Udacity Data Analysis And Visualization With Power BI Nanodegree Review
Becoming a data analyst comes with a lot of possibilities, helping companies of all sorts deal with their data. Not only will you be able to work with and organize data but turn it into visuals that are much easier to understand. With this information, you can consult companies on their next steps, helping them decided what’s best for them.
If you’re looking for the skills necessary Udacity’s Data Analysis and Visualization with Power BI Nanodegree can help. If you’re not sure about Udacity or whether or not this course is for you, take a look at this review. You’ll find learner’s thoughts, a look at the curriculum, and find out a bit more about the online academy.
About Udacity
Udacity is an online academy that has something for everyone in the field of IT. They’ve been on the web for more than a decade, offering both free and certification courses for learners of all levels. After beginning more than 10 years ago, their courses landed them on the map, getting the attention of several top names in IT. Now, these top-tier companies collaborate with them, creating courses and projects for a large number of courses.
Nanodegree Extras
When you sign up for a nanodegree, you’ll score a number of perks, all of which were created to set Udacity apart from other online academies. These perks are the things that catch our attention the most, complimenting the in-depth curriculum perfectly. With each nanodegree, students can enjoy:
Flexible Learning
You’ll have the chance to log in and learn wherever you are. No matter what the time is day or night, you can log in and learn for as long as you’d like, enjoying classes on your own time.
Hands-On Projects
With each nanodegree, Udacity collaborates with top names in the industry to create hands-on projects. These projects allow students to apply their newly learned knowledge, seeing how it all comes together in the long run.
Career Prep
From cleaning up resumes to organizing and setting up portfolios, career professionals can help learners do it all. There’s even a chance to organize a mock interview, getting a glimpse of what your first one will be like.
A Technical Mentor
Just in case anything happens while you’re logged in and learning, you’ll have a technical mentor. They will help to keep you on track and make sure that all runs smoothly so that you can get your work done.
A-list Instructors
Last but not least, each nanodegree comes with instructors that have years of experience in the field. Not only are their educational backgrounds solid but, they have worked with top companies in the industry too. Below, you can learn more about your instructors, seeing why Udacity chose them as course leaders.
Meet your Instructors
Lenore R. Flower
Lenore has a background in finance and currently works as a business intelligence specialist. Her role is important for businesses of all sizes, as she helps them manage their data and make better decisions on how to make it work for them. From consulting top IT companies to working with big data, she’s done a bit of everything.
Sean Chandler
Sean is a business intelligence engineer, currently overseeing a large number of users and developers at Humana. He’s got years of experience working with Power BI, spotlighted by Microsoft as an expert for business applications. Apart from his time in the industry, he had a solid educational background, imparting both on students.
Joseph Lozada
Joseph manages a team of analysts, helping them work with data and organize it in the best fashion. He works side by side with instructors as well, helping them learn Excel and Power BI inside out to be more effective in their teaching styles. He’s got professional, academic, and teaching experience, all of which he shares with anxious learners.
What are the Prerequisites?
While anyone looking to learn the techniques of data analysis can sign up for this course, Udacity has listed a few bits of knowledge that learners should have. To start the course ready to go and fully prepared, you should be able to:
- Work with Microsoft Excel and know how to organize data
- Understand basic equations in Excel
- Create tables and add filters to them
- Work with pivotal tables in Excel
Course Breakdown
This course is packed with all the skills you’ll need to become a data analyst. You’ll learn to work with Power BI, learning the benefits of using a powerful tool that can help you organize data and make it useful for organizations and small businesses. This course is broken up into three sections, all of which include a small hands-on project to apply your knowledge.
Introduction to Preparing and Modeling Data
When you get a look a raw data, it doesn’t seem to be useful. However, finding out how to organize it, you’ll find that it’s useful, telling a detailed story about a company’s inner workings. You’ll learn all about the concepts of organizing data, working with Power BI. This section also provides a detailed introduction to the tool, showing all of the features you will use the most.
Project: Build a Data Model for Brewing Company
In this project, you’ll help a small brewing company find ways to business more efficiently. Create models for them based on data they’ve gathered, showing them how they can become more competitive, sell more, and turn more profit. Go through all of the steps from organizing data to making a table and consulting in your first project.
Creating Visualizations with Power BI
Taking the understanding of data one step further, you’ll work with Power Bi to create detailed visuals. These visuals are based on the data you collected, allowing you to select the visual that best represents the information you’re sharing. When creating a report, you can present your findings to companies to help them make better decisions on how to take their business to the next level.
Project: Build a Power BI Report
In this project, you’ll work with a pet company, Waggle, to make important decisions. They’ve been testing a collar for cats, gathering data and results from tests. Using your skills, you’ll analyze the data, turning them into visuals that management can understand. Help them make a decision based on their data, choosing the best option for them and their business goals.
Advanced-Data Analysis
After working with the basics of data analysis, you’ll take your skills up a notch with advanced analysis. See what it takes to create unique formulas that create more detailed figures to make data tell a detailed story. Not only will you be able to transform data but also get a hold of how businesses will use it, seeing how you can become more effective and creative at helping them.
Project: Market Analysis Report for Clothing Chain
In this project, you’ll apply all of your skills to help an international clothing chain decide where they will sell. Taking a look at stats and data, you’ll consult them to find the best place that will bring them the best return. Besides numerical information, provide them with visuals that will also help them make their decisions and see things more clearly.
How Long Does It Take?
When it comes to taking the course, you can take as much time as you want. Logging in and learning is an option that you have anytime day or night. Plus, you can finish the course as fast as your schedule allows. To give you an idea about the course content and how long it could take you, Udacity released an estimate. They claim that, at just five hours per week, you can be done with this course in three months. Using this as an estimate, you can gauge your time and estimate the cost.
What’s the Cost?
Paying the bill with Udacity is simple. They offer a few ways that learners can choose to pay, both of which are set to work with budgets of all kinds. When choosing a way to pay, students should take a look at their schedule, seeing if they have the time to dedicate more than five hours a week or more. With a look at your schedule, choose from one of these two options.
Pay as you go
With this option, you can take as long as you want, enjoying access to the curriculum and all of the extras that Udacity has to offer. If you choose to take this route, you’re looking at $359 per month, which will go on until you finalize the course. While this might be doable for many learners, it might not be for others, needing to stick to a budget.
Udacity’s deal
That’s where Udacity’s deal might help, which comes with an option to pay and get it out of the way. On top of that, students can enjoy a discount, one that drives the total down to $927. This includes three months of access along with all of the extras. Plus, there is a 15% discount for taking the deal and paying upfront.
Learner Reviews
“My Reviewer was very professional and patient with me. I’m so grateful to him. He was able to push me to succeed in this project and he helped me to understand many concepts of product managers. He deserves a lot of thanks and I want to say to him you are a good one.” – Samuel E.
“This is my second program I take from Udacity. Overall, I learn lots of things and this program get me ready to jump into real career field. I am still learning but I satisfy the contents so far. If you want to get yourself ready for the data analysis industry, but do not know how to start, this is the program you might want to take. This one has plenty of resource and starting packages you need to know. Very good program and recommend for sure!” – Amy T.
“Pros, the structure of the course that starts with experienced industry interviews, that smoothly take you for first profession awareness. The weekly meeting with the mentors that keep support and help with any inquiry and extra live examples of our projects. the way of project reviewer this ask for enhancement and the encouragement words keep you up and have extra excited.” – Hamza Ahmed
Can I Land A Job?
Data analysts are in demand, with the market showing 20% growth estimated from 2018 to 2028. It makes sense, especially since companies across industries are turning to data to make more effective decisions. The ability to turn data into useful figures and visuals comes with a lot of power, providing something that businesses will need more and more.
As far as to pay, the average data analyst in 2021 makes $72,518 a year. Those that are starting out will need to prove their skills, enjoying a bump up to their pay the more that they learn. This job comes with the need to stay educated, always looking out for the most current techniques and methods to provide better and faster results.
Is It Worth It?
Udacity has a lot to offer students looking to land a career in IT. Not only will you find an in-depth curriculum but an opportunity to score perks while you’re enrolled. Instead of taking any regular certification course, try out one that was created in collaboration with top companies in IT. You’ll have amazing instructors, hands-on projects, and even a chance to clean up your resume all while taking your time to complete the course curriculum.
If becoming a data analyst is a dream for you, then you can get the skills you need from Udacity. In as little as three months, you could be on your way to starting your career, using the skills you learned with Udacity as a way to jump in with confidence from day one. So, is it worth it? In short, yes! Data analysts are in-demand and there’s surely a job waiting for you.
