Coursera is a superb platform to learn coding and programming as it partners with top industry leaders and Universities from across the globe to offer high-quality courses on a flexible schedule. The platform offers courses in varied streams from business to social science, but of course, the platform shines in its tech and programming courses as it offers the best online courses for Computer Science.
One of the interesting things about Coursera is that in addition to its individual courses, the platform even features structural learning courses called specialization, and also accredited master’s courses from top universities. All in all, Coursera provides learning choices for every objective, no matter big or small.
When it comes to coding and programming for beginner level, the platform offers as many options, no matter whether you are aspiring to choose data science or software engineering as a career. The article provides some of the best online courses for Computer Science offered by Coursera for aspiring programmers.
The top coding specialization and courses mentioned below cover several coding languages, from JavaScript and CSS/HTML to Scala and C. Furthermore, these coding courses cover every aspect of learning to code ranging from the very basics of computer science and programming to the more specialized foundations of a tech career.
One can purchase the individual coding courses available at Coursera or can purchase all the courses under a specialization about the path in tech you wish to take. Coursera even offers an annual subscription for its users called Coursera Plus, which provides you access to more than 3000 courses.
Table of Contents
BEST ONLINE COURSES IN COMPUTER SCIENCE:
Introduction to Computer Science and Programming (Coursera CS Specialization)
This specialization includes three courses that will provide you an excellent beginning in the fundamental concepts of computer science. The specialization course teaches you to handle mathematical things, use coding to solve problems or puzzles, learn how to design interactive and 2D graphics, and more.
The specification is best for those who wish to pursue a degree in computer science, as the courses offered by the University of London will count equivalent to an online Bachelor of Science degree if you opt for their full program.
Introduction to Computer Science and Programming Course includes:
- Introduction to Computer Programming
- Mathematics for Computer Science
- How Computers Work
What will you learn?
Computing Mathematics, how to formulate graphical programs, p5.js library, JavaScript, binary, and other number bases.
Course Offered By: University of London
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 4 months (5 hours a week)
SQL for Data Science
With SQL, students can learn the foundation skills to begin analyzing data the way a data scientist does. By the competition of this online course, students will be able to use different kinds of data like numbers and strings, grasp the fundamentals of SQL, and write complex and simple data selection. This SQL for data science course is taught by Sadie St. Lawrence, an experienced data scientist and founder/CEO of Women in Data. The course is considered one of the best online courses for Computer Science.
What will you learn?
Sorting, filtering, modifying, calculating, and analyzing data with SQL and SQLite
Course Offered By: University of California, Davis
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 4 weeks (3-4 hours a week)
Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals (Coding Specialization)
This five-course specialization offered by Coursera includes the fundamentals of Java programming which allows exploring a career as a software engineer to learners. The course is ideal for students at beginner’s level and who wish to learn the basics of software development and design a program of their own at the end.
Java Programming and Software Engineering Fundamentals include:
- Programming Foundations with JavaScript, CSS, and HTML.
- Java Programing: Lists, Arrays, and, Structured Data
- Java Programming: Principles of Software Development
- Java Programming: Design a Recommendation System
What will you learn?
HTML/CSS, Java, JavaScript
Course Offered By: Duke University
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 5 months (3 hours a week)
HTML, CSS, and JavaScript for Web Developers
The course is one of the best online courses for Computer Science and is best suited for beginners who wish to develop web pages from the ground up using CSS, and HTML which are considered the simplest and best programming languages for learners. During this coding course, students will learn to develop a mobile-friendly restaurant web page along with a completely functional web application.
What will you learn?
JavaScript, Ajax HTML/CSS
Course Offered By: Johns Hopkins University
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 5 weeks (4-6 hours a week)
Python for Everybody (Coursera Coding Specialization)
The five-course specialization acquaints learners with fundamental programming concepts, including networked application program interfaces, programming concepts, and databases all programmed by Python. In the capstone assessment, learners will pursue their own project to visualize data as well as creating and designing their own applications for processing and data retrieval using Python.
Python for Everybody course includes the following:
- Python Data Structure
- Getting started with Python (Programming for Everybody)
- Using a database with Python
- Using Python to Access Web Data
- Capstone: Processing, Retrieving, Visualising Data with Python
What will you learn?
XML, Python 3, Data Analysis, JSON, D3.js SQL, SQLite3.
Course offered by: University of Michigan
Level of course: Beginner
Course Duration: 8 months (Suggested: 3 hours/week)
R Programming
In this one of the best online courses for Computer Science coding course, students will learn about how to program in ‘R’ – the language used for effective data analysis. Learners will get an insight into basic data types in R and will learn how to configure statistical programming software use control structures, and debugging tools in R, and more. The course will further make learners work on the programming assignments to sharpen their skills.
What will you learn?
R, RStudio
Course Offered By: Johns Hopkins University
Level of Course: Intermediate (You should have beginner level experience in Python and familiarity with regression).
Course Duration: 5 months (3 hours a week)
Ruby on Rails: An Introduction
This comprehensive Ruby on Rails coding course apart from basics covers the more advanced aspects such as hashes, arrays, unit testing, Ruby gems, and more. By the end of the course, learners will be able to design and deploy a web app to the cloud.
What will you learn?
Ruby, Heroku, Ruby on Rails, Ruby on Rails editor: Sublime Text
Course Offered By: Johns Hopkins University
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 15 hours (2-3 hours a week)
SAS Programmer Professional Certificate (Coursera Coding Specialization)
In this three-course specialization, learners will explore how to write SAS programs to access, prepare, explore, and analyze data. SAS programming can be efficiently used for spanning data science, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. By the completion of the course, students will be prepared to take the SAS Base Programming Specialist Certification test to get better opportunities.
SAS Programmer Professional Certificate Course includes:
- Practical SAS Programming and Certification Review
- Getting Started with SAS Programming
- Doing More with SAS Programming
What you will learn?
Base SAS, SAS programming, SAS functions, SAS data sets
Course Offered By: SAS
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 5 months (4 hours a week)
Functional Programming in Scala (Coding Specialization)
Scala is at the essence of enormous massive websites like Tumble, Twitter, and even on Coursera. This course is considered the best online course for Computer Science as its five-course specialization will educate and train learners to work on similar projects. The coding and programming courses under this course teach learners how to write elegant functional code, manipulate or analyze data, design APIs and libraries, formulate reactive applications, and much more. Under this course’s capstone project, learners will use real-world data to develop an enormous data processing application.
Functional Programming in Scala Course Includes:
- Parallel programming
- Functional Program Design in Scala
- Functional Programming Principles in Scala
- Functional Programming in Scala Capstone
- Big Data Analysis with Scala and Spark
What you will learn?
Scala, functional programming, Apache Spark
Course Offered By: École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
Level of Course: Intermediate (At least one year of programming experience, in any language.)
Course Duration: 7 months (Suggested: 7 hours/week)
Introduction to Programming in C (Coursera Coding Specialization)
In this 4-course programming specialization, you’ll be using C code to develop algorithms and solve complex problems. At the end of this Coursera coding specialization, you’ll incorporate what you’ve learned into a Monte Carlo simulation for calculating poker hand probabilities.
As a bonus, if you’d like to apply for a master’s degree at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, Coursera highlights that “Successful completion of this Specialization will be considered by admissions as a demonstration of your skill and enhance your master’s application.”
In this four-course specialization in programming, learners will be using C code to formulate algorithms and solve complicated problems. By the end of this Programming in C specialization, learners will incorporate what they have learned throughout the course for calculating poker hand probabilities.
As a surplus, if students later wish to apply for a master’s program at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering, Coursera has accentuated that the successful completion of this course will be considered by the University as a demonstration of skills and would improve the master’s application.
Introduction to Programming in C Includes:
- Programming Fundamentals
- Pointers, Arrays, and Recursion
- Writing, Running, and Fixing Code in C
- Interacting with the System and Managing Memory
What will you learn?
C, compiler, debugging, algorithms
Course Offered By Duke University
Level of Course: Beginner
Course Duration: 5 months (4 hours a week)
