David Joyner
This course starts from the beginning, covering the basics of how a computer interprets lines of code; how to write programs, evaluate their output, and revise the code itself; how to work with variables and their changing values; and how to use mathematical, boolean, and relational operators. By the end of this course, you’ll be able to write small programs in Python that use variables, mathematical operators, and logical operators. For example, you could write programs that carry out complex mathematical operations, like calculating the interest rate necessary to reach a savings goal, recommending apparel options based on weather patterns, or calculating a grade based on multiple percentages. Structurally, the course is comprised of several parts. Instruction is delivered via a series of short (2–3 minute) videos. In between those videos, you’ll complete both multiple choice questions and coding problems to demonstrate your knowledge of the material that was just covered.
Instructor Details
Courses : 6
Specification: Computing in Python I: Fundamentals and Procedural Programming
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38 reviews for Computing in Python I: Fundamentals and Procedural Programming
Add a review
| Price | Free |
|---|---|
| Provider | |
| Duration | 47.5 hours |
| Year | 2020 |
| Level | Beginner |
| Language | English |
| Certificate | Yes |
| Quizzes | No |
FREE
Anonymous –
The combination of instruction via videos and reading, partnered with many assessments along the way help this course stand above many others that teach the same or similar content. Great Class!
Anonymous –
I love this course. I gave only 3 stars because I couldn’t open so many videos from my smartphone, so
I just skipped them. I would really appreciate it if you would make a mobile version. Thank you for the course 🙂
Wim Leys –
I have programmed without taking any course in Python 2.x more than 10 years ago (and I forgot most of it). I am interested in data science and was looking for a Python course as a first step up. I was also looking at an introductory programming course suitable for my kids; Python is perfect for that.
I have followed all 4 “Computing in Python” courses, and I feel ready now to take on more advanced Python courses or books.
Each course is divided in 4 chapters, each chapter ends with an “exam”, the course ends with a final exam. Each course took about a week to complete (+ 3 hours/evening and 2 full days in the weekend (+ 8 hours per day). (I had to hurry, the courses were about to get archived.). The programming exercises and debugging take most of the time and are at the same time the most valuable to grok everything.
There is a SmartBook that is provided as a PDF. Next time I would read the PDF instead of viewing the video’s, that would have been faster.
The teaching is well structured and the programming problems are fun to make: they are quite basic at the beginning and get more challenging afterwards. You will make so many exercises that programming in Python really becomes an automation and the exercises never become boring.
I have advised my kids (they are almost or around 20 year) to take the courses.
I recommend the courses.
Anonymous –
I really enjoyed this class the use of the interactive textbook, coding challenges, and multiple choice quizzes were perfect. I’m also a big fan of how Georgia Tech does not do terribly long video instruction they break it up into bite sized chunks of information that make it easier to consume information and stay engaged with the material. Highly recommend the class and look forward to taking more in the Python CS1301 series.
Neville A. Cross –
This is a very easy way to learn how to program using Python. This is not a crash course for learning Python. This is a very good introduction to programming. I tried several times to learn Python and failed because many programmer like “the hard way”, which may be good if you already know how to program. I highly recommend this series from David Joyner and Georgia Tech. It is well explained and have good exercises.
Anonymous –
I took this course on edX as someone almost completely new to programming languages. I’ve learn basic C++ and HTML around 8 years ago, but I’ve forgotten all of it. The progress of the course is very comfortable and is really helpful to set a good foundation for new programmers. The practices along the way also helps solidify concepts that they teach. I am looking forward to subsequent python courses! For someone who is working part time, just an hour everyday is sufficient to complete this course in a few weeks. For people who can commit a couple days, I believe 4 days would be enough to cover the entire course.
Anonymous –
Excellent content and presentation. The only problem I had was the class “engine” several times the system did not keep track of where I left off after a given session. I started tracking where I left off so I could manually restart in the correct place if the system misplaced me. Other than that, I’ll be starting the next class tomorrow!
Danica Shipley –
If you have any programming background this is a pretty easy course to move through. While I’ve never used python before, I currently use SQL on a regular basis for work. Because of this, I already understood many of the core principals of programming, so it was a matter of me learning how to apply it using python. Would definitely recommend this course for those looking to get their feet wet in python. Even without any programming experience, I feel the way in which the content is explained makes learning the tool pretty accessible.
Anonymous –
The class is great for very beginners or people who never had any programming experience. I ended up scanning thru, but Dr. Joyner does an awesome job explaining the concept in a very simple way and with reasonable examples. Moving to the next class level with huge doze of impatience.
Anonymous –
I began this course with programming experience in JavaScript. While a lot of the concepts were the same, it was really nice reviewing them in such an accessible format. The videos were clear with well thought out analogies and the textbook really allows you to skim and answer questions at your own pace. This course is great for beginners or those interested in learning Python syntax. I’m looking forward to taking the remaining courses.
Anonymous –
I took this course on the audited track so did not have access to the full practice problems nor final proctored test. I found the material very well explained, clear and easy to follow. I enjoyed the class very much and found it a very good intro into computing and python.
My only points for improvement would be to have more code writing exercises to do as these were the most interesting and meant we were really practicing.
Anonymous –
Some coding problems at the end of the lessons are a bit confusing. As the instructions have not been given on how to solve such problems. For example the problems for calculating the difference between given time.
Anonymous –
This course taught me important fundamental programming concepts in Python.
I feel quite accomplished having completed it!
I’m excited to begin the next course in this series and I know these skills will help me achieve my future goals and develop my computer science abilities!
Thanks to all who helped develop these courses, offering such valuable resources in an open, accessible, and affordable platform!
Anonymous –
I am a super beginner at coding. This made me want to pull my hair out at times, but like boolean logic puzzles, keeping at it paid off. I have no real coding support network to fall back on, but I figured things out eventually, occasionally searching the web for answers on specific tasks, such as how to turn a single digit number into a double digit by adding zeros in front. Downloading the book and running it through an application to add a table of contents to the book was really helpful. I tried a couple of different methods of answering the online book questions, but ultimately ran through the EdX content for each chapter, then went through the online book to answer the questions.
I did find one error in the course’s code for a problem midway, which caused my code to fail on every submission, and I also found a mistake in my code that generated a false “success” on submission (I found my error when I hand copied my code into a paper notebook, which I use to build a kinetic memory of the content.
I audited this course, so many of the chapter evaluation problems were not available to me, but though I would have valued them, not so much for $99.
Overall really liked the course. The presentation of material (esp the videos) was invaluable for an introduction to Python. The platform hosting the online problems works really well, with the ability to run your code and change the values right in the platform is great.
Anonymous –
The course is aim at those that have little to no experience with programming.
I did the first module of in the series over a period of 5 weeks by setting aside 10hours per week.
The course is taught well. There are abundant examples and the videos are short and to the point.
Anonymous –
This course does a great job of breaking down topics into smaller concepts so you can absorb them as you go. I also appreciate the questions sprinkled throughout the videos and the smartbook. The programming challenges are great because it gives you multiple tries to figure it out, though the error messages are not always enough. There were a few times I used a separate REPL to identify the typo or other minor issue. I’ll be starting the next course next week!
Anonymous –
Course was fantastic for the beginners like me who don’t have any prior knowledge of programming. It starts from the very basic understanding and concepts and takes you to the simple problems in the real programming world.
Anonymous –
The course is very well structured and well paced, the videos are clear and complete, and the exercises are interesting and helpful. The teacher is great, talks clearly and knows his stuff (duh).
I loved the course and am looking forward to taking part 2.
Anonymous –
Seemed to be thorough enough without being too “wordy”. I didn’t feel like it was too repetitive, while it did lay out a good foundation for computing. I would recommend to anyone that wants to learn computing.
Anonymous –
Great learning but once you get the coding problems your expected to code some advance problems. Also the proctor is frustrating. Upon contacting for help, a technician advised to open another browser because the exam was there. Of course after doing everything still flagged for suspicious activity and given a zero on the exam(although I completed it). So just be advised.
Anonymous –
It was a great experience It is really well structured and very well suited for anyone who just starting computing. Although I was just auditing the course it was a great help to me and many of the concepts that would otherwise would have been challenging were made easier to grasp even for the beginners.
Anonymous –
This was a great way to revise and learn some python skills, videos are informative, questions are interesting, I don’t see why not to take this course!
Anonymous –
I have found in this course what I was looking for I was playing with a thought about changing my career path to programming in my head for a while, but didnt know where to start? I think this was really good choice. It is selfpaced (for employed person it is necessary), well explained (really, probably the best learning material I have met in my life structurally, explanatory, comprehensive, fluently building on preceding chapters, well everything it should have, almost fun to go through…) course with lot of practise excercises (you actually program most of the time on real life problems). Also you get the idea where to move next from the exercises topic orientation. I have done all 4 courses from the profesional certificate and I thing it was really well spend money, 5 star, recommending!
Anonymous –
This is so far the best online course I have taken. It is quite rigorous and gives the learner a lot of opportunity to practice, practice and practice…and no doubt practice makes perfect! I have learnt so much in this course and looking forward to dive deep into the subsequent courses. Totally worth it!!
Anonymous –
Great course I highly recommend. Examples are practical and easy to follow. the questions get harder as you move through the material. videos are clear and concise straight to the point. Because I am not a coder, I sometimes have to play and replay the videos to understand, but it is very helpful to have the book to follow along as well.
Anonymous –
Excellent class for beginners.
may not be suitable for ones who knows programming already and just want to learn Python as another language as the class materials discuss things that they already know (variables, logic, etc.)
Anonymous –
Without trying very hard, just a few hours here and there, you should be able to complete this course in under 2 weeks. It was straight forward and easy to follow. Since I have some familiarity with programming in Java at least, most of what was included was review (or how to do it in this setting).
The videos were broken up into nice chunks (most were under 5 minutes), and the concepts were clear.
Anonymous –
I tried this course after trying another introduction to Python course first (microsoft). I found that this course gave me a far better UNDERSTANDING of what I was actually doing, instead of just replicating instructions. This makes the course a bit more slow paced, but in my opinion it’s worth the effort. I will certaintly be following the next classes.
As room for improvement I thought the problems on a whole were a bit too easy. These are good to start with and improve your confidence. But over time I would have enjoyed bigger challenges. Coding challenges that you can really sit on and think about. I think that would have completed the learning experience for me!
Anonymous –
A very comprehensive Python programming course for beginners.
The lecturer provides thorough walkthroughs of the programming concepts. This course offers an extensive amount of hands on practise examples, test questions with displayed alternative solutions and ample opportunity for exercise.
Anonymous –
The course is well thought out and implemented. The delivery is clear and understandable. The only area for improvement would be how some of the questions are worded. Sometimes the questions were difficult to follow when multiple variables were used and labeled vaguely, such as “a”, “b”, “c” and then had to be referenced for multiple questions. A possible improvement would be to ‘build’ the variable. Example: Instead of using “a”, “b”, “c”, use “apple” for “a”, “bike” for “b”, “cat” for “c”. That way it’s easier to follow along as they ‘build’.
Anonymous –
There’s always something new to learn no matter how much you’ve developed on a programming language one has used in the past. This course filled in a few knowledge gaps or wonders from the instructor’s perspective that demands continuous attention on every detail, through tricky short exercises. It’s my firm opinion that’s how one will learn any language, hence the 5/5 on the review.
The pace is totally time affordable, in fact, if you’ve programmed in Python before you can complete the class at half of the time allotted by the course, just as it’s mentioned at course’s start.
Highly recommended to all levels.
Anonymous –
My goal with this course was to gain some basic programming skills in Python. This course has an academic bottom up approach, lots of theory. I used external resources such as Head First Python, Learn Python the Hard Way, and Crash Course in Python, all of these offer more useful study aids (flash cards to help memorize truth tables, as one example). They also offer more practical problems which I found to be more useful for grasping the concepts, and being able to apply them in a meaningful way.
There are typographical and grammatical structure errors in some of the online problems, this made it more frustrating as a beginner. Some of the problems are also poorly explained. Over all this course was very simple, I learned quite a bit more through the external resources and the time spent on other sites, even reading the Python documentation instead of relying on the SmartBook.
The format of the SmartBook only allows viewing a page or two at a time, instead of being able to review previous material or scan ahead to get an idea about how the concepts are being applied through the course.
Anonymous –
After taking another Python course by Microsoft I truly appreciated the GREAT detail that was given in this course. I took the free version because $99 is awfully steep for such a short course with no real human interaction IMHO. Unlike the Microsoft course which gave you access to all of the same content (just without answers or grades) this course hid any of the coding exercises or problem sets unless you paid for the verified course (with the exception of a practice exam at the end)… which also probably explains why there is little to no assistance out on the interwebs for this course.
I really appreciate all of the detail in the instruction and feel like I learned a lot in spite of this not being my first Python course (I wish I had taken this one first… would have saved me A LOT of heartache). The questions that it does allow you to take are “graded” and they give you sample code so you can compare yours and see other ways of writing the code which was extremely helpful.
While most of the content was well structured there were a few of the free exam questions that were vague about what kind of output they wanted and/or asked to use mathematical operators in ways that hadn’t been reviewed in the instruction which was frustrating for a beginner.
Overall I highly recommend this course and will be starting the second one very soon.
Tabatha Wiggers –
I can honestly say that it was one of the best, most complete online Python courses I have ever taken. The course is demanding the problem sets are extremely challenging and David Joyner is an outstading professor. I will purchase the entire course to obtain the certificates for all modules. Thank you Georgia Tech!!
Anonymous –
The class covered a lot of material for an into class. I felt that the combo of the videos and the smart book really allowed you to digest the information. Unlike most online class questions, they were very challenging at times and really made you think and do research if necessary to come to the proper conclusion. I would definitely recommend this to other students interested in learning more about computing & python.
Anonymous –
Terrific course. I was looking for a course that really taught the basics and fundamentals of computer programming and this course was exactly what I was looking for. This course takes the time to build on the things they are trying to teach, which seemed repetitive at first, but I grew to appreciate as I felt like I was gaining real knowledge. Definitely worth the time required to complete!
Anonymous –
This course is fantastic! It took me from being scared of computers and saying “I hate technology” to feeling accomplished and actually understanding how to write introductory codes. This is a great course for anyone interested in the language or computing in general. I highly recommend this course for problem solvers as well.
Anonymous –
This was an amazing class for me because I was able to learn how to code in Python for the very first time. The videos were extremely in depth and the exercises made me feel like I could handle real challenges. I appreciate all the guidance!