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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Computer Programming by University of London

4.1
stars
844 ratings

About the Course

This MOOC provides you with the foundational skill set required to write computer programs. If you are interested in learning how to write interactive, graphical programs from an introductory level in a real programming language, this is the course for you. You will begin by learning the basics of editing and running programs. Then you will learn how to create 2D graphics using shapes and coordinates. Finally, you will learn how to create interactive graphics that you can control with the mouse. You will even solve a set of interactive puzzles using your coding skills in the Sleuth game which has been created especially for this course. The course uses the Javascript language and the p5.js library....

Top reviews

AA

Jul 19, 2021

It's worth the hard work. I'm insatiable for learning and need more impossible looking projects or games that Coursera designed to help the student really get into the world of computer programming.

GT

Jun 8, 2019

The course is built up well, the steps are easy to follow. Even when there is some research required, the intentional gaps are highly manageable. The gamified deliverables were really fun to do! :-)

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1 - 25 of 286 Reviews for Introduction to Computer Programming

By Deleted A

•

Dec 6, 2019

Very poorly designed and devised. No proper instructions. min method sets the max value and max method sets the min value in p5.js . Instructions are not detailed. Was at week 1 and was expected to create functions and use p5.js built in functions; without proper introduction to JS functions or p5.js functions. Course expects you to self study mostly with trial and error. All they do is set deadlines and provide introductions. Sleuth(week 1 assignment/project) submissions that are supposed to reset daily will not reset again and you only get 5 attempts overall. Check the course forums and you will find the issues and how coursera/course creators have never visited them. Deleting my account after this.

By Ona T

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Nov 22, 2018

I'm dropping this course because it is not explained well, if you'd never coded, don't even try.

By Ashley W

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Apr 13, 2019

Next to no support in the discussion boards, annoying Sleuth assignment setup with out of date text. Shows a lot of effort for sure.

By David W

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Jan 19, 2019

too difficult to navigate the menus to find necessary materials. This is my fourth Coursera course and have not had this problem previously. The instruction was poor in that it was the typical, do this, there now your an expert without explanation of the purpose of the concepts. For this level of learning by exploring , I don't need to pay you. I will continue with Coursera but not U of London.

By Faustino R F

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May 12, 2020

It's REALLY BORING and BAD, more if you already are a developer. It tries to teach you the base of development (not all the important and it does it in a weird way, doesn't teach arrays, loops, conditionals, classes, even FUNCTIONS.... way to basic). It looks more like a tutorial on how to use p5.js. I just did this course as part of a computer science specialty, in my opinion, it should have an option to skip this section. Also, the assessment is a waste of time, it's way too long and with a weird p5.js game (3h 🙄), IT'S A MESS, it gives you a problem and instead of checking the values of the result, it forces you to have their solution(example: update a = 3 to be 5. Solution 1 -> a = 5. What they want a = a + 2. Why do you want me to do that if the result it's okay??????) . I was planning to do the BSc, I hope the rest is not like this one.

By Abdullah

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Jul 11, 2019

the assignments are just not for beginners at all

By Ana C P

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May 21, 2019

The course overall is really good . For those who never coded before, I would suggest searching some more additional materials in the internet to assist you (at least for me this helped).

A positive thing that made me enjoy the course was the methodology applied throughout the classes. You will have a video lecture, and a quiz or exercise after it. I believe this helps you practice straight way what you just learned instead of having tons and tons of new content and then trying to remember everything in a final test/assignment.

Negative points: I like challenges and enjoyed the Sleuth & Co. assignment however, it did not make any sense to be applied in the week 1. If you complete the task, the course is considered completed. I am still on week three and I have the certificate with a grade I know I could have obtained higher if I had been able to continue. Some of the content were not explained so in case you try it, be aware you will need to search more examples, definitions about variables, queries, etc in order to be able to complete the cases. I would suggest to keep the assignment but move it to week 3.

By Kyle K

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Oct 13, 2019

If i could i would give it 0 stars. The most awfully ordered course. Week 1's assignment is impossible to complete due to the fact that you are taught the skills required to complete the assignment in weeks 2 and 3. This course must be made by brain dead fools.

By Alan J

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Apr 8, 2020

Sleuth Game was very frustrating, asked you to complete it in week 1 when in actual fact you need all 3 weeks theory to complete it. Otherwise a good course. This needs fixing though

By H

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Feb 7, 2020

This is the worst course I have ever taken from Coursera. I needed help installing their recommended software, and no on got back to me. I ended up, after much frustration just quitting this class and finding one that uses better software, and hopeful a human. If your computer does not support their platforms, try another class.

By CRISTINA T

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Jul 19, 2020

It’s impossible to do assignments without a proper explanation, not everyone has already had back experience with JavaScript and since it is an ‘introduction course’ I was expecting more details to how to do assignments. A little bit disappointed because at first I really liked this course but than I had to follow other courses...

By Gyorgyi T

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Jun 9, 2019

The course is built up well, the steps are easy to follow. Even when there is some research required, the intentional gaps are highly manageable. The gamified deliverables were really fun to do! :-)

By Stuart R W G

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Mar 16, 2019

Well presented course. Very likeable lecturers. The pacing was excellent. We started slow and simple but it built up and we were soon being left to solve coding problems on our own. Very enjoyable and I learned a lot. Thank you.

By Roberto d l R C

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Sep 23, 2019

An excellent way to introduce newbies to the programming world. I did not know a thing about programming. However, I've acquired the necessary skills to understand the basics of it!

By Eden P

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Mar 10, 2019

A good entry level course to give you a flavour of how to program in JS. We ll presented and easy to follow.

By Zeki T

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Oct 21, 2020

Hi, I would like to express my unsatisfactory for the course. As a teacher, I can say unfortunately the syllabus has been prepared very much unsuccessful. Isn't that sleuth assessment supposed to be at the end of the course???? As a person who has no programming background, I was about to quit. Buy in a forum a read that its ok to just continue to the next week and complete all tutorials then get back to assessment. It was a stressful experience. Tutors were very much ok but I hope the management will fix the orders of the tutorials and assessment. Let's learn first, then u ask if we are learning.

By Tsegay M

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Dec 29, 2019

Coursera is a great online platform which is having skilled instructors and helping lots of students to grasp skills and be employable in different industries.

Thank you so much!

By TYRONE " D

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Jan 31, 2019

Structured well, challenging lessons, builds a great foundation for beginners. Two thumbs up!

By Brandon S

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Feb 24, 2019

Very challenging (which is good!) But at times.. hard to follow. Definitely establishes the most basic skills that a programmer needs: Patience, Problem-solving, Research, Flexibility, and Flow.

By Diana J R

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Jul 24, 2020

Very unclear and poor resources

By Basil S

•

Jan 15, 2019

professionally flawed

By James

•

Dec 13, 2019

Great course! This was my first time trying coding of any sort and I really enjoyed it. While I feel like what I learned is probably very basic I also feel like I've learned a great deal and am eager to learn more.

I do feel like the teacher support could have been a little better but they do give you the tools to find out all the answers you need by yourself. It's just when you're truly stuck you can feel a little helpless. It also says that you should complete the Sleuth assignment in week 1 however you don't learn the things necessary to complete it until weeks 2 and 3.

If you are thinking of taking this course definitely make a https://stackoverflow.com/ account and post your questions there as well. Also there is a Youtube channel called " the coding train" https://www.youtube.com/user/shiffman. He does a great job of explaining things in a slightly different way. His p5.js playlist was so informative

By Roman P

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Mar 15, 2019

All is fine. But i dont understand, why the vital section of information - "Reading Teach it to yourself" of 3 week, opens only after _optional_ submisson "Hack it: Sunrise. What did you learn"

By Cristian A

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Feb 23, 2023

I think this course doesn't fulfill its purpose of introducing students to programming. The foundations of programming, such as sequential instructions, loops, conditionals, etc., are not clearly presented. Instead, a library is used, and the focus is on basic usage of that library. Additionally, the course is outdated as it teaches an older version of JavaScript syntax, prior to ECMAScript 6. Honestly, I believe that the course has a lot of room for improvement and it has been quite disappointing.

By Ivan R

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Feb 7, 2021

You will get few library's for Brackets to learn (I have quit at second one), however library's are with errors, and I mean a lot of errors, 20+ on each.

Introduction to programing for them means, I will not show you how to code (0 talk about that), I will intentionally give non working code, and also I will not show you how to fix it too, and yes, I will give all that to a complete novice? Seriously?

If I know how to do that, would I be needing "introduction" to programing? This is a joke, and it would be enormous waste of money if I didn't do initial test because my intention was to go for the whole degree program.

All those positive reviews are joke and fake, do not go for it. Forum is full of people that are describing this situation.