What is data collection?

Data collection is the systematic process of gathering information like observations or measurements while doing research. When you’re performing research, you’re likely looking for answers to a question you have. When it comes to data collection, digging beyond the surface tells an intriguing story. Collecting data about what you’re researching can help you gain more insight into the details and information that’ll help you answer that question. Although it’s particularly useful in science-related applications, the beauty of data collection is that you can use it to discover answers to almost any query you dream up.

Why learn data collection?

Data are important for helping you (and others, and even computers) make all sorts of different decisions. It helps scientists learn whether their studies are working and assists marketers in sending the right messages to the right people. It's what lets us know if something new we tried is really working. As information becomes digitized, it becomes data that we can use in a variety of ways to accomplish whatever we’ve set out to do. But in order to do that, we need to gather the data first. Without data collection to compile that information, we can’t be truly efficient in analyzing those details — what if something is missing? If you’re aiming to understand how research is conducted and decisions are made, it’s essential to learn about data collection’s role.

What career opportunities can arise from learning data collection?

Almost every career that involves data provides opportunities for collecting those data, even if the primary focus isn’t only collecting data. A multitude of different analyst roles require plenty of time spent gathering data, whether you choose to work in fields like marketing, human resources or business or you’re specifically interested in working as a data scientist — someone who directs their efforts toward compiling data and translating it into information that others can use to make decisions. Even working as an actuary — a professional who assesses risks, often in insurance fields — allows you to focus much of your time on dealing with data. But these careers are just the beginning; dozens more give you the opportunity to collect data, so it’s an important skill to have and concept to understand even if it’s not the primary focus of your work.

How can taking online courses on Coursera help me learn data collection?

If you’re looking to boost your data literacy, taking our online classes provides a worthwhile opportunity to pursue your goals whenever it’s most convenient for you. Online courses give you the time and space you need to complete coursework from home while also providing you access to learning materials created by accomplished instructors and other field experts. You’ll enjoy learning the basic frameworks of data collection and analysis as you’re getting started learning about this topic by discovering the role of research, analysis and collection techniques. As you advance, you might choose to study more complex topics like utilizing the Python programming language to create programs that fetch and analyze data. And with a variety of learning programs, from certificates to specializations to course credits for college degrees, you can formalize your data analysis accomplishments as you continue to build skills.

Top Data Collection Courses - Learn Data Collection Online

Explore the Data Collection Course Catalog

Status: Free Trial
Status: New AI skills
Google
Google Digital Marketing & E-commerce
Skills you'll gain: Media Planning, Search Engine Marketing, Email Marketing, Data Storytelling, Social Media Strategy, Search Engine Optimization, Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, Order Fulfillment, Google Ads, Professional Networking, Online Advertising, A/B Testing, Social Media Campaigns, E-Commerce, Customer Retention, Customer experience strategy (CX), Customer Relationship Management, Campaign Management, Interviewing Skills
Build toward a degree
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
40K reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
IBM
Data Visualization with Python
Skills you'll gain: Data Visualization Software, Plotly, Data Visualization, Dashboard, Interactive Data Visualization, Matplotlib, Seaborn, Data Presentation, Data Analysis, Geospatial Information and Technology, Pandas (Python Package), Scatter Plots, Histogram, Heat Maps, Box Plots
4.5
Rating, 4.5 out of 5 stars
12K reviews
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 3 Months
Status: Free Trial
IBM
IBM Data Management
Skills you'll gain: Dashboard, Data Storytelling, Data Warehousing, SQL, Data Governance, Data Security, Data Migration, Database Design, Data Literacy, Descriptive Statistics, Extract, Transform, Load, Data Mining, Cloud Storage, Data Visualization Software, Data Store, IBM DB2, Data Management, Relational Databases, MySQL, Excel Formulas
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
17K reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
IBM
Data Engineering Foundations
Skills you'll gain: Web Scraping, Database Design, SQL, MySQL, Data Transformation, Data Store, Extract, Transform, Load, IBM DB2, Relational Databases, Jupyter, Data Architecture, Data Pipelines, Big Data, Data Warehousing, Data Governance, Data Manipulation, Stored Procedure, Python Programming, Data Structures, Databases
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
56K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
University of California, Davis
Data Visualization with Tableau
Skills you'll gain: Data Storytelling, Data Presentation, Data Visualization Software, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), Data Visualization, Dashboard, Interactive Data Visualization, Data Mapping, Tableau Software, Proposal Development, Graphing, Histogram, Scatter Plots, Tree Maps, Exploratory Data Analysis, Statistical Visualization, Storytelling, Performance Metric, Geospatial Mapping, Heat Maps
4.5
Rating, 4.5 out of 5 stars
8.2K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Data Mining
Skills you'll gain: Data Visualization Software, Text Mining, Data Presentation, Data Mining, Interactive Data Visualization, Data Storytelling, Dashboard, Tableau Software, Plot (Graphics), Natural Language Processing, Scatter Plots, Unsupervised Learning, Data Mapping, Unstructured Data, Statistical Analysis, Graphing, Big Data, Anomaly Detection, Analytics, Data Validation
4.5
Rating, 4.5 out of 5 stars
2.9K reviews
Intermediate · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
IBM
Python Project for Data Engineering
Skills you'll gain: Web Scraping, Data Transformation, Extract, Transform, Load, Data Manipulation, SQL, Integrated Development Environments, Data Processing, Databases, Application Programming Interface (API), Code Review, Restful API, Python Programming, Unit Testing, Style Guides
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
773 reviews
Intermediate · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
Status: Free Trial
Google
Google Data Analytics Capstone: Complete a Case Study
Skills you'll gain: Interviewing Skills, Data Analysis, Data Processing, Analytical Skills, Artificial Intelligence, Recruitment, Data-Driven Decision-Making, Data Storytelling, Project Documentation, Presentations, Portfolio Management
4.8
Rating, 4.8 out of 5 stars
18K reviews
Beginner · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
Status: Free Trial
Meta
Meta Database Engineer
Skills you'll gain: MySQL, Database Design, Version Control, Database Management Systems, Database Management, MySQL Workbench, Extract, Transform, Load, Data Modeling, Data Structures, SQL, Unix Commands, Relational Databases, Databases, Git (Version Control System), Database Systems, Stored Procedure, Object Oriented Programming (OOP), Unit Testing, Algorithms, Django (Web Framework)
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
7.1K reviews
Beginner · Professional Certificate · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
Imperial College London
Mathematics for Machine Learning
Skills you'll gain: Linear Algebra, Dimensionality Reduction, NumPy, Regression Analysis, Calculus, Applied Mathematics, Probability & Statistics, Feature Engineering, Data Transformation, Machine Learning Methods, Jupyter, Data Science, Advanced Mathematics, Statistics, Statistical Analysis, Artificial Neural Networks, Algorithms, Data Manipulation, Python Programming, Machine Learning
4.6
Rating, 4.6 out of 5 stars
15K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months
Status: Free Trial
Google
The Path to Insights: Data Models and Pipelines
Skills you'll gain: Data Modeling, Extract, Transform, Load, Database Design, Data Pipelines, Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Performance Testing, Data Mart, Snowflake Schema, Star Schema, Process Optimization, Data Lakes, SQL, Data Quality
4.7
Rating, 4.7 out of 5 stars
643 reviews
Advanced · Course · 1 - 4 Weeks
Status: Free Trial
Johns Hopkins University
Data Science
Skills you'll gain: Shiny (R Package), Rmarkdown, Exploratory Data Analysis, Regression Analysis, Leaflet (Software), Version Control, Statistical Analysis, R Programming, Data Manipulation, Data Cleansing, Data Science, Statistical Inference, Predictive Modeling, Statistical Hypothesis Testing, Data Wrangling, Data Visualization, Plotly, Machine Learning Algorithms, Plot (Graphics), Knitr
4.5
Rating, 4.5 out of 5 stars
51K reviews
Beginner · Specialization · 3 - 6 Months