BrainStation

This course boosted my knowledge and skills with data through a focused curriculum, experienced instructor, and inviting classroom environment. The assignments and tasks were relevant to the work world and follow-up with the instructor was welcomed. I... Read More would highly recommend brainstation to anyone who wants to quickly gather data analysis skills and confidence to apply them in their day job.

My learning experience has been extraordinary. My instructors were not only great professionals in the industry but also highly skilled in new trends and tools, always there to answer any questions or doubts and great at encouraging us to learn more and... Read More more every day. My learning experience was A+++, and I am coming back to start a new course. Thank you, BrainStation!

I just completed my second BrainStation course. Last summer I took the Product Management course on campus in Vancouver, BC and this summer I took the User Interface course online. They were both one night a week for 10 weeks.

The quality of both courses... Read More was excellent. I like the 10 week format because I need time to really absorb what I am learning. The product management course is offered over 5 full time days (or was last year anyway) and I really don't think I would have learned as much. With the 10 week format there was enough time to actually do the homework each week. If you keep up with it one night a week of doing homework is enough, but for me it is hard to find time. I actually tried to do a 5 week accelerated program, the User Experience Design course, but I got sick and only went to 2 classes. Still that was almost half of the course and it was way too fast. I just barely got the homework done but didn't really spend enough time to absorb what I was doing. If you are used to taking courses and/or are not working full time you should look at the 5 week accelerated programs though. They are the exact same material as the 10 week ones, just twice as fast.

My teacher in both of the courses I finished were really great. They were both working industry professionals with a ton of experience. One is a VP even! This was the part that I liked the best, they both shared a LOT of information in addition to the slides such as showing us real documents/designs/roadmaps/etc that they had worked on for various projects. Being able to see what the real work looks like really helped me understand the topics we covered in each lesson and also gave me confidence at work that what I was producing was the correct thing or in the correct format. Also both courses had teaching assistants and I liked both of them a lot too. It was good having two different instructors available because we got to hear two different experiences.

The only downsides I can share is that the online course just had way too many people in my class but that is probably because it was the first session after the pandemic started. The 5 week course I started was also online but had 2/3 the number of students. But overall everyone is really great there. In fact I withdrew from that 5 week course halfway through and then was allowed to register in the UI course instead once I was no longer sick and that was

As far as diversity goes I had 2 white instructors, an Indian instructor, a Black instructor, and an Asian instructor. All my instructors were men but in each of the classes I would guess half of the class was female. I know that there are female instructors also as I know a couple but my instructors were all men. All of the BrainStation employees I interacted with aside from teachers for all 3 courses were women. So I would say I interacted with an equal number of male and female employees at Brainstation and of all ethnicities.

I really learned a lot in both courses and I 10000% have used stuff from these courses at work! I had to take on the role of Product Manager for 6 months at the planning phase of a new product while we looked for a full time PM and I was completely armed and prepared to do that. There were some bumps along the way, especially as I learned to translate the "student project" level of my knowledge into real business deliverables -- and learned how to make slide decks from scratch! (BrainStation final projects come with a template you can use if you want so you don't have to be great at that stuff to do the course) I can safely say that I outperformed expectations of me and I owe the credit completely to the Product Management course!

The User Interface Design course that I took I finished it just recently after handing off the role of PM to our new permanent product manager. I took this one for me, not for work. I always had this mental block against graphics, I was convinced I couldn't do anything that involved graphics. So I decided to force myself through it by taking this course. Don't get me wrong, I struggled. This design stuff does not come to me naturally and although the software is pretty straight forward when there was something that I couldn't figure out it was really hard. Plus my designs were not great. But by the end of the course I was using the software and my designs were pretty good! I am not a natural talent, I'll need to keep working on it if I really want to get to a professional level, but where I'm at now is pretty good! The app I designed looked better than a lot of apps I've seen. I was pretty happy with what I learned and how much I grew and got over my fears in this course.

There isn't a lot of instruction on how to use the programs nor how-to's on making designs/graphics themselves but instead the course teaches a lot about the theory of User Interface Design and you do designs as the course goes, working on your final project a bit each week, applying what you have learned. For some people that worked out well. For me it was hard because I spent a lot of time trying to learn the software. I ended up buying a $15 Udemy course on how to use sketch and I spent a week watching that. After I did that I found I was able to really apply what I was learning and doing the designs wasn't as frustrating (or pointless) as before.

I am a mobile developer so I already had the code part but whenever I tried to make an app it was always extremely ugly. I'm really looking forward to using my design skills and product management knowledge to plan some apps!

I recently completed the BrainStation 5-weeks Data Analytics course online! Completely through Zoom! This course is a foundational overview of Data Analytics, where you learn to use tools such as Excel, MySql and Tableau. It doesn't go completely in-depth,... Read More so you're not quite an expert yet but it's a great start. Nevertheless, truly grateful for this experience as I'm looking forward to applying these skills to my background in post-secondary admissions and marketing.

The 5-weeks went by very quickly; and it was very manageable with work as the classes are in the evening. There is definitely a lot to learn and a lot to go through in a short amount of time, so do expect the need to do additional research and practice on the side to help grasp concepts. Completing the homework is also helpful; and self-learning is a necessary part of the course.

Instructor Ramin was knowledgeable, friendly and able to use real-life examples as a Data Analyst himself - I always find having experienced instructors is important! Tuition is a tad pricey for a short basic course, but you can contact their Advisors and ask about scholarships and financial aid.

Overall, I would recommend this course to those who are in data-driven roles and want to gain new and relevant software skills, in marketing and sales roles, wanting to become data analyst or even just curious about data!

This was my second course at Brainstation, and it was done 100% remote via Zoom.
I took a 5-week Bootcamp on data analytics instead of regular 10 weeks, thinking I will get to finish earlier and focus more on studying in that period of time. And I have... Read More to admit it kept me on my toes!

The course itself has major blocks: Excel, MySQL and Tableau. The first two classes were about working in Excel from basics to more advanced level, and it was ok. I understand that it was a necessity, and lots of students come with different levels of experience. Although I wish we either focused more on advanced Excel or covered that material within one class.
After that, we moved on to MySQL and I found that part of the course the most interesting and exciting. For the next 4 classes, we were learning basic as well as advanced commands in MySQL Workbench and participating in the class exercises. The last three classes were with Tableau, where I wish we had more assignments and tasks to do.

Somewhere in the middle, we were broken into teams to prepare for our Final projects. And that was the most important part of the class. While you get all the necessary knowledge with Brainstation to get started, a major part of learning comes from the work that you do outside of the class. I cannot even describe the amount of reading I had to do to solve one problem that was standing on our way. By putting extra time into learning I ended up feeling very confident in my knowledge and skills.

Now I understand that you don't always get to choose your teammates, but I got very lucky. My team was great, and we were working in sync until the end of the course. Communication was the key and I could clearly see the teams that had such a problem in their final presentations. By working together you can really create an amazing experience and enjoy the process.

Our instructor was Ramin Amin, who over the length of the course was very direct in his approach, and could explain the material very well. I have to admit that the level of support that he provided outside of the class was just great. Anytime I had a problem or a question, he would get back to me within a few hours with advice or a solution.

Overall I really enjoyed the course, it really helped me to step up and expand my knowledge. BrainStation really proved to be valuable in my career.

This was my third course at Brainstation, this time all online via zoom!

Design Thinking was a two-day intensive course where we learned the methodologies and framework of Design Thinking, completed exercises that felt true to the real world, and learned... Read More how to model sprints. As a designer, this was a really great opportunity to level up my skills and apply a structure to loose concepts floating around my brain. The course itself accommodated students from all levels of experiences and backgrounds, and I found the entire experience to be extremely collaborative and insightful.

Our instructor has been a facilitator of all things design (UX/UI/Design Thinking) for some time, and really showed domain expertise when we asked questions that applied to the real world. He was clear, detail oriented, and made the learning environment safe and collaborative. We got a lot of real world examples from him, and all the little details he shared made this entire course special, and more than simply reading a textbook.

Overall, I'm a big advocate for Brainstation's courses - they've proved to be extremely valuable in my career.

I thoroughly enjoyed the Data Science Certificate at BrainStation. Being online, I thought perhaps the course delivery might be less than exceptional but BrainStation has certainly lived up to all the hype. Not only was the learning experience invaluable,... Read More it was also delivered smoothly and in a manner that my learning feel like a priority.

My instructor was attentive and extremely knowledgable, and also was able to help me outside of class hours on questions and guidance for my final project. I highly recommend this course to anybody looking to expand their knowledge of Data Science and Machine Learning, and how it can be applied to their current role.

The course is a must-take if you want to learn about product management foundations. The curriculum covers almost all aspects of the topic with real-world applications and practices. The 2 instructors are from the industry and are currently practitioners... Read More of product management in leading companies.
The online learning experience exceeded my expectations. With more than 20 class mates, every course is interactive. We had group project, which forces to work collaborate and learn from one another. There were also games during sessions to make the experience more engaging.
You will need to dedicate at least 4 hours per week for the course, plus another 2-4 hours for readings and assignment/group project.
Overall, it's really a great course and I highly recommend it to newbies and those who want to revisit the PM foundations.

The brainstation Digital Marketing course was a great way for me to step up my digital marketing career. It covered all the key factors to get your start in a digital marketing career or to help you bring your digital skills from before back to life.... Read More

It was my first time doing an online course and was very impressed with how it all went with the Zoom classes and how smooth a group project was with it all being online.

Looking forward to taking more classes to ramp up my knowledge and career.

I started the Digital Marketing course with the idea that it would be tedious, but Day 1 of the course changed my thinking. I was pretty engaged once the instructor started the lesson and it had me doing my own reading after the first class.

After the... Read More course ended, I already started looking at other courses that Brainstation offers to see if anything else interests me.

• Each day has a lot of information, but not too much that it becomes overwhelming.
• Every time I had a question, I had the opportunity to ask it and have it answered throughly.
• Attending the course on Sunday allowed me to not change my work schedule at all.

I can't say I consider anything to be a con as of now. I have a pretty solid experience from the beginning to the end.