Top 12 Best Statistics Courses (Online)

Statistics is a very versatile field of mathematics/science that is present in several fields such as medicine, actuarial science, and psychology.

The versatility of this course allows for it to be taught at both the high school and college levels.

Eventually statistics even can be connected to Calculus, so it is an important course to consider taking at some point in you educational career.

So, join me as I curate a list of several online statistics courses from every corner of the internet.

Become a Probability and Statistics Master By Krista King

Krista King is a juggernaut in the online mathematics world. Her courses are typically engaging, fun, and incredibly organized. Her statistics course is no exception.

There is 14 hours of video content available for students to use to help understand the material they are learning. Krista has also included workbooks with hundreds of problems with solutions. Practice problems are a great way for students to check their understanding of the material.

If you are a student who enjoys engaging, thorough, and fun lessons, I highly recommend this course. 

Introduction to Probability and Statistics By Dane McGukian

This course offers 8 hours of video content for students to use as they complete the course modules.

The good thing about this course is that it has practice exercises embedded in the course modules for students to check their understanding of the material.

Practice is always great, especially in an online mathematics course like statistics. I recommend this course to students who like short yet informative videos to assist them with learning the course material.

Statistics and Probability Free Course By Khan Academy

This course is 100% free, since it is offered by Khan Academy. Khan Academy is a great site overall for free online courses because it teaches students using a mastery model.

This means that the website will give you questions to answer, and, if you get at least one question wrong, you need to start the whole exercise/assessment/test all over again after getting an explanation on why the answer is wrong.

This takes the focus of letter grades away and focuses more on competency. This will make the course more enjoyable for whoever decides to take it. 

Introduction to Statistics By Guenther Walther

This course is offered by Stanford University. The great thing about this course is that it gives potential students an idea of how long the course will take to complete (about 15 hours).

This would be great for students who have busy schedules and need to know if they can fit this course into their lives.

There are also practice exercises embedded in the course modules which is great for students to check their understanding of the material.

I recommend this course for anyone who likes an organized course structure.

Master Statistics & Probability: Beginner to Advanced By Kody Amour

This course offers over 14 hours of video content to help guides students through the course material.

Additionally, Kody offers over 100 meaningful lectures, quizzes, homework assignments, exams, and an online statistics textbook as part of the included course materials.

The course itself appears to be very thorough in terms of content covered. Kody appears to be very enthusiastic about the subject, which is always good, especially in an online statistics course where it would be very easy for students to get bored.

I recommend this course to students who like plenty of supplemental resources as a part of their course materials.

A-Level Maths: Statistics (Year 1 A/S) By Woody Lewenstein

This course offers nearly 10 hours of video content. In addition to the video content, there is also practice questions from real pencil-and-paper exams.

This is a very valuable resource for online statistics students.

Any opportunity to practice is very helpful. I would recommend this course to any student who would like plenty of opportunities to practice the content they learn in an online statistics course.

Basic Statistics By Matthjis Roodujin

This course is offered by the University of Amsterdam. It is indicated that the course will take approximately 27 hours to complete, which is good so that potential students can think if they can fit this course into their lives.

This approximate amount of time indicates that this course is a very thorough exploration into the world of statistics.

After looking over the course modules, this course seems to cover all the important topics of an introductory statistics course.

I recommend this course to students who like thorough explorations into a topic.

Intro to Statistics Free Course by Sebastian Thrun

The webpage for this course gives a brief overview of each of its lessons, which is a great way to let students know what they are in for.

Additionally, the course includes video content, which is always a great way for students to learn material.

This course also includes practice exercises which are always good to have, especially for an online course.

The course even gives a timeline of how long it will take, which is a great way for students to plan ahead. I recommend this course for beginning statistics students who like structure and opportunities for practice.

Statistics Online Class By San Jose State University

Much like the previous course I reviewed, the webpage for this course gives a brief overview of each of its lessons. There are also practice exercises.

However, the topics covered seem to be a little more advanced than the previous course I reviewed. This would be a great course for upper level mathematics students looking for further exploration into the topic of statistics.

I recommend this course for students who like practice exercises and more rigorous explorations into statistics. 

Principals, Statistical, and Computational Tools for Reproducible Data Science By Harvard University

This course is a little more advanced study of statistics. It focuses on applying statistics, data analysis and computation to other fields.

There is an emphasis on statistical experiments and data analysis. Students who take this course are expected to spend between 3 and 8 hours on it each week.

Overall, the course will take two months to complete on average. I recommend this course to students who want to take a deeper dive into the field of analyzing data for statistics.

Biostatistics 1-For Medical Science and Public Health By Dr. Abhaya Indrayan

This course is great because it focuses on the application of statistics to the field of Biology.

The course is estimated to take about four weeks to complete, which is pretty great if students can stay on task and keep up with the material.

The topics that are covered seem very interesting and will give students plenty of opportunities for authentic assessment through the application of statistics.

I recommend this course to students who would like to see how statistics applies to the real world, with real sampling distributions.

If you are interested in biostatistics, have a look at my article about the top biostatistics courses online.

Applied Statistics By the University of New England

The course description for this course is very detailed and thorough. They even tell you how exams will work, given that this is an online course.

This is advantageous for the students because they will know what they are in for when it comes to exams.

The course also has positive testimonials listed on its webpage to help advertise the course to potential students.

According to the course’s webpage, the course is estimated to take around 16 weeks to complete which is good for students who have busy schedules and need to figure out if the course is feasible to take.

Recommended Books

Well, now that we have looked at a few great online statistics courses, I now want to discuss a couple of useful textbooks that could potentially help supplement an online statistics class.

Naked Statistics: Stripping the Dread from the Data by Charles Wheelan

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In this book, Wheelan claims to “focus on the underlying intuition that drives statistics.” This book clarifies a lot of the important topics that tend to confuse students in a regular statistics course like statistical inference and exploratory data analysis.

Wheelan does this through relating statistics to practical scenarios. I recommend this book to any students who may need a different perspective when it comes to the field of statistics.

Statistics for People Who (Think They) Hate Statistics by Neil J. Salkind and Bruce B. Frey

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The authors of this book take a humorous approach to the topic of statistics, which is great because it can be a very drab and boring course to take.

The book seeks to take the pressure off students by relating this field to real world hypothesis testing.

Knowing the “why” behind statistical processes will help the coursework become more meaningful for students, especially for students who struggle with it.

I recommend this book to students who may start off hating statistics because this book might just change their minds about it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Now that you have gotten an idea of a few of the online statistics course offerings, the following section of the article answers some of the frequently asked questions that are posed by potential students who are interested in learning statistics online. 

Resources

Garfield, Joan. “How students learn statistics.” International Statistical Review/Revue Internationale de Statistique (1995): 25-34.

GARFIELD, Joan et BEN‐ZVI, Dani. How students learn statistics revisited: A current review of research on teaching and learning statistics. International statistical review, 2007, vol. 75, no 3, p. 372-396.

BATANERO, Carmen et DÍAZ, Carmen. Training teachers to teach statistics: what can we learn from research?. Statistique et enseignement, 2010, vol. 1, no 1, p. 5-20.

CHANCE, Beth et ROSSMAN, Allan. Using simulation to teach and learn statistics. In : Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Teaching Statistics. Voorburg, The Netherlands : International Statistical Institute, 2006. p. 1-6.

COBB, George. Teaching statistics. Heeding the call for change: Suggestions for curricular action, 1992, vol. 22, p. 3-43.

JONES, Graham A. et THORNTON, Carol A. An overview of research into the teaching and learning of probability. Exploring probability in school, 2005, p. 65-92.

• Learn Statistics With R
• Introduction to Statistics (Study.com)
• Probability & Statistics — Open & Free (Open Learning Initiative)

Conclusion

In conclusion, the versatility of statistics is astounding! We have explored so many impressive online statistics classes as well as a couple of books about statistics.

Taking a statistics class online can be stressful, but, with the right attitude and motivation, anyone can do it.

I welcome you to leave comments, course suggestions, and reviews in the comment section below. Thank you so much for going on this journey with me!

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My name is Chris Kenny. I have been teaching/tutoring mathematics for over 15 years. I have a B.S. in Mathematics and an M.A. in Teaching Secondary Mathematics. I have experience tutoring for the ACT Mathematics section specifically.

I tutored full time for the Ohio Graduation Test in my home state of Ohio for one year, and I have taught Math at the high school level for over 5 years.

In my time as a high school mathematics teacher, I have taught Algebra I, Geometry, Algebra II, Statistics, and Advanced Placement Calculus.