Why you Should Avoid Online Courses Created by Tech-Companies
A Brutal Review of Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate (2.3/5)
Imagine if you can make an ad for people to watch. But contrary to current norms, when it comes to this particular ad, you lure people get to buy it to watch it. Within the ad, you get to showcase your latest products that your potential buyers can use under the free version and buy for more advanced features.
Secondly, like any other unscrupulous monopoly, you exploit your bragging rights by showcasing your PR efforts. From this course-like-ad, you exhibit your feigned commitment to environmental sustainability, access to healthcare, and having a diverse workforce.
That is about 3/4 of the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate. The rest is scattered technical know-how of data analysis. From incessantly repeated motivations to frivolous journal entries, prepare to regrettably waste months.
In this program, your face gets endlessly brushed with Google’s products and PR campaigns until you feel like the intent is to brainwash enough to believe the company cares more than profits.
Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate has eight courses.
Expect to be boggled down by every detail of what Google’s workforce cares about global warming, gender representation, racial inclusion, LGBT, and healthcare access…
Don’t worry it is not explicit, just subtle enough to make you feel like you are learning along not watching a lengthy ad. I commend the company for its progressive efforts but maybe focus on why I bought the course. Training in data analysis techniques?
8 courses within the program
The first few courses (1,2,3) are like a lengthy introduction to nothingness but corporate pr presentations. I only started noticing meaningful learning from course 4 module 3. I have bought a couple of online courses such as those of Angela (Python)-Udemy and I can tell you Google’s program isn’t even close to teaching something of value or relevance.
If I were to give it a star rating, the Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate would be 2.3. The course content is constantly shifting from company PR efforts to being shown how to use Google data products. Before you know it, the time left for any serious data analysis work is too little to be considered worthy of going through the whole course.
What this course did well? It gives you the big picture. You get to know the end goal; what you can achieve in a data analysis career and which path you can afterward.
Don’t just take my word for it. Let’s dig into what people say about this Google’s D.A. program
Since I am not alone when it comes to relying solely on a social proof when making an online purchasing decision, we will conduct a simple analysis of reviews and enrollments. In the future, once I become good at data science, I might consider a sentiment analysis (NLP), but for now, we will do with the little we got.
You can follow along, or you can do your research.
DATA ANALYSIS
Here is the data we will be using; it is little but enough!
Course 1: Foundations: Data, Data, Everywhere = 22 hours, 4.8(83,533 ratings)
Course 2: Ask Questions to Make Data-Driven Decisions = 21 hours, 4.7(25,416 ratings)
Course 3: Prepare Data for Exploration = 25 hours, 4.8(15,246 ratings)
Course 4: Process Data from Dirty to Clean = 23 hours, 4.8(11,491 ratings)
Course 5: Analyze Data to Answer Questions = 26 hours, 4.6(8,329 ratings)
Course 6: Share Data Through the Art of Visualization = 24 hours, 4.6(6,708 ratings)
Course 7: Data Analysis with R Programming = 36 hours, 4.8(7,494 ratings)
Course 8: Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study = 9 hours, 4.8(10,613 ratings)
The rating of courses drifts from 4.8 to 4.7 to 4.6 and back to 4.8. As such, it is not statistically significant. We will focus on the number of enrolled students and the proportion of those who reviewed. Assuming an average rating of 4.7 for all 8 courses, we can find the proportion of reviewers based on total no of reviews and no. of enrollees as follows:
The percentage of reviewers based on the total enrolled students per course
This is a low proportion of customer feedback which can be attributed to a lower inclination to leave feedback.
We can conclude that out of 100 students, the number of students who leave a review is 2.88. That’s about 3; not considering whether they left a positive or negative one.
Despite students positively reviewing course 1 with a 4.8 rating, the number of enrollees who reviewed course 2 fell from 83k to 25k. A factor of 3.3 declines should be a red flag. It means people’s expectations drastically reduced as the perception of course changed.
Common Complains
These Google data analysis courses are not there to offer you intricate specialized technical knowledge unless you are looking forward to being introduced to using Big Query, Cloud Services, and any other Google coding-related developer tool, etc.
A good example is the lack of step-by-step tutorials for the two given case studies (critical) in the final course. These courses seem to only serve the purpose of those whose desire is to add another cert to their resume. The simple above analysis I did for this article, I could have taken less than 8 min to learn from YouTube. Besides, I still struggled despite being in my fourth course.
Though this one is from me. I was not happy they did not include Python in one of their courses. Python libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, Matplotlib, and Seaborn are fundamental in any serious data analysis. Honestly, they ain’t that difficult or complex to be included in entry-level beginner courses.
But if you were Google what can you sell by teaching Python? Even if Google taught Python, these ingrates would eventually switch to other IDE, editors, and Notebooks owned by other corporations and open-source organizations. So, teach only what can make customers stay.
Don’t worry there many easy tests that are there to give you a sense of accomplishment. I just wonder whether I will be working as the next generation of kindergarteners.
Why does the Program sell?
So, what makes Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate still sell despite being distastefully bad?
First, it is made by a reputable company that wouldn’t care about littering every corner of the internet with Google-based products, courses, or learning materials.
Secondly, many assume since it is worth the shot as it is offered by Google, as such they believe the company (and others) would recognize such a certificate when making a hiring decision.
Third, like every other human being, we all depend on social proof when making purchasing decisions. On the landing page of the course program, you will be enticed by the high number of enrollees in the first course.
I find it misleading how they count thumbs up for any particular course. Consider that course 6 (Share Data Through the Art of Visualization) has 4.6 stars, and 6,708 ratings out of 351,679 enrollments but still Coursera gives it a 98% thumbs up.
These courses are not difficult but in all actuality, they are just boredom-infested. Let’s call a spade a spade, pushing yourself through the program when your brain actually feels no meaningful gain is difficult.
Do I regret it? You bet! If it is appealing enough and you bought it, then it is on you. Blame yourself for falling for it.
My habit of looking at top-seller and not wanting to risk on courses that lack many reviews has landed me on the bandwagon effect, herd mentality, and confirmation bias. But again, when did unreasoned conformity ever have a good ending?
Resolve
I no longer want to buy Tech-companies’ affiliated courses, the reason being that most of these corporations just want to teach you how to use their own products. Once developers are ingrained into using their developer tools, then they can’t switch and these companies have locked them into their infrastructure.
Ever heard of a walled garden strategy where companies lock-in customers (&developers) in a closed digital ecosystem? With controlled access, as a developer, you find you only have limited options.
How do you become an all-round developer when efficacy of your skills is dependent on a certain company’s software?
The problem with product placement in online courses is that they are often not widely adopted across the industry. Google’s Big Query has a market share of around 16%. But the trouble is as a novice, you often find yourself in a quandary of what should come first, SQL or getting acquainted with a new software.
During Google Data Analytics Professional Certificate courses, I found myself agitated by the fact that we took more time getting introduced to Google’s products than actual SQL learning.
I ended up loathing the product. In some ways, I found Big Query to be like a cockpit, too many buttons but all you need to be effective is a few. Too distractive to be conducive to any beginner’s learning or practicing. A simple text-like editor would have sufficed, but that’s not why the program was created. It is here to sell the brand, sell software, and sell developer tools.
Final Thoughts
I remember non-affiliated courses from individuals such as Python by Angela on Udemy. (I am not promoting her; I am just shocked at how a course made by an individual expert is a million times better than that of a tech giant).
She had no software to sell or PR campaign to brush all over clients’ faces like Google or Microsoft. I remember her every material (video or text) was about equipping you with technical skills or knowledge; though she gave the learner no big picture of why we were learning, but that is for another day.
Conclusively, there is a stark contrast between tech-companies affiliated courses and those of regular experts in the field. I have learned my lesson though the charges aren’t much, the time wasted on corporate gibberish PR is enough to make me remorseful.
