Coursera — the world’s biggest provider of online courses — launched a special New Year’s promo: From December 28th to January 10th, students get $100 off the first year of Coursera Plus.
I’ve previously written about a deal to get tons of Coursera courses completely for free — but that’s limited to just New Yorkers — so this is the next best thing. Coursera Plus is an annual subscription that gives access to over 3,000 courses from a huge range of universities and companies — everyone from Facebook to Google to Harvard.
The $100 off offer is available from this promotions page.
Are Online Courses Worth It?
We all want to accomplish a million and one things, so it’s important to consider where to allocate our time.
Bill Gates and Elon Musk famously schedule their days into 5-minute chunks, and while you don’t need to be that extreme, it’s good to remember that your time is limited.
Thus, while it's probably overkill to take hundreds of courses, it's a must-have to be a continuous learner, and online courses are a great, convenient way to learn from anywhere.
That said, courses aren't the only thing you should be focusing on. I've written about how many aspiring data scientists are turning to certificates to try to land a job, but to no avail. That's because we're in a highly-competitive job market, and winning applicants prove they have practical, valuable skills - not just certificates and courses.
Ultimately, courses are meaningful for the learning process that allows you to make things and show off projects with what you learned. If you skip out on executing what you learned, you might as well skip the course.
Top Courses
Coursera boasts a whopping 3,900+ courses, across a wealth of categories: Business, marketing, sales, AI, and more.
AI skills are red-hot, and several leading minds have published AI courses on Coursera, from Andrew Ng to IBM. DeepLearning.AI has also published a series of courses recently ranging from beginner to expert level.
After the discount, Coursera Plus is still several hundred dollars, so keep in mind that there are free options to learning AI, this no-code AI crash course (disclaimer: I work at Obviously AI, but as noted, the course is free).
Other options include a free online IIT Delhi course, a free ethics of AI course, and free AI courses from Finland.
Summary
AI will be bigger than ever in 2021, and AI skills are increasingly in demand. There are a myriad of courses to get up-to-speed, whether you're a coder or not.
