The digital world is moving at a breakneck speed. Blockchain technology is one of the newest additions to the ever-growing and ever-expanding digital world. Invented by Satoshi Nakamoto, blockchain technology is an effective digital ledger-based encryption system that offers some of the most secure transaction means. However, as frontier tech gains traction, its use and application are increasingly becoming diverse. The diverse use case and the growing opportunities mean now is a better time than ever to get started with blockchain development. Here’s a list of the best free blockchain development courses to kickstart your blockchain journey.  What is Blockchain Development?  To better understand blockchain development, it is important to get a hold of what blockchain is and how it works. Blockchain is a distributed and decentralized digital ledger system. This ledger system uses a highly encrypted digital footprint that records transactions across multiple computers. The process essentially mimics the way of creating blocks. These blocks are encrypted with immutable technologies. The use of various cryptographic techniques means that you cannot open any block without a specific key. You can’t also modify or alter any blocks as they are immutable meaning it's extremely difficult to rewrite or reprogram them.  Blockchain development takes its shape based on the tech itself. It's an in-demand tech skill that requires in-depth knowledge of the platform, decentralization process, cryptographic techniques as well as blockchain architecture. You don't need to learn all of these aspects of blockchains at the same time. A specialization in a specific discipline, like blockchain architecture can easily kickstart your career as a freelancer or a blockchain developer.  Read more: Best Free Online Scriptwriting Courses in 2024 Top Free Blockchain Development Courses in 2024  The Complete Course on Understanding Blockchain Technology This course is provided for free by Arjun Reddy in Udemy. The complete course as it is named, is an essential beginner's guide to understanding how blockchain works. This course doesn’t dive deep into the nitty gritty details of development itself. Rather it gives you a clear idea about what blockchain is and how it works. What are its different variables, encryptions, cryptographic techniques, and digital signatures? And different terminologies associated with blockchain development. It’s a concise course that lets you assess whether blockchain development is for you and if so, what can be your specialization. Around 42,902 students have taken this 50-minute on-demand course with an average rating of 4.3 stars.  The course can be accessed for free here: (https://www.udemy.com/course/understanding-blockchain-technology/) Read more: Craft a Job-Winning Resume with AI: Step-by-Step Guide to Stand Out Blockchain Fundamentals Free Course The blockchain fundamentals free course is provided by 101Blockchains as a gateway into enterprise blockchain technology. Similar to the course above, the fundamental course provides a basic overview of how blockchain works and what are the working mechanism behind this technology.  The second part covers the concept of smart contracts. It provides a detailed overview of the concept and shows various applications in enterprise solutions. And lastly, the course delves into the different verticals of blockchains and their integration into frontier tech and enterprise solutions.  The course has been completed by over 60,000 learners with over 1000 5-star rating. The flexible learning offers a 4-day course completion deadline with just 15 minutes allotted each day.  The course can be accessed for free of cost through the following link: https://101blockchains.com/free-blockchain-course/  Read more: Free Online AI Courses by Harvard University from Basic to Advanced Levels BerkeleyX: Blockchain Technology If you want a more advanced understanding of blockchain operations, the BerkeleyX: Blockchain Technology course could be the perfect starting point for you. The course starts off with the basic technical foundations topics of blockchain like the CAP Theorem and Byzantine Generals Problem. It also covers the alternative consensus mechanisms such as the proof-of-work, proof-of-stake, and other voting-based algorithms working under the federated consensus system.  The course further delves into crypto-economics to provide a general idea about the compositional fields of cryptography and economics. There are also detailed working mechanisms of several enterprise-based blockchain solutions like Quorum, Tendermint, Ripple, and HyperLedger. Beyond the examples, the course also delves into the enterprise-level scaling of blockchain technology using verticals like block increase, Segregated Witness, and Lightning Network.  The course is jointly offered by the Blockchain division and the Computer Science Department of UC Berkeley in association with EdX. The course is a self-paced one with a 3-5 hour per week learning module for a total of 6 weeks.  The course can be accessed for free here: https://www.edx.org/learn/blockchain/university-of-california-berkeley-blockchain-technology Read more: How to Answer “Why Did You Choose this Job?” Effectively Blockchain Opportunities Beyond Crypto Assets If you’re looking for a blockchain development basics course geared towards accountants and supply chain analysts, then this course might be the one for you. Blockchain Opportunities Beyond Crypto Assets provides a detailed take on the financial enterprise-level operations of the current blockchain technology.  It specifically dives into the transactions, block creation, and the fees associated with each transaction and how they are determined. It also takes a look into UTXO as well as other account-based models for financial operations. Moving on, the course delves into throughput, settlement, as well as zero-knowledge proof.  The last part of the course focuses on domain-specific applications like healthcare, supply chain, financial services, Auditchain, tax, and decentralized marketplaces of the future.  The course is made available by AICPA and CIMA at Coursera. The beginner-level course will take about 2 hours to finish at a flexible learning pace.  You can access the course form here at free of cost: https://www.coursera.org/learn/blockchain-opportunities-beyond-crypto-assets Read more: How to Customize Your Resume for Each Job Application Blockchain, Cryptoassets, and Decentralized Finance This course on Coursera provides a beginner to intermediate-level understanding of cryptoassets and decentralized finance under the domain of blockchain operations. The course first details the nature and process of digital assets like Bitcoin, NFTs, protocol tokens, securities tokens, and other form of digital assets.  The second part of the module delves into smart contracts. It provides a basic overview of how smart contracts work and how they can minimize transaction costs for enterprises. The module also takes a look into the issues created by identity-based systems and how blockchain tech can overcome them through a self-governing identifier process.  Lastly, the course takes a deep dive into the integration of decentralized tech into the existing open networked enterprises.  This course is offered at Coursera by INSEAD. The self-paced learning module takes about 17 hours to complete. It has a 4.6 rating on the platform.  The course can be enrolled for free through the following link: https://www.coursera.org/learn/blockchain-crypto-decentralized-finance Read more: Does Everyone Need to Learn Programming? The Truth About Coding in The Age of AI Final Words  Blockchain is the future of transaction-based solutions as well as the creation and protection of digital assets. The application of the tech itself has diverse verticals from healthcare to finance to supply chains. The free blockchain development courses listed above give a beginner to intermediate-level idea regarding blockchain development at several of these verticals. 

While watching a TVC or drama, have you ever wondered who wrote those lines? Screenwriting or scriptwriting refers to the art and craft of writing scripts for digital and mass media such as TVC, YouTube, plays, feature films, video games, etc. Nowadays, scriptwriting offers a dynamic career with opportunities for writers in film, television, and digital media. Here are the best free online international scriptwriting courses in 2024 to launch your writing journey. 7 Free Online Scriptwriting Courses  . Scriptwriting: Write a Pilot Episode for a TV or Web Series (Project-Centered Course) In this free, project-centred course, you will write a complete pilot episode for your unique TV or web series. Over 21 hours, spread across 3 weeks at 7 hours per week, you will break down the creative process, discover a structured approach, and produce a polished, pitch-ready script.  This course emphasises "Active Learning," meaning you will learn by doing. Gain confidence in your ideas and abilities, preparing you to pitch your first script and start your next project. The course holds a 4.5 out of 5 rating based on 741 reviews. You can get more details here  https://www.coursera.org/learn/script-writing Read more: Free Online Content Writing Courses Learn Screenwriting Basics from 'The Avengers' This free, 30-minute tutorial introduces beginners to screenwriting, using 'The Avengers' as a prime example. Rated 4.7 out of 5 with 384 reviews, the course covers writing an outline, structuring three acts, building scenes, and creating interesting characters.  You will learn the mechanics of big movies through 8 concise lessons. By the end, you will have an outline for your next movie, utilising techniques from one of the biggest films of all time. Get enrolled here https://www.udemy.com/course/learn-screenwriting-basics-from-the-avengers/ Read more: 7 Top AI Writing Tools, Software to Generate Human-Like Text An Introduction to Screenwriting This free online course by the University of East Anglia spans 2 weeks, with a 3-hour weekly study commitment. It introduces key concepts and fundamental principles of professional screenwriting. You will learn basic theory, script analysis, and practical exercises, covering topics like story structures, character development, scene construction, and screenplay formatting.  Ideal for beginners and experienced writers aiming to elevate their skills, this course includes engaging videos, articles, and discussions. The course has a 4.8 out of 5 rating based on 884 reviews. By the end, you will be fluent in screenplay language and concepts. Find the course here  https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/screenwriting Read more: English Writing Skill: How to Start Writing and Improve Continuously Professional Scriptwriting for Animated Explainer Videos & Motion Graphics In just 38 minutes, this free course teaches you how to write engaging and high-converting scripts for animated explainer videos and motion graphics. You will learn essential skills such as determining script length, designing a professional briefing form, and capturing the brand's voice. 

Data science and machine learning have been the buzzword in the tech world for quite some time. The prospect of working with data, making clear and concise decisions, and a high payout career may seem lucrative to anyone. However, it’s not possible to become an expert in this field that easily. There are a lot of basics like statistics, programming, and analytics to cover before getting a hang of things. If all of these seem a bit too overwhelming, there are a few great foundation courses on data science and ML to get started from scratch. Check out which one best fits your needs. Why Should You Learn Data Science and ML? Let us ask you this, why shouldn’t you? Data science and ML holds the highest job prospect in the coming years. In fact, there are currently over 200,000 data science and ML-related jobs on LinkedIn alone. Industry leaders predict that the need for data scientists will increase by over 26% in the next 5 years. And the growth is expected to be exponential from thereon. While there are a lot of jobs at risk of becoming invalid due to automation and AI, the need for data science majors will forever be on the rise. And if the job security wasn’t enough to generate interest, the general median salary for a data science major in the USA is around 110,000 USD which roughly translates to 95,08,182 BDT per year. Did that grab your attention? Read along about how you can get started in your data science and ML journey. Read How to Be a Data Analyst from CSE or Non-CSE Backgrounds?  Top 9 Free Beginner’s Courses to Learn Data Science and ML  Data Science Specialization – Coursera This course is offered by Coursera in association with John Hopkins University. The free course is a mid-tier one designed for people who already have a grasp of the basics of statistics and R. The course will follow a detailed guide on using R to clean and sift data, manage projects and publish using Github, and data acquisition. It will also entail detailed regression analysis procedures using different regression models. The approximate course duration is about 11 months. Introduction to Machine Learning – Udacity Machine learning is almost as complicated as its name. It combines two significantly difficult disciplines – computer science and statistics to deliver a powerful predictive mechanism that makes up the base for modern data science. This intermediate-level course will introduce the students to the machine learning lens, data extraction process, and predictive algorithms. The approximate course duration is 10 weeks. Read Free Online Basic Programming Courses for Beginners Data Science Fundamentals – IBM Who better to learn data science from than the company that made the first computer? This beginner-level course is provided by IBM in association with Cognitive Class. The main aim of this course is to initiate the students with the very basics of data, its processes, life cycle, usage, and application. This course is part of a series of foundation courses that gradually progresses to intermediate and advanced levels. Students will also learn about different open-source data management tools. The approximate duration of the course is 10 weeks. Introduction to Data Science – Metis This course is a free introductory step to the data science boot camp offered by Metis. It is a small course that will be useful for beginners trying to get their head around data science. Students don't necessarily have to participate in the Bootcamp afterward, rather it’s a stepping stone to the world of data analytics. The 5-week-long course will see students learn about data cleaning, model creation, validation, and visualization. Read What is the Best Programming Language to Learn First? Machine Learning with Python – Coursera This Coursera course is supervised by IBM and is part of a series of machine learning levels. This is a beginner course that follows the integration of the commonly used programming language Python with ML. Students will learn about model evaluation, supervised learning, unsupervised learning, and different ML algorithms. The course will take approximately 22 hours to complete. Applied Data Science with Python Specialization – Coursera This applied data science course is fulfilled by the University of Michigan. This is an intermediate-level course with the main focus on the application end. Students wishing to get the basics first can check out the other 4 parts of this concurrent course. This specific course will focus on inferential statistical analysis and its implications, applied ML algorithms, and how to interpret results. The course will also focus on different data visualization techniques. The approximate course duration is 5 months. Read Game-based Programming: Best Coding Games for Children Data Quest Data Quest is an online platform that is all about data science and ML. But instead of the regular courses, the platform takes a more innovative approach to data science. Instead of having video lectures that guide the students first, the data quest starts with projects. While it may seem daunting at first, the interactive nature of the project and clear guidelines makes it easy for anyone to pick up the quirks. There are all sorts of resources available for free including paid plans. Data Science for Everyone – DataCamp This course is pretty much like its name. It’s a completely non-technical course focusing on the very basics of data science for absolute beginners. It starts by addressing what data science is and how it can be incorporated into modern jobs or how it benefits the big techs. It also gives an idea about how probability is related to computation and ML predictions. There aren’t any technicalities here so anyone can have a go-to to see whether data science is actually for them or not. Read How to Get a Job in Google from Bangladesh? Learn Data Science with R – Udemy The main basis of data science is made up of probability and machine learning. While ML mainly works with Python, data scientists need in-depth knowledge about R to get started with probability and regression model formation. This 10-part series from Udemy takes the students from the basics to the intermediate level of using R for data science. The course doesn’t connect the detailed dots with data management, but the students will learn much about sourcing and cleaning data for model applications. Final Words So far, we have shared 10 open source online courses for learning data science, data analytics and machine learning. Many people get attracted to data science just because of all the noise and prospects around it. But in reality, it's not everyone's cup of tea. But should that stop people from having a go at it? Absolutely not. Instead, these courses are a great starting point to see whether data science and ML match your passion and skill set and whether they can be a long-term career choice. Read Top 10 In-demand Tech Skills Freshers Should Learn in 2022

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