Kursteilnehmer-Bewertung und -Feedback für Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) von University of Michigan

Nice course to have a clear idea of python

NB: I audited this course so did not get feedback on assignments. If you are a true beginner, and have no programming or computer experience whatsoever this course is for you. Dr. Severance explains the concepts VERY well using great metaphors and he's quite engaging. However, he takes an incredibly long time to do this and uses many many words and there are many mostly irrelevant videos. If you have any coding experience at all, you might find it better to download python and the free book (which is written in the same engaging style using the same conceptual metaphors) and go at your own pace. The book is really really fabulous and you don't have to listen to the lectures at 1.5 speed waiting for something useful.

Videos are rambling at points. Also, the code assignments are 1 and done per week. This means they don't nicely build upon one another and that they can be pretty unforgiving if you aren't ready to spit out the culmination of the week's lecturers in 1 go. The course would be better with more focused lecturers and multiple short code assignments that build on one another.

I feel that course should be split out for people with programming background and the first time Python programmers versus the first time programmers. There was too much repetition in some of the classes around basics of programming than python. Thanks!

If you have taken a C++ course in your life, it will take a 4-5 hors to finish this class. More exercises would compensate the low path of the course.

I work in lesson design and blended learning teacher training. I train teachers how to combine effective teaching practices with technology in K-8 classrooms. There is lots of room for improvement in this course. I would not recommend it to someone with no experience. I have no experience in coding, and did well in this course because I went to other sources to answer my questions and fill the knowledge gaps in this course. Though the instructor was great. He seems very passionate.

From a teaching/pedagogy standpoint the scope and sequence was poor. It went from extremely broad (defining computer parts) to hyper specific (defining variables in python) really quick. There was no information between on the practical pieces of what python is, what it looks like on our computer, and how we interact with it.

It feels like multiple people got together to build the course, but after it was finished they never came back to say “Here’s where we didn’t communicate, let’s edit these things.”

There is a HUGE disconnect between writing python programs and running them vs. running the actual python platform and typing commands line by line. The most frustrating thing was that every example in the course was given as a line of code in the python platform with the chevron prompt, and every single assignment was about writing a program in the text editor and the running the program. I didn’t realize these were two completely different things until about week 6. PLEASE ADDRESS THIS. Make it clear for future students that this is a thing. Go over how to use both, and the benefits and drawbacks of each. Make it clear that your examples are taking place in the command line python platform, but our homework is writing programs and saving and running them. I didn’t understand the use of the ‘type’ function until I realized this discrepancy. This was so confusing.

Some of the quiz questions were very specific questions that were mentioned for about a second or never explicitly made clear. Some of the ideas that were emphasized or mentioned multiple times in the same lecture video (seemed important) were never asked on the quiz. I can give examples of both.

I learned some stuff, but overall I would not recommend this course without pointing to the discrepancies. I would say there are multiple obvious areas for improvement and multiple gaps in knowledge that I filled from other sources. I could give more specific examples, but I feel like I already wrote quite a bit.

The teacher is likeable and the introductory videos really hooked me on the course. However, as a complete beginner, I was very put off by the way that the graded assignments had very little link to the content 'taught' in lectures. In fact, the lectures seem to ramble from one thing to another rather than having the teacher sit down and give step-by-step examples on how to code. Therefore, most of what I learnt was through the textbook that is provided for free anyway, so I may as well have taught a lot of it to myself. After the first few lectures, I stopped feeling as though I was being treated as a beginner, even though this is supposed to be 'Programming for Everybody'. Honestly, a bit of a let down.

This course is a first time programming class using Python. This is not what I was looking for. I wanted an introduction to Python for someone who knows a some programming already. Also, this teaches Python 2, which no longer cuts it, especially for an intro class where you'll be taking further work. It may have made sense when this class was done 3 years ago. It does not now.

The teacher was very lively and engaging, and I would enthusiastically recommend taking an online class with him, but the class is out of date and not what I was looking for.

This Course is bad! I try to ask for help and then mentors only reply with I cant help you because of the Honor code. Well tat doesn't sound like much of an honor code to me. Of course I am doing my own work duh! I just need help. Dont we all need help from time to time. I think Coursera needs a lot of improvement. I am extremely dissatisfied with Coursera and this course but especially the mentors and their lack of mentoring. Education should be uplifting and positive and an area where individuals can ask question and receive help and not be scolded for asking help or asking questions like a beat down dog. I mean really I think Coursera needs to go take some hints from a real school or university and seek information on education and how it is best when students teach each other and If I can ask for help and learn from others and give then the opportunity to help me that whats the point of a discussion board. Do away with the discussion board or change the way the honor code is written. Yes I agree with Honor and doing your own work but come on. Help and tutoring is a valuable part of education and necessary to learning! Please make the necessary changes to better Coursera and make it a more positive educational experience. I mean please I am trying the best I can with what I have got and no one seems to want to help me learn and improve on my skills and my understanding. Make changes and make them now.

Another reason I hate this course Is that Coursera does not believe in people helping one another. Then the mentors cant even explain how to work through the problem. The menotrs make things more stressful than they need to be because the dont give help or hints or clues. People need to talk to people on the phone or in person or the instructor needs to give better examples so people can better figure things out on their own. I just think Coursera is crap and this has been a very unpleaseant experience for me. Then on the discussing board i see others struggling with the same things and the mentos dont help them. People are pleading for help and not receiving any guidance or direction to help them figure things out. Things need to change with this program. They need to change soon!

This course is absolutely pathetic. The instructor is condescending and there is very little that you can learn from this course. The course is structured poorly. Short videos that have very little connection with the actual course material are thrown around the course structure. There is no continuity because of these videos. This is definitely not good quality material on python for beginners. Do not be deceived by the high rating of the course. You will be disappointed.

Very brief and inadequate for a $50 investment.

I am very disappointed that the course was, surprisingly and unexpectedly cut off in the middle of the already too short beginning course. Even more cash required to continue.

Compared to online free resources available, definitely not worth the investment. I wish I had my money back to put to better use.

I am surprised even further by all the online positive reviews that encouraged me to start with Coursera.

Mark London

Definitely will not suggest this as there is no help centre which will actually guide you through an issue. I didn't even complete week 2 because these videos don't really teach you about what the commands mean. You'll be better off learning python from a proper teacher. I'm sorry to say that coursera in general is a pretty bad site for learning. Hopefully things get better.

Very simple, very slow. For someone with programming experience it is a drug, for someone new to programing (I am thinking my son) not very captivating.

Too easy of a course, completed in a day without much effort... And didn't really get as much out of it as I thought I would.

It does not worth a penny to spend time in this course.

Time wasting & rubish

The instructor is awesome and the designing of course is fabulous and super easy to understand. I found this course great. I will suggest who want to learn Python Must must take this Course. It will help you lot and clear all your basics.I refer all my beloved friends and juniors to take this course. ...........................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................THANK YOU

Overall, this is a great introduction to Python. Prior to this class, I had zero Python experience; however, my review will be biased because not only am I a graduate of University of Michigan, but I also have 30+ years of software experience including Structured Text (CoDeSys), C, C++, C#, and a half-dozen others.Professor Severance is a great teacher – I wish I could have had him as a professor during my years at U of M.Four-point-nine-star review: because I find a few things lacking in these introductory software courses, and this one in particular.Development and debugging: line by line stepping through our code using a “better” software tool. Atom and the IDLE tools are VERY lacking in development capabilities.It is fundamental to software development to be able to step through your code, line by line, set breakpoints, and easily examine variables and values as they change. And I believe this would make it MUCH more clear to new software students exactly what a CPU is doing when processing code.I know the video course tried very hard to “sketch” out what is really going on in While loops, For loops, If-then-else statements, and function calls. However, I think that students, especially students new to software overall, would benefit greatly if they could use a more professional tool than the Atom and IDLE tools. And if that’s not possible, I think the videos should show the actual animation of stepping through line-by-line and setting breakpoints in example software, using such a tool.Visual Studio Community version is FREE online, and has all these capabilities. I’m not promoting Microsoft or this tool, other than it’s an excellent example of the types of tools students should use for really learning software. And they will benefit greatly from this experience when they evolve to the professional level.And two footnotes about Python:(a) Implicit conversion from int to float, and(b) indentation.These are my main “beefs” against Python; in the 21st century, implicit conversions should never be allowed. And the fact that Python 3 (not Python 2) implicitly converts integers to floats during mathematical operations will bar it from being an enterprise professional language. Indentation instead of braces or other blocking methods: over and over again students will be stumped as to why their code does not work because tabs and spaces are being mingled in the code. A professional language should not do that. Indeed, one must carefully make sure the settings convert tabs to spaces.

DON'T GIVE UP SO SOON. KEEP ON MOVING TO COURSE 2 OF THIS SPECIALIZATION.

Sections 1-7: I had no previous knowledge about programming, even my educational background doesn't related to computer science at all. I have passion for working on the computer as a graphic designer as well as website designer, I thought I must have knowledge of programming language in order to ease my work as a website designer, but everything in this full 7 section course offers me the basic knowledge of programming with python, so nothing came as a complete surprise, that's why I mustn't quit so soon, I need to proceed to the next course to have viable workable experience in this specialization.

This is also my first course on coursera so I did not realize until around section 3 that we were supposed to read the chapter from Charles' book (which is free) Python for Everybody: Exploring Data Using Python 3 and then view the lectures. If you have never programmed before I recommend that you read these chapters first and then watch the lectures. If you're a programmer, you can skip the reading and watch the lectures until you hit material that is more challenging and then I recommend reading the chapter and following all of the exercises for the beginners.

In my own opinion Charles Russell Severance is a great lecturer although he somehow seems to be funny sometimes but I really interested in this course because of him. If everyone of the lecturer happen to be like him even an academic challenged individual can easily master the subject matter. All the topics of discussion were explicitly stated. All the videos were well organized in a logical manner. As the material became more difficult it became more interesting and I grew to enjoy and appreciate the down-to-earth style that Dr. Chuck has when teaching a concept in the course. I believe that he may be the person who can help me realize my dream in programming and understand how to properly execute classes with functions in my coding.

The course was easy (I expected this), and I was only truly challenged on the last section of the course where the homework took me more than 5-10 mins to complete. Anyway, I was astonished when I got it later.

I'm looking forward to the next section of this 5 part specialization of Python for Everybody course on Coursera, where I expect to be more challenged than in the first part (Getting Started with Python).

Thanks for reading this and I hope it will be of help to you.

This course is a perfect one for people who are beginning to take their first steps in the world of Python (and programming, in general).. All the lectures, assignments, and the course materials offer quite good insight to basic and fundamental programming concepts..

And, considering the syntactical ease of Python, it makes programming easy to learn and understand, removing the extra clutter found in the more traditional languages like C/C++ or Java,,

And, finally, the instructor, Prof. Charles Severance, who is more affectionately called Dr. Chuck just mixes fun and learning to create quite an exciting and memorable teaching environment,

But, while all of this good, I felt that this course lacked the bite for a more advanced learner or someone who has spent sometime in the world of programming.. The complexity of the quizzes or the assignments are at beginner level... Best for complete beginners..

But, like i mentioned earlier, it is very easy to rush the whole course in a couple of days time or at most, one week for an advanced learner.

This course lays the foundation for the more advanced courses in Python.. Technically, it is the first part of the Programming for Everybody specialization, which consists of 5 courses, revolving around the world of Python..

So, my final advice to all beginners is to take their sweet time understanding and grasping these fundamental concepts,, These form the foundation stone for any programming language as well as Computer Science world. Don't worry about the assignments, you will get more than ample time to complete them and succeed in them..

Plus, I feel that you will also enjoy some of the bonus interviews.. They could be quite motivating or thought-provoking..

And, for advanced beginners, you can rush through this course and brush up on some basic concepts to move into more advanced courses, which will not only be a lot more challenging and catering more advanced and diverse concepts and topics..

And, in my opinion, this specialization package could be, at this current moment, the best possible experience when compared to learning the basics of Python online.. And, could be the closest thing to a face-to-face learning experience..

This is a great course. The teacher not only knows his material, but has a lot of experience working with first time programmers and so knows what errors they are likely to make and what questions they are likely to ask and addresses them all. He is fun to listen to, unlike some moocs I have taken where the teachers were reading and got the intonation all wrong--very distracting. This one wasn't like that by far. He was interesting and even funny at times. The only issue I have is that if you are auditing the class, it isn't as nice an experience. You can't submit quizzes to see if you got them right and all your coding problems are marked wrong. You can still do the coding and the website will error check and all, but you won't get the pass/fail grade to be sure you got it right. I worked through all the materials, including reading the chapters in the book in just four days. I'd say there is about 2 to 4 hours of work per "week" expected. So, great course, but Coursera has become more interested in making money than in those of us who must only audit. It is not worth my time to chase up financial aid for something I'm working through so quickly. I'd rather spend the time working on a portfolio for future work than to bother about all that. I'm disabled, so I have no money to through at the problem. So, if you can only audit the class, is it worth it? YES! Just prepared to be highly annoyed with Coursera. The problem isn't the instructor's fault and I'm glad to have the materials. The videos covers what's in the book, but in an easy to understand way, so when you read the chapter associated with it, you can follow along without it being too dry or laborious. Then you are ready for the quiz and coding problem(s), and then a little wrap up material before moving on to the next lesson. I'm glad we are allowed to work ahead. I'm moving on to the second course in the specialization, which picks up where this one left off. If you want to learn Python or just "a" programing language to get a start or just dabble in programming, this is a great place to start!

This is a great course. The teacher not only knows his material, but has a lot of experience working with first time programmers and so knows what errors they are likely to make and what questions they are likely to ask and addresses them all. He is fun to listen to, unlike some moocs I have taken where the teachers were reading and got the intonation all wrong--very distracting. This one wasn't like that by far. He was interesting and even funny at times. The only issue I have is that if you are auditing the class, it isn't as nice an experience. You can't submit quizzes to see if you got them right and all your coding problems are marked wrong. You can still do the coding and the website will error check and all, but you won't get the pass/fail grade to be sure you got it right. I worked through all the materials, including reading the chapters in the book in just four days. I'd say there is about 2 to 4 hours of work per "week" expected. So, great course, but Coursera has become more interested in making money than in those of us who must only audit. It is not worth my time to chase up financial aid for something I'm working through so quickly. I'd rather spend the time working on a portfolio for future work than to bother about all that. I'm disabled, so I have no money to through at the problem. So, if you can only audit the class, is it worth it? YES! Just prepared to be highly annoyed with Coursera. The problem isn't the instructor's fault and I'm glad to have the materials. The videos covers what's in the book, but in an easy to understand way, so when you read the chapter associated with it, you can follow along without it being too dry or laborious. Then you are ready for the quiz and coding problem(s), and then a little wrap up material before moving on to the next lesson. I'm glad we are allowed to work ahead. I'm moving on to the second course in the specialization, which picks up where this one left off. If you want to learn Python or just "a" programing language to get a start or just dabble in programming, this is a great place to start!

This is a great course. The teacher not only knows his material, but has a lot of experience working with first time programmers and so knows what errors they are likely to make and what questions they are likely to ask and addresses them all. He is fun to listen to, unlike some moocs I have taken where the teachers were reading and got the intonation all wrong--very distracting. This one wasn't like that by far. He was interesting and even funny at times. The only issue I have is that if you are auditing the class, it isn't as nice an experience. You can't submit quizzes to see if you got them right and all your coding problems are marked wrong. You can still do the coding and the website will error check and all, but you won't get the pass/fail grade to be sure you got it right. I worked through all the materials, including reading the chapters in the book in just four days. I'd say there is about 2 to 4 hours of work per "week" expected. So, great course, but Coursera has become more interested in making money than in those of us who must only audit. It is not worth my time to chase up financial aid for something I'm working through so quickly. I'd rather spend the time working on a portfolio for future work than to bother about all that. I'm disabled, so I have no money to through at the problem. So, if you can only audit the class, is it worth it? YES! Just prepared to be highly annoyed with Coursera. The problem isn't the instructor's fault and I'm glad to have the materials. The videos covers what's in the book, but in an easy to understand way, so when you read the chapter associated with it, you can follow along without it being too dry or laborious. Then you are ready for the quiz and coding problem(s), and then a little wrap up material before moving on to the next lesson. I'm glad we are allowed to work ahead. I'm moving on to the second course in the specialization, which picks up where this one left off. If you want to learn Python or just "a" programing language to get a start or just dabble in programming, this is a great place to start!

This is a great course. The teacher not only knows his material, but has a lot of experience working with first time programmers and so knows what errors they are likely to make and what questions they are likely to ask and addresses them all. He is fun to listen to, unlike some moocs I have taken where the teachers were reading and got the intonation all wrong--very distracting. This one wasn't like that by far. He was interesting and even funny at times. The only issue I have is that if you are auditing the class, it isn't as nice an experience. You can't submit quizzes to see if you got them right and all your coding problems are marked wrong. You can still do the coding and the website will error check and all, but you won't get the pass/fail grade to be sure you got it right. I worked through all the materials, including reading the chapters in the book in just four days. I'd say there is about 2 to 4 hours of work per "week" expected. So, great course, but Coursera has become more interested in making money than in those of us who must only audit. It is not worth my time to chase up financial aid for something I'm working through so quickly. I'd rather spend the time working on a portfolio for future work than to bother about all that. I'm disabled, so I have no money to through at the problem. So, if you can only audit the class, is it worth it? YES! Just prepared to be highly annoyed with Coursera. The problem isn't the instructor's fault and I'm glad to have the materials. The videos covers what's in the book, but in an easy to understand way, so when you read the chapter associated with it, you can follow along without it being too dry or laborious. Then you are ready for the quiz and coding problem(s), and then a little wrap up material before moving on to the next lesson. I'm glad we are allowed to work ahead. I'm moving on to the second course in the specialization, which picks up where this one left off. If you want to learn Python or just "a" programing language to get a start or just dabble in programming, this is a great place to start!

I'd like to say this is the MOST AMAZING programming course I've taken.

I have been trying to learn programming since I was in primary school (OK and now I am a high school graduate). Through the years I've learned Scratch, C++ and a couple of other things at school that I don't remember. But the problem was, all those teachers were going way too fast for a beginner like me to understand the whole thing. They also presumed that I understood their logic, but in reality I couldn't. So I only had to remember the "codes" and copy them from my brain onto exams. Then a few months later, I'd forget them.

But Dr. Chuck's course is amazing, literally amazing. His pace of teaching was just the perfect tempo for me, not too fast so as to get the whole picture and get things organized, and not too slow to waste time. I think he did an excellent job in illustrating the whole logic of the codes we've learned. Also as a programmer for many years, he had many small tips for us beginners (like how to find the same file in both Atom and Python) that are really useful but are not included in typical textbooks. He is also very humorous and listening to his course is nothing but boring. The funny little videos in Bonus part were also relaxing.

And I think the quiz and homework system in Coursera worked pretty well with the lectures. It gave me chances to check my progress, and pointed out the small things I missed in the lectures. I also like the forum where we can ask questions and see how hundreds of other students throughout the world are learning with me. The whole system made my learning very efficient.

Since I am just a new comer to programming, I can't pick out some technical problems of the course design. I've seen many comments saying how the course lacked some basic points, and I think they might be true. However, from my point of view, I am really satisfied with how much I successfully learned in such a short course, and I am really grateful for Dr. Chuck and Coursera for providing such a wonderful educational experience.