Best IoT Courses in 2024 | Internet of Things Courses
The Internet of Things (IoT) is getting popular, just like Data Science, Machine Learning, Blockchain, and Cloud computing. It has been getting a lot of traction recently, and once 5G comes into the picture, IoT will make a massive job requirement. Read on to explore the best IoT courses and also find out what to look for in an IoT course.
What to Look for in an IoT course
IoT or the Internet of Things involves two parts: the Internet and things. We all know that the Internet is about computer systems and connecting computers by Networking. Things are the devices that will interact in an IoT ecosystem: the Sensors (devices that sense physical systems and collect data), the Actuators (devices that take action like motors, LED, buzzers, etc.).
IoT Basics consists of the following –
- learning the basic concepts of computing and microprocessors/microcontrollers
- How to program a microcontroller and microprocessor
- Sense environment variables with Sensors
- Take actions by actuators
- Collecting data from sensors
- Analyzing data
- Taking events driven actions by the actuator
What is available in online IoT courses?
As of now, the mainstream IoT courses talk about Arduino and Raspberry Pi, which are nothing but ready-to-use Microcontroller and Microprocessor, respectively, along with all other required parts like a programmer, interaction pins, etc. readily available onboard so that you can start working on it without any fuss.
To program these IoT boards, course will instruct you on writing codes in Python for Raspberry Pi and C for Arduino.
Apart from that, they will also show the fundamental interactions of these boards with sensors and actuators with the help of a program.
Once you can interconnect sensors, actuators, and boards together with the help of a program, then you will learn how to inter-relate them with analytics. They will show you the use of IoT Platforms like AWS Iot, Azure, Thingspeak, etc. so that you can grasp the end-to-end architecture of IoT and understand the big picture.
Learning these basic concepts will enable you for the more advanced topics, where you can enhance your understanding and scale up to work with more devices, boards, languages, and protocols.
In the next step, you should explore concepts like IoT Protocols, MQTT, CoAP, more sensors, and actuators and interconnect them.
IoT is a pervasive field, and there are no limits to learning, thus once you learn the basics, you can go on exploring without any boundaries.
Best online courses for IoT
We have explored IoT courses and IoT tutorial available online and listed out the best ones for you. We have segregated these based on free IoT courses, paid ones, IoT basics, and advanced, and also suggested some excellent IoT certification courses.
1. An Introduction to Programming the Internet of Things (IoT) Specialization – Coursera
- Cost – Free / Coursera monthly charges for certification
- Ideal for – Beginners
- Educator – Ian Harris
- Link – Go to external link
It is a specialization IoT certification course on Coursera, which means it consists of multiple courses to form the whole specialization. You can take specific courses or do the whole specialization by taking all the courses. There are six courses in this specialization to be specific, which are listed below –
This course will, first of all, explain the use of IoT and create a motivation to learn IoT in the very first course, which is reasonably necessary to learn anything by nicely.
Then it will explain the big picture of IoT through Arduino, which is a microcontroller in courses 2 and 3, later on, it will go on to explain the IoT basics by use of Raspberry Pi in course 4 and 5, so that means you will learn not only the basics but also two different boards which are most popular as of now for learning the IoT technology.
It just doesn’t stop there and goes on to the 6th course, where you will learn to make a capstone project, which means that you will implement your knowledge and master the concepts you have understood in this course.
Below is the list of content that you will find in this course –
- Introduction to the Internet of Things and Embedded Systems
- The Arduino Platform and C Programming
- Interfacing with the Arduino
- The Raspberry Pi Platform and Python Programming for the Raspberry Pi
- Interfacing with the Raspberry Pi
- Programming for the Internet of Things Project
This course is suitable for beginners, and it will take around 5 to 6 months to complete. If you are a beginner, then indeed, this is the go-to course for you, and as this is Coursera so you can rest assured of its quality of content.
You can take this course for free, but in that case, you will not receive a certificate, so you can also go for the Paid version for a certificate that you can add to your linked-in profile. You can also apply for financial aid in that way you can get this course for free and gain the certificate, but this one is for financially challenged students, so use this feature judiciously.
2. Complete Guide to Build IOT Things from Scratch to Market – Udemy
- Cost – Rs. 3500
- Ideal for – Intermediate
- Educator – Junaid Ahmed
- Link – Go to external link
The course will introduce you to IoT’s most fundamental building blocks using the Arduino board. It will also educate you on basic electronics and the cloud computing concept required in IoT.
Further in this course, you will learn to interface with WIFI and make an end-to-end IoT device.
There are three Projects in this course. This course is an intermediate one because you will also know how to get your product into manufacturing with all the required certifications. So this course is ideal for entrepreneurs looking to make and market an IoT product.
Below is the list of content that you will find in this course –
- IOT – Internet of Things
- IOT – 101
- Working with Electronics (Boards, Sensors, Shields) and Soldering
- Working with Software: Arduino IDE
- Working with Cloud DB, Platforms, Services and more
- WIFI/Ethernet + Cloud DB +Mobile Apps = Exciting!
- Product 1 – Smart lights and devices — Home Automation
- Product 2 – Motion detector with email notification – Building Safety
- Product 3 – Panic Alarm for the Elderly – – Healthcare Industry
- Manufacturing
- Certification
- Looking Ahead – BONUS
3. Software Architecture for the Internet of Things
- Cost – Free / Coursera monthly charges for certification
- Ideal for – Advanced
- Educator – Frank Gielen
- Link – Go to external link
The IoT or Internet of things is an extensive technology. It requires hardware and software knowledge and multiple technologies to make it work. If you want to master the software part for IoT, then this is one course that you can consider.
It begins with an Introduction to the software architecture and then covers the most fundamental concepts to help you design IoT software. You will also learn to ensure quality in your IoT Software product, which is crucial to getting industry-standard products.
Below is the list of content that you will find in this course –
- Getting to know Software Architecture
- Design process and software requirements
- Quality Attributes
- Tactics
- Patterns
Free IoT Courses on Youtube
Internet of Things by NPTEL – Dr. Sudip Misra
- Cost – Free
- Ideal for – Beginners to Intermediate
- Educator – Sudip Misra
- Link – Go to external link
It is a very good course offered by IIT professor (Dr. Sudip Misra) who is very well known and he has also written various books related to networks, IoT, Sensors and Smart grid. This course will cover all the topics from very basics like sensors, networks, arduino, to intermediate and advanced topics like Software Defined Networking (SDN), connected vehicles and smart city.
Conclusion
We have covered all the points to recognize a good IoT courses and introduced a few good online courses in this article.
If you are a beginner, you should go for the first course, i.e., An Introduction to Programming the Internet of Things (IoT) Specialization. You can choose to take the whole specialization or take a few courses for either Arduino or Raspberry Pi. This course will also earn you a certificate to boast about if you choose to get the Coursera paid version.
You can also go for the NPTEL course if you are looking for an easy-to-understand course that covers all the concepts related to the Internet of Things.
Intermediate and advanced learners should go for Complete Guide to Build IOT Things from Scratch to Market – Udemy or Software Architecture for the Internet of Things if you are looking to master software part in the Internet of Things.
Let us know in the comment box if you have any suggestions for us or recommend any other course apart from those mentioned above.