Are you considering an IT career change? Interested to enter a lucrative field to showcase your potential? Then you should know the importance of investing in yourself by boosting your skillset and enhancing your knowledge!
Taking up IT introduction courses paves the way for you to plan and build a fast-track IT career. Also, it’s a great way for you to upskill yourself. With that, here are the 10 best IT introduction courses you need to take that can help you get started in your chosen IT field.
1. Software Engineering: Introduction
A course offered by edX, this is part of the Software Development MicroMasters Program. The course aims to introduce how teams design, build, and test multi-version software systems. You’ll be able to learn software engineering principles that are applicable to the breadth of large-scale software systems. Moreover, this course also explores other topics such as agile development, REST and Async Programming, software specification, design, refactoring, and information security to name a few.
By the end of this course, learners will work in teams, applying an agile software development process to specify, design, and test multiple versions of complex software systems. Likewise, those who will enroll in the Verified track will be able to receive staff grading and increased interaction with the instructor and staff.
2. Introduction to Java Programming: Starting to Code in Java
When you take this IT course, you’ll be introduced to powerful concepts such as functional abstraction, the object-oriented programming (OOP) paradigm, and Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). To help you implement simple programs on your own or through peer collaboration, examples and case studies will be provided. Further, access to immediate feedback and having a fun experience are the main highlights of this edX course.
Knowledge in programming isn’t only useful to be able to program today’s devices such as computers and smartphones. It also helps open the door to computational thinking, such as the application of computing techniques to everyday processes.
3. Introduction to Data Science
The art of uncovering the insights and trends in data has been around for centuries. The ancient Egyptians applied census data to increase efficiency in tax collection, and they were able to provide an accurate prediction of the Nile River flooding every year. Since then, people working in data science have carved out a unique and distinct field for the kind of work they have.
This field is data science. With that, this edX course aims to produce learners who will earn a skill badge: a detailed, verifiable, and digital credential that profiles the knowledge and skills you’ve acquired in this course. Further, you’ll meet some big data science experts while getting an overview of what data science is today.
4. Machine Learning Fundamentals
Taking this edX course lets you learn a variety of supervised and unsupervised learning algorithms and even the theory behind those. Using real-world case studies, you’ll know more about how to classify images, identify salient topics in a corpus of documents, partition people according to personality profiles, and automatically capture the semantic structure of words and use it to categorize documents. By the end of the course, you’ll know how to analyze many various data types and build descriptive and predictive models.
5. Introduction to Web Development
Designed to start you on a path toward future studies in web development and design, this course offered by Coursera is definitely one of the best IT courses for beginners.
By the end of this course, you’ll be able to describe the structure and functionality of the world wide web, craft dynamic web pages using a combination of HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, apply key programming language concepts when creating HTML forms, select an appropriate web hosting service, and publish your webpages for the world to see.
6. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In this course from Coursera, you’ll learn about what AI is, explore its use cases and applications, and understand concepts and terms like machine learning, deep learning, and neural networks. Aside from that, you’ll be exposed to different issues and concerns surrounding AI such as ethics and bias. To put your knowledge and skills to the test, you’ll also demonstrate AI in action with a project.
7. Introduction to Big Data
This Coursera course is perfect for those new to data science and interested in understanding why the Big Data Era has come to be. Further, you must take this course if you want to become conversant with the terminology and the core concepts behind big data problems, applications, and systems. Likewise, those who want to start thinking about how Big Data might be useful in their business or career must consider taking this course.
The course also provides an introduction to one of the most common frameworks, which is Hadoop.
8. Introduction to Cloud Computing
Introducing you to the core concepts of cloud computing, this Coursera course will help you gain the foundational knowledge needed for understanding this IT field from a business perspective as well as for becoming a cloud practitioner.
Though this course doesn’t require any prior cloud computing or programming experience, you’ll be creating your own account on IBM Cloud and gain some hands-on experience by provisioning a cloud service and working with it.
9. Introduction to User Experience
This edX course teaches methods, techniques, and digital tools specific to user experience (UX) in today’s business context.
UX is defined as the result of the internal states of a user, the characteristics of a system, and the context of the interaction between the user and the system. With this, organizations value innovative and well-designed UX for their customers and employees, whether they are using their websites, mobile apps, self-service kiosks, or other internal interfaces.
10. Introduction to Computer Programming
Providing you with the foundational skillset required to write computer programs, this course from Coursera lets you begin by learning the basics of editing and running programs. Moreover, if you’re interested in learning how to write interactive, graphical programs from an introductory level in a real programming language, you should take this course now!
Learning and Thriving with Bossjob
Make sure to check out more courses from Bossjob Academy to find the most suitable course to upgrade your skills. While you’re at it, let Bossjob be your job search partner as you get more confident with your skills and knowledge! To get you started, check out these in-demand IT jobs and browse through the available IT jobs listed in Bossjob!
