4 Best Predictive Analytics Courses to Learn Online for 2024

Predictive analytics is a set of techniques and methodologies used to predict future events or outcomes based on data from previous periods. Throughout the process, practitioners utilize statistical algorithms, machine learning, data visualization, and pattern recognition, along with numerous other methods.

Currently, more and more businesses recruit data scientists or business analysts specializing in predictive analytics since they can help executives respond quickly and effectively to changing business operations and market conditions.

Hence, mastering predictive analytics is necessary if you want to pursue a lucrative career in data science or business intelligence.

Although you can learn predictive analytics through online courses, most of those available are not worth taking. You will need to spend time finding the right course to take, which can be tedious and time-consuming.

I decided to do the heavy lifting for you. This article will only feature the best predictive analytics courses based on my observation. You can then select the one that suits your preferences and start learning right away.

Affiliate Disclosure: This article from Victory Tale contains affiliate links. We will receive a small commission from the course providers if you purchase the course through those links.

Nevertheless, we always value integrity and prioritize our audience’s interests. You can rest assured that we will present each course truthfully.

Things You Should Know

Prerequisites

Each predictive analytics course in this article will have different prerequisites. I will specify them in detail in each course section below. However, all require you to have basic knowledge in the following:

• Statistics for Data Science (Mostly, you will need descriptive statistics and inferential statistics. If you have taken Statistics in college, that will also be sufficient.)
• Algebra (High-school algebra or above)

Prior knowledge of data analytics and predictive modeling is not required.

Criteria

Below are the criteria for the best predictive analytics courses.

1. Predictive Analytics for Business

This Nanodegree program from Udacity aims toward students who want to apply predictive analytics to solve real-world business problems without delving too deeply into the technicals.

Therefore, this program is the best choice for managers, executives, and others with no programming background.

Note: Before enrolling, you should be comfortable working with Microsoft Excel. Also, knowledge of SQL and Tableau would be beneficial but not required.

Course Content

Created in collaboration with Alteryx, an analytics automation company, This program consists of six minor courses as follows:

1. Problem Solving with Advanced Analytics – This course will introduce you to predictive analysis. You will learn about a structured problem-solving framework and an analytical methodology that you can use to address and solve a business problem.

The second part of the course will focus on linear regression. You will build and manage linear regression models to solve real-world problems.

2. Data Wrangling – The second course will equip all the skills to handle data of different types. You will perceive how to clean, reformat, and blend data from various data sources to make them ready for future analysis.

3. Classification Models – The third course will explain the concepts of classification modeling and how it differs from numeric modeling. Subsequently, you will build binary and non-binary classification models and evaluate the results.

4. A/B Testing – A/B Testing is a crucial tool for effective decision-making. First of all, you will learn about the fundamentals, such as selecting the target and managing control units and variables.

The second part of the course will delve into randomized and matched pair design tests. You will design the tests and analyze the results.

5. Time Series Forecasting – The fifth course will explain how data analysts handle data that have trend, seasonal and cyclical behavior. Later, you will learn about ETS and ARIMA models using the Alteryx platform and visualize the results.

6. Segmentation and Clustering – This final course will guide you through segmentation and clustering processes. All of which will help you spot patterns in your data. You will learn the tips and techniques to perform the tasks properly.

Finally, you will use Tableau to create compelling visualizations to display your results.

Each minor course will provide you with case examples, quizzes, and assignments that you can study further and practice. However, the best part of this program is the projects. You will work on one real-world project for every single course.

For instance, you will predict expected sales and profits from a catalog launch for a home goods manufacturer in the first course and build predictive models to provide strategic recommendations to a grocery store chain.

Completing these projects will earn you valuable hands-on experience. You will then be confident in using predictive analytics to solve business problems.

Regarding the pace, Udacity recommends spending ten hours per week on the course, and you will complete it in three months.

However, this program is entirely self-paced. You can select your own pace at will. Just keep in mind that the more time you enroll in the course, the more expensive the tuition fees (see below).

Student Support

Unlike most online courses, Udacity offers excellent student support, including the following:

Technical Mentor Support – Udacity mentors are available 24/7 for you to ask technical questions. You can use the chat interface on Student Hub to contact them. Most students will receive a reply within an hour, which is extremely fast compared to other platforms that may take days or even forever.

Project Reviews – Since you will be working on as many as six real-world projects, you can request experts to review your work and provide feedback at any time you want.

Also, there is no limit to requests, and in most cases, you will receive feedback in only 1-3 hours. Thus, you can freely create a feedback loop and learn from your mistakes.

Career Services – This student support is excellent for new grads. Udacity team will review your resume, LinkedIn profile, and Github portfolio (if available) to ensure that they are at professional standards.

This will increase your chances of receiving interview invitations from top companies and firms.

Pricing

This program costs $399 monthly. However, you can opt for a 3-month bundle and receive a 15% discount, lowering tuition fees to $339 per month.

Additionally, you can create an account with Udacity to access personalized discounts (like I did below).

These discounts can be as high as 75%. You can even use it to buy the bundle. Hence, it is possible to enroll in this top-notch program by paying less than $100 per month.

Pros & Cons

2. Datacamp’s Predictive Analytics Courses

Datacamp is a promising option to learn predictive analytics for beginners. The platform uses an interactive learning approach, making the lessons beginner-friendly and engaging. Therefore, if you are bored of traditional online courses, you may want to give Datacamp a try.

Course Content

Datacamp offers more than 300 data science courses on its platform, including three on predictive analytics as follows:

1. Introduction to Predictive Analytics in Python – The first course will explain the concepts of logistic regression models and how to use them to make predictions in a real business case.
2. Intermediate Predictive Analytics in Python – The second course will discuss organizing and preparing data for predictive analytics.
3. Predictive Analytics using Networked Data in R – You will use network learning and standard data mining techniques to predict the labels of nodes in networks.

Note: You will need to know Python and R before taking these courses. However, once you subscribe to Datacamp, you will gain access to all of its Python and R courses that you can take to fulfill the prerequisites.

Below is what you should expect from the Datacamp course. You will read the detailed instructions (on the left side) and complete the assignments by coding along directly on the web-based platform (on the right).

I find that this method is effective in keeping me concentrated. I am also less prone to being bored.

However, the drawback of Datacamp is that its courses only cover the fundamentals. They will not drill deep into advanced concepts or guide you to build real-world projects as other alternatives. Hence, you will need to buy another course elsewhere to learn more.

Pricing

Datacamp offers two pricing plans as follows (billed annually):

• Premium – starting at $12.42 per month
• Teams – $25 per month

The Premium plan would provide access to most of its 350+ courses on the platform, plus 80 projects and additional exclusive courses on Tableau, Power BI, and Oracle SQL.

If you want to learn predictive analytics or business analysis in general, the Premium plan would suffice. The Teams plan is for enterprises that want to provide data science training for their workforce.

However, Datacamp occasionally offers steep discounts (75% off) to the Premium plan (typically once every quarter), lowering subscription fees to $5 per month or even lower. I hence suggest subscribing to the Premium plan when they are on sale.

Pros & Cons

3. Introduction to Predictive Modeling

This Coursera course from the University of Minnesota will lead you through concepts, processes, techniques, and real-world predictive modeling applications. If you are looking for a tutorial to test the waters, this course will serve that purpose.

Course Content

Below is a summary of topics that you will learn from this course.

• Simple Linear Regression – Model structure, Ordinary Least Squares, and how to use Excel tools to create that model and make predictions
• Multiple Linear Regression – How to fit a multiple linear regression model using Excel tools, Overfitting/Underfitting problems, and best practices for selecting a suitable model
• Data Preparation – Steps to prepare a dataset for predictive modeling with Excel tools, Types of Variables, Data Cleaning, Multicollinearity, and many more
• Time Series Forecasting – Nature of Time-Series Data, Time Series Forecasting Techniques, and other techniques that can boost accuracy

In essence, this course focuses on building and evaluating predictive models using Excel. This will suit absolute beginners who want to grasp the concepts but are not tech-savvy enough to learn programming.

Most students complete this course in 12 hours. Regarding pricing, you can audit this course for free or subscribe to the entire specialization for $49 per month to get full access to all four courses on analytics for decision making.

Pros & Cons

4. Predictive Modeling and Machine Learning with MATLAB

Designed for MATLAB users, this course by MathWorks will guide students on how to use MATLAB to build, train, and optimize predictive models to analyze data.

Note: You should be familiar with MATLAB. Otherwise, you should take all prior courses in the specialization before taking this course.

Course Content

Below is a summary of topics you will learn in this 22-hour course.

• Create and evaluate regression models with MATLAB
• Supervised Learning Workflow
• Create and assess classification models
• Ensemble Models
• Hyperparameters
• Class Imbalance Handling
• and many more

Besides the concepts, you will learn through a practical study case. Hence, you will perceive how to use MATLAB tools to build a fully-functional predictive model in real life.

Auditing the course is free. However, I recommend subscribing to the entire specialization ($49 per month) to learn everything from the start, especially if you are not a proficient MATLAB user.

Pros & Cons

Coursera Plus

Since I have recommended several Coursera courses in this article, you may be interested in more than one course. If that is the case, I recommend subscribing to Coursera Plus instead.

This is because by paying $399 per year ($33.25 per month on average), you can get full access (not just audit) to more than 3000 courses and specializations on the platform.

With this subscription, you do not need to pay fees for each specialization, saving more than hundreds or even thousands of dollars in a process.

Other Alternatives

Below are other predictive analytics courses that you may want to consider. However, I did not include them in the list for specific reasons explained below.

Python Data Products for Predictive Analytics Specialization – Designed for students with Python experience, this Coursera specialization from UC San Diego explains all the steps to build accurate predictive models with Python and machine learning.

However, students reported that some lessons in the last course were not well-taught, while many had issues with the peer review system.

Related Courses

The following is a list of articles that will be helpful if you want to take other courses to strengthen your skills once you master predictive analytics.

• Business Analytics
• Marketing Analytics – Best for marketers who want to analyze marketing data from all sources effectively.
• Data Analytics