📊 Data Analytics Foundations

A free, vendor-neutral foundation course in data analytics. It covers the analytics lifecycle, types of analysis (descriptive, diagnostic, predictive, prescriptive), data types and quality, cleaning and exploratory data analysis, core descriptive and inferential statistics, effective data visualization and dashboards, and the ethics and governance of working with data. Built with visual lessons, original self-check questions and a final exam, it prepares anyone — analyst, manager or student — to turn raw data into trustworthy, decision-ready insight. It is awareness/foundation training and carries no vendor affiliation or endorsement. The course is organized into 7 modules, ending with a final exam (pass mark 80%). It is free awareness-level training designed for anyone who needs a practical, working understanding of the topic.

What you'll learn

• What is Data Analytics & the Analytics Lifecycle
• The Four Types of Analysis
• Data Types & Data Quality
• Data Cleaning & Exploratory Data Analysis (EDA)
• Descriptive Statistics — Centre & Spread
• Sampling, Correlation & Inference
• Data Visualization, Dashboards & Ethics

Learning objectives

• Define data analytics and explain how it turns raw data into decisions
• Walk through the analytics lifecycle from question to insight to action
• Distinguish the four types of analysis: descriptive, diagnostic, predictive and prescriptive
• Identify data types (structured/unstructured, qualitative/quantitative, nominal/ordinal/interval/ratio) and assess data quality dimensions
• Clean data and run exploratory data analysis (EDA) to find patterns, outliers and relationships
• Apply core descriptive statistics (mean, median, mode, range, variance, standard deviation) and read distributions
• Understand sampling, correlation vs causation and the basics of statistical inference
• Choose the right chart for the message and design clear, honest dashboards
• Apply data ethics, privacy and governance, avoiding bias and misleading visuals
• Sit a 10-question final exam (80% to pass) covering the whole course