any other that you would like to recommend us, please send us an email to dinamizacion@datos.gob.es or leave a comment.

What cannot be denied is that with these types of courses you will improve your professional profile and you will expand your competitive skills in the labour market.