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Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)

Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)

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9.2/10 (Our Score)
Product is rated as #36 in category Python

This course aims to teach everyone the basics of programming computers using Python. We cover the basics of how one constructs a program from a series of simple instructions in Python. The course has no pre–requisites and avoids all but the simplest mathematics. Anyone with moderate computer experience should be able to master the materials in this course. This course will cover Chapters 1–5 of the textbook “Python for Everybody”. Once a student completes this course, they will be ready to take more advanced programming courses. This course covers Python 3.

Instructor Details

Charles Severance (a.k.a. Dr. Chuck) is a Clinical Associate Professor at the University of Michigan School of Information, where he teaches various technology-oriented courses including programming, database design, and Web development. Chuck has written a number of books including Using Google App Engine, and Python for Informatics. His research field is in the building of learning management systems such as Sakai, Moodle, Blackboard, ANGEL, and others. He was the chief architect for the Sakai Project, a learning management system used at about 300 schools worldwide and wrote the book Sakai: Free as in Freedom, that describes his experiences as one of the leaders of the project. In the mid-1990s he was the host of Internet:TCI, a national television talk show about the Internet that ran for several years on the TCI cable system. He was long-time a columnist for the IEEE Computer Magazine writing a monthly column called "Computing Conversations" that features video interviews with famous technology leaders and innovators.

Specification: Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)

Duration

21 hours

Year

2020

Level

Beginner

Certificate

Yes

Quizzes

No

40 reviews for Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)

4.6 out of 5
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  1. Mary Fasang

    This was my first MOOC so I went in with an open mind and no expectations. I had absolutely no dev experience so I was looking for an online course that was truly for beginners.

    The course consists of an eBook and online videos/assignments/quizzes. The professor Dr. Charles Severance is passionate about Python and enthusiastic about sharing his knowledge. He is engaging in the online lectures. In addition to the lectures, he also adds interviews and other relevant video clips these extras made me feel like I was truly a part of this course.

    The assignments/quizzes are due on a weekly basis and must be completed by Sunday evening. I felt this helped me hold myself accountable even when I had things going on, I prioritized getting my assignment and quiz in prior to Sunday.

    I enjoyed this course so much that I’ve decided to complete the entire Coursera Learn to Program and Analyze Data with Python Specialization.

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  2. Joanna Rives

    Outstanding introduction to programming using the Python language. If you are a raw beginner this class is for you. Dr. Charles Severance is as personable as he is passionate about sharing his knowledge of programming with all comers. I felt as though I was being tutored by an old friend.

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  3. Pranav Suri

    I took this course because I want to complete the specialization. I knew almost all of the content before joining the course. The content was well presented by Dr. Chuck. I also loved the eBook they’ve provided along with this course. Having taken many MOOCs, I felt this was one of those very few courses which knew how to teach via internet.

    I would highly recommend it for people who want to get into programming. The difficulty is just about right (slightly on the easier side) but it’d surely help you progress well with coding.

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  4. Brandt Pence

    This is the first class in the new (at the time I took it) Python for Everybody specialization, which grew out of Dr. Charles Severence’s popular course of the same name. As I understand it, the first two courses of this specialization will cover the material from the previous course, while the third and fourth courses and the capstone will cover new material.

    This is a very gentle introduction to programming in Python. The videos are very thorough, and Dr. Chuck does a good job of going over everything he’s teaching in great detail. As I had a fair amount of experience in R and some experience with Python (Codecademy course and Genomic Data Science with Python course), I found this to be very easy, and I raced through the class in a few hours, listening to the videos on 2x speed. One of the big problems I have with this course and similar ones (like the Rice Python courses) is the use of web based coding platforms. While they’re useful for real time checking of code, students who learn to use these platforms may end up completely lost if they try to go apply their programming experience from these courses to a real world problem. I would much prefer to see programming taught via command line or using an IDE like Spyder.

    Overall, four stars. Very thorough, very slow paced. I imagine that finishing this specialization will only get students to the novice programmer stage, but it is a good first step, and probably the most approachable programming course out there for those with no experience.

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  5. Anonymous

    First off, let me say that this course is excellent. I’ve been interested in learning to program for a few months now. I tried things like Codecademy and Code School and while I learned a little bit from each of them, Python for Everybody was the key to my success of finally grasping the language.

    There’s a few reasons for this:

    1. Dr. Chuck is awesome! His lessons are light hearted, thorough, and truly make programming fun. He is the type of professor who is doing this for the love of Python and that really stands out.

    2. This course encourages you to work from your own environment. While being able to learn to code in a browser is fun and interesting…using your own machine and your own terminal to execute Python is essential. Plus, you feel like a real programmer! Which really is cool when you’re just starting out. It gives you motivation to keep going. It did for me anyway.

    If you’re on the fence about this course, take it from another developer in training. Dr. Chuck’s Python for Everybody is one of the best classes I’ve ever taken. You’ll be glad you did.

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  6. Anonymous

    I’ve taken close to 10 Coursera courses, including all of UMich’s “Python for Everyone” courses. Chuck is far and away the most passionate professor among the dozen or so (multiple instructors per course) I’ve had via Coursera. He also does a great job of giving you thorough insights into the programming concepts he covers, versus the 5 and 7 minute snippets offered in other courses (can you really cover new programming topics/concepts in 5 minute chunks?)

    This is a really good introductory course to Python and modern programming languages. I highly recommend it: five stars.

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  7. Jay D Murphy

    This course is the first in the series, Programming for Everybody, which is a very good initiation into the world of computer programming via the Python language, a very straightforward and easily learned scripting language. Dr. Charles Severance present the material in a very easy going, conversational manner, using a textbook which he adapted for this series. Video lectures are supplement with interviews with important players in the development of the programming profession. Students are assigned weekly quizzes and programming project, and can obtain assistance in the student curated wiki and discussion forum, ably moderated by volunteer mentors.

    I highly recommend this course to those wanting an exposure to practical programming.

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  8. Anonymous

    This course is a fairly basic starting point, but is well put together with the combination of lectures, notes, book, quizzes and exercises. The examples in the lectures are very good; the only criticism being that they are presented very repetitively….and sometimes you’ll want to fast forward as dead horses are being beaten to death. But you can fast forward and there is a transcript of the lecture so you can scan for content and breeze over repetitive explanations. You really should practice writing more programs than are required explicitly as part of the class in order to get comfortable with it, and definitely leverage Google to look up alternate explanations of commands when you need to. Overall, this is a very useful course.

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  9. Anonymous

    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!

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  10. Jereme Causing

    I don’t have a certification yet since I chose to audit this course. But even so, I am still provided with access to the class materials, quizzes, and video lectures as well. Maybe if I can afford the whole specialization but for the meantime I would like to give my review.

    This course is a good introduction to beginners out there. Dr Chuck did a great work teaching such as providing good (and sometimes humorous) illustrations, as well as resources needed to make things easier. Even though I am an experienced developer, I still find it interesting because the instructor makes you think logically. Makes me wish I learned this back then in programming school. The quizzes also help students think on their own as they are still quite challenging.

    A bonus material also included are the interviews from professional developers, and even the Python creator Guido van Rossum himself. It’s not required to watch them but it gives you an interesting overview in the python world.

    One problem here, although it’s not that bad, is that they still use Python 2. Although it’s not a problem since it is still easier to upgrade anytime plus the free textbook provided has some footnotes for Python 3 changes. I do hope in the future they would upgrade to Python 3 since the new edition of the book is now updated.

    I would recommend this to both newbies in programming and experienced developers who are interested to learn the Python programming language as well.

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  11. Anonymous

    I joined this course to achieve two things: to learn about learning online in a MOOC environment, and to get an early grip on Python. I have some experience with PHP but find that PHP is excruciatingly slow for the development of database driven web sites. Don’t misunderstand me my programming background is modest and largely comprised of working with Visual Basic for Applications, behind Microsoft Access databases. MS Access is absolutely NOT the right environment for web site implementation and Python called me in the night … one night about eight days ago.

    There are a couple of things about the MOOC environment that I want to comment on. It is great to be able to rattle through the videos I was soon running at 1.25 or 1.50 ‘real time’ (that is a great feature of the viewer!) and frankly I have no wish to spend time watching anyone sipping their coffee or straining their tea bags. Sorry, Chuck! Having said that, pitching the examples at a simple level clearly exercises the features of programming (and the Python language) easily, and for that I am grateful. I will certainly press on to the following modules. The other thing about this MOOC environment wasHUGE frustration with the auto grader. I found it to be very ‘fragile’ (that is the best word I can find to describe it) and when your code fails, it gives very poor feedback. The last exercise (5.2) I simply had to leave without a grade, because all it would tell me is ‘< Mismatch' what the heck does that mean? Where are the help screens and the backup? The code that I wrote for 5.2 works perfectly in my Python IDE (SPE Stani's Python Editor, working in an Ubuntu machine). I simply cannot work out why it does NOT work in the auto grader. Total frustration. As soon as I finish this review I am going to continue my search for answers.In terms of getting a grip on Python, as I am in effect migrating from other languages, I guess I chose the wrong course. I am familiar with the concepts of sequence, iteration and decision (and functions) so I really just needed a cheat sheet to get me started. Conclusion this module really is for beginners, IMHO.Finally, Chuck clearly put some effort into organising some interviews with ‘names’ which are useful context, but there could have been a closer discussion of how the interviewed experts viewed the activity that is programming, and they could have offered advice to novice programmers, rather than speaking historically (mostly) about their specialities: the Arduino, Python itself, whatever …Time to move on. I hope this helps someone decide about the course.

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  12. Donna Leviash Mckowen

    Dr. Chuck is an amazing teacher. I had always thought that because I was a woman (and better in languages than math) programming would be something I would never grasp, or even attempt to grasp. I do have several male friends who are programmers, and they suggested I try anyway, because they saw in mes a logical person, who was good at languages(I speak Spanish and Arabic also) Dr.Chuck had such a warm and engaging manner, he made me believe in myself, and took away the self imposed barrier I had carried around, about not being able to ever learn how to program. His manner of explanation in his lectures, his very well written book,”Python for Informatics” helped me to progress and begin to understand what it means to think “computationally.” He has an easy charisma, sense of humor, and a well laid out course. For me personally, I struggled a bit on the exercises, but I re watched his videos and in the end, was able to really begin to get a feel of how to solve the problems presented. The mentors and staff were always quick to answer questions, and I learned a lot through reading forum entries too. Many of my questions were already answered. I am encouraged to do the whole Python Specialization and begin the 2nd course very soon. I totally recommend this course to anyone who has an interest in learning how to program.

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  13. Jennifer

    With so many glowing reviews, I don’t think mine matters, but here it is anyway: This course is amazing.

    This course is so amazing that a) I realized I threw away way too much money on a different “introduction to python” course that had live instructors and one on one access to mentors because this class was free and far more beneficial; and b) when I’m done writing this review, I’m going to sign up for the whole Coursera Python for Everybody specialization.

    The Python playground is amazing, but it isn’t even necessary because the instructor provides such great material for getting Python installed and running on your computer (with windows, mac, and linux instructions), even a complete beginner would be able to follow the instructions and make a functioning script in no time. But the playground is just a lot of fun to play with, and makes tinkering as a beginner super easy.

    I spent one whole day and finished the entire Getting Started with Python course (auditing, no quizzes), and learned more than I learned in the first 4 weeks of a 6 week paid course. Dr. Chuck is GOOD at what he does. He presents material in a very down to earth manner in clear, plain language that’s technical, but not over my head. I have very little experience with programming, and know the basics of computers and computing, but even the introduction to hardware architecture was fascinating and I learned more about hardware than I expected. I felt a lot more prepared to dive into programming after that lecture.

    The amazing thing is that so much is crammed into such short lectures, and yet the material is still accessible.

    Speaking of accessibility: the lectures have captions AND interactive transcripts. The audio is crisp and clear, as is the video without background noise or distractions. The dedication to accessibility has blown me away and is another big reason I plan to support Coursera by paying for the specialization path.

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  14. Anonymous

    4.9 Star Review:

    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 2015 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. (VS2017 also has this capability).

    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.

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  15. Anonymous

    Took the course as an Executive well involved with Technology in companies for over 25 years. I took this in order to go back and learn the basics of programming, something that I skipped in my career, which had been missing all the long. The course structure is perfect for a busy guy like me that does not have the time to take off my daily agenda but to work during my free time from the home office and to pick up those fundamentals that I relied on others to give me while we implemented systems that would change the working lives of so many people. I absolutely love this program, Coursera/MOOC and those Universities (UofM) on this one, that they are actually doing work that is vital in today’s competitive society.

    I will not become a programmer, but I will be able to pick up the knowledge to talk shop with the most important people on my teams, the developers. That I can not only understand but challenge results and outcomes with the knowledge of the parameters of the technologies capabilities from the back end.

    Thanks so much, I am spreading the word of Coarsera and the valuable work and academic relationships they are creating. This course was the perfect addition to my need to grow my knowledge and career at this point in my life. It is not just for those starting their career, but those enhancing very matured careers.

    Technology is very much like a Medical Doctor keeping up with the latest and greatest of medicines and technology to keep people healthy. People who think they know it all, well, they can only be as good as the knowledge they can pass share and pass on, to a technologist in today’s Information/AI era, these courses are vital to keeping us moving forward and keeping us applicable to our customers. That, in the end, is the most important thing.

    Bravo to everyone involved with this course and delivering a great streamlined product.

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  16. Anonymous

    Before you read this review, some notes about me (so you can form your own opinion about my review below):

    I have been interested in programming since I was little, but never gained any real experience in it until my adult life.

    I tried to take a Java course in college my freshman year and I struggled and had to drop out and ended up getting a degree something completely unrelated to computer science or math.

    I have a difficult time with the sometimes very “stuffy”/pretentious parts of formal academia at the university level (and many opinions about modern education 🙂 )

    In my mid 20s I tried to teach myself C++ and struggled. Then I found Python and made it to defining a CLASS, but gave up because it was too hard. I decided to start over again with this course on Coursera (years later)

    My review:

    Section 1: At first I was very put off by Charles Severance’s teaching and video lectures. This is because the first section of this course (7 sections) has nothing to do with teaching Python, but talking about machine language and computer functionality in general. I was eager to start Python, and I was not interested in the subject matter he was discussing (which by chance I already knew a lot about), and it seemed as though he recorded the lecture in 1 take with no formal notes or organization around the lectures mostly just ramblings that I found hard to relate to anything Python specific. This greatly disappointed me and I almost gave up.

    DON’T GIVE UP. KEEP MOVING TO SECTION 2.

    Sections 2 7: I had previously already taught myself everything this full 7 section course offers, so nothing came as a complete surprise. This is also my first course on coursera so I did not realize until around section 5 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 have programmed before, 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. As the material became more difficult it became more interesting and I grew to enjoy and appreciate the down to earth style that Charles has when teaching a concept in the course. I believe that he may be the person who can help me 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 (where the homework took me more than 5 10 mins to complete).

    I look forward to the next section of this 5 part 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 helps others.

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  17. Steven Young

    This is the 2 of 4 courses I have taken on Python. The reason I took it was because of the specialization seemed more complete than the others. The courses following this one, if memory serves, offers a variant of SQL and some ways to really use Python in some very interesting ways. In this regard, it is probably the best.

    I am also taking Interactive Python, and cannot help but compare the two. Even though Interactive Python covers Python 2, many of the quizzes and assignments are accessible to auditors. This was not the case for this course. This is why I gave it a 4/5.

    I found the lectures, relatively speaking compared to *all* of the other 4 that I have taken to be among the worst in terms of helpfulness. That might have to do with the fact that most of it I have already become familiar with and use. But I don’t think so. Case in point: functions. About the only thing he really did with functions is show how to make one and how to call it. He didn’t really go into any detail on types of functions or ways that they’re used. I am familiar enough, now, with Python that I can make the adjustments I need to in the Python 2 lectures to make them useful. If you want to consider which MOOC is the best available through class central, I recommend the Python Interactive. But, as I mentioned earlier, there are, following these lectures, a series of important topics offered that I don’t think are included in the other MOOCs. So, I will begin those very soon and may change my opinion on the usefulness of this as a part of a whole.

    Actually, I would have given it a 3/5 except for the interesting additional interviews with Rossum. It was a nice cherry on the top.

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  18. Anonymous

    This course is wonderful. I took a similar MOOC from Rice and I greatly preferred this one because it is more focused on talking about how programming works and uses the python language for examples. It also covers a lot of topics in a relatively short amount of time and does so clearly and concisely.

    I would give the course a 5, but a couple of the programming examples use bad practices which are not really addressed. This is somewhat concerning because it could lead new beginners to develop bad habits that they’ll then have to break once they start using python for real or after they get thrashed once or twice on StackOverflow. The habits are

    1. The instructor occasionally overwrites built in functions with variables because of his naming choices.

    – Variables names like str, int, and list are bad because they overwrite the str(), int(), and list() casting functions

    – The instructor does mention this once in this course and it may be a part of his overall “Python doesn’t care about variable names” demonstration

    2. The instructor does not mention how to properly use a try except pattern because his examples neglect to specify the type of exception to be caught.

    – Instructor uses “except:” which catches all errors, instead of “except ValueError:” or something of the like

    – This is bad practice because the programmer may only be expecting one type of error, but another would occur and may not be handled properly. This can lead to errors occurring from within an except block

    – This is not mentioned in this course, but likely is in one of the following from the same series.

    I know, by volume this course focused on the negatives, but it really is a magnificent course and I would still highly recommend it for new programmers.

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  19. Daniel Dunne

    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.

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  20. Anonymous

    Overall, I enjoyed this class. I absolutely adore Dr.Chuck and his facial expressions (especially when he was looking at us because there was a trick somewhere in the midst). I am 100% new to Python and am not exactly sure where it might fit in my life yet.

    I appreciated the buffers built in to allow students to complete assignments, the access to course materials offline and the comfortable atmosphere of instruction. I did find that I wasted a lot of time when the homework didn’t require what had been shown in the classes. When attempted, the actions describe in class didn’t work. I didn’t quite understand why they couldn’t be implemented even if not required for the assignment. I wondered what was missing. It was less than convenient to find out via the forum.

    During the final days of the course I was unable to work from a computer I could load with python. It was a huge disappointment when the playground crashed after running a couple lines of code and had to be reloaded repeatedly until I finally gave up. I couldn’t find another online editor to use that worked nearly as well. I lost a lot of time and it cost me in the end.

    The mentors and assistants on the forum were great. I just wish their were more of them, especially on the last day. Being new to Python it was sometimes difficult to follow the feedback to others and try to apply it to me. On the final day, I got some feedback. Unfortunately, there was no way to follow up. The updates to my final code went un reviewed, I was not successful with my final assignment and felt badly because of it. I understand that this platform makes that type of availability to students impossible.

    I’m not sure if I will continue with Python. Regardless, I did enjoy the class and am considering it. Thank you all for your tremendous efforts!

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  21. Anonymous

    Just completed the first part of this course, 7 weeks. Thoroughly enjoyed it. “Dr Chuck” is a good lecturer his enthusiasm for and experience in his subject come across very well and he looks as if he enjoys teaching always a plus for a student! I am going to enrol on the remainder of the course.

    There were a couple of areas in the course where the presentation in the video was confusing (can’t remember which week, perhaps week 4?) where Dr Chuck used only Mac commands in the command prompt section, which is confusing as a PC user. That week’s forum was full of confused exclamations from students! Yes, there are downloads which help you to learn which commands to use, but when you’ve been progressing through the videos in one way (PC or Mac commands) and then suddenly a video uses another method, it takes precious time away from learning if you have to find out which commands to use for yourself. I think consistency in the video presentations would be best, or else just a quick reminder of which commands to use if you’re watching as a PC user (or Mac user if vice versa). But, really not a big deal overall.

    There was also one video where Dr Chuck’s example programming contained a small error, which he didn’t mention or correct, but I used that as extra practice for me as a learner!

    I audited this course only (i.e. didn’t pay to take it), so I wasn’t able to submit the assignments for marks or get the course certificate. But that’s OK as I could still use them for my own practice and I think it’s fair if one is not paying for the course.

    There are plenty of very good resources provided so that you can complete extra learning over and above the course at your leisure. Obviously the course can only provide an overview of each stage, not go too in depth. But the information and resources are there for you to learn more fully as you please.

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  22. Ali Al dossari

    Before I dive into reviewing the course, here’s some background on my experience with python up to the point of registering in the course to give context to the review as I believe it makes a difference.

    My academic background is in Actuarial Science and Financial Mathematics. Basically a mosh between a lot of Mathematics & Statistics, and Business (Finance & Accounting mainly). My actual programming experience is one introductory C++ course and that’s it.

    Fast forward, AI / ML and specifically DL came to be the hottest thing in the universe. And me being an Actuary, data and modeling (and forecasting in specific) are basically all what I do, I was instantly taken by the drive to learn how to develop ML models. After some research, I decided to choose Python as the language to facilitate learning ML. One Problem though, I know nothing about it. So I decided to watch one 45 min video on YouTube that summarized what Python is and how to get “the hang of it” IF YOU’RE ALREADY FAMILIAR WITH THE CONCEPT OF PROGRAMMING which was my case.

    Then I registered in Andrew’s deep learning specialization and finished it. However, at the time I didn’t really now how to write Python, rather I knew how to write ML models in Python. This was fine for some time until I was faced with the reality that this wasn’t nearly enough. I kept running into trivial issues while mainly wrangling data because I didn’t speak enough Python. So I decided to take this course, Python for Everybody, and learn Python properly.

    Now comes the review.

    I was done with the course in 2 days. I wasn’t rushing or anything, but thanks to my previous struggles, what I already knew of Python was more than enough for the this course. Therefore, I don’t think that my review is very useful since the course wasn’t intended for someone with a similar scenario to mine. But if I’m to be as objective as possible and not pick on nits, I’d say it’s a great course and recommend it to any non programmer.

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  23. Anonymous

    Prof. Severance is a wonderful teacher and mentor, who explains the topic in the simplest way possible and in a very humorous and interesting way. I wish I had teachers like him in my college; it would have made learning my lessons a lot easier. When he is teaching, it doesn’t seem like he is a professor teaching students, rather it feels like one of our friend is explaining to us what Python is all about. Especially in that one video, when he started teaching while wearing a sorting hat (from the Harry Potter movies) at the same time, I knew that this is what is known as the ‘art of teaching’. You rarely get to see quality teaching like this. Thanks from the bottom of my heart, Prof. Severance. You’ve earned my respect.

    Coming to the course, it especially caters to people who have no prior experience in programming. People who know a little bit of programming may find it a tad slow, though that can be fixed by fast forwarding videos or skipping them. The exercises and assignments are very fun to do, and they test your basic knowledge in Python.

    Last but not the least, thank god for Coursera. Their website UI is fantastic and it makes taking a course very easy and an enjoyable experience. I hope they continue making quality content like this.

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  24. Anonymous

    I loved this class. I liked the manner of the teacher, loose but everything said was important. The examples covered the concepts well and the textbook too. I loved that I was really programming and using real world examples.

    For some this is a plus: the speed of the class. Personally, I found the beginning chapters easy, so the end “working example” seemed an appropriate. But the last two chapters (4and 5) felt rushed. There was so much to absorb: Functions (and all their flavors), Loops (conceptually is easy but programmatically increases difficulty exponentially), when to use try/except, None as a Type, Debugging. I think a class could be done on debugging alone! If possible, I’d break the Functions class and the Loops class each into 2 separate classes, for a total of 4.

    For a true beginner, someone with absolutely no technical background (i.g. someone like my mom), getting started would have been hard. She knows nothing about cmd prompts or how to work in them (Heck, she has trouble installing an app.) A non required video section on how to set that up and explanation of what it is plus a screenshot of basic commands (cd, ls, l , how to use TAB or arrows to get existing values etc), would have helped.

    Ditto for using Atom. It seems obvious to people in tech to “google” any question they have about a new app (e.g. for keystroke shortcuts etc) but to a truly new person to programming, it is not obvious. I struggled with moving quickly in Atom at first. It’s well laid out but I got confused with tabs/spaces and spent lots of time fumbling with syntax errors there.

    Loved that the condensed text chapters were available as well as the slides, but didn’t really discover them until midway through the class. For someone less inquisitive, they would have been missed. Perhaps an intro to Coursera layout video would be helpful as well.

    Finally, a shoutout to the assistants who answered (probably the same) questions over and over in the Forums. I was at my wit’s end, having looked at other’s questions for ideas, my own program for hours and with no other help, I would have been done for without their prompts and suggestions. I can’t thank them enough for their time and patience.

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  25. Ashray Gupta

    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!

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  26. Anonymous

    A great start to learning the language. Though, keep in mind that it will not make you an expert, only give you a solid foundation. Building actual useful programs will come later. However, it does what it intends to do very well. Compared to other online platforms, it is nice to have a verbal explanation to go along with it and clear up some misunderstandings. The grading system allows you to build your skills more efficiently as well, forcing you to actually study the material and not blindly type it in.

    I will say, though, that it can often spend a lot of time on some specifics and gloss over some others, which could be confusing. This might be especially true for me, as I like to see the whole picture and understand the whole program. And if you want to truly understand, you’ll have to do more than just watch the videos and take the quizzes. I personally liked that aspect, though, because I feel like I’m learning organically.

    If you do well in a college course structure, this is the one for you!

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  27. Anonymous

    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!

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  28. Anonymous

    Dr. Chuck is an extra ordinary teacher. And thank you course era and University of UM for giving me opportunity to learn Python. I am not from computer background but still it was so easy to learn.

    Really the name of this course fits perfect”Programming for Everybody” it is programming for everybody in its true sense.

    After taking course, I have gained a new interest in programming and keen to learn more. I started Python to boost my career, but now it feels like I have learnt something really genius. I never thought programming can be so creative. It makes your mind run in every direction without any barrier to create a logic. It is more about creation. Programmers create more intelligent program than themselves.

    Thank you all again.

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  29. Rishabh Gupta

    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 2015 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. (VS2017 also has this capability).

    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.

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  30. Anonymous

    This is a very awesome course …. The best thing is that it keeps me entertained and motivated throughout the length of the course. Not only this course brushes up my technical syntax for python , basic concepts which are used in other computer languages but also gives me great idea about data structures. This course has few videos of campus sightseeing, interaction with the instructor and learning some basic but important keywords. I would advise anybody who is about to start with Python to go with this course . Plus the whole course had the latest version of Python instructions .The course will never get outdated . And, you will never forget the exception handling concepts because they are taken care of nicely.

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  31. Anonymous

    Overall, this is a great introduction to Python and is more beneficial for beginners and started to learn to program in python. This course is so amazing that a) I realized I threw away way too much money on a different “introduction to python” course that had live instructors and one on one access to mentors because this class was free and far more beneficial; and b) when I’m done writing this review, I’m going to sign up for the whole Coursera Python for Everybody specialization.

    The Python playground is amazing, but it isn’t even necessary because the instructor provides such great material for getting Python installed and running on your computer (with windows, mac, and Linux instructions), even a complete beginner would be able to follow the instructions and make a functioning script in no time. But the playground is just a lot of fun to play with and makes tinkering as a beginner super easy.

    I spent one whole day and finished the entire Getting Started with Python course (auditing, no quizzes), and learned more than I learned in the first 4 weeks of a 6 week paid course. Dr. Chuck is GOOD at what he does. He presents the material in a very down to earth manner in clear, plain language that’s technical, but not over my head. I have very little experience with programming and know the basics of computers and computing, but even the introduction to hardware architecture was fascinating and I learned more about hardware than I expected. I felt a lot more prepared to dive into programming after that lecture.

    The amazing thing is that so much is crammed into such short lectures, and yet the material is still accessible.

    Speaking of accessibility: the lectures have captions AND interactive transcripts. The audio is crisp and clear, as is the video without background noise or distractions. The dedication to accessibility has blown me away and is another big reason I plan to support Coursera by paying for the specialization path.

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  32. Anonymous

    I have been an early adopter of IT and a practitioner (aka ‘maker’ since the early 80s) did 5+ years of AI, robotics and knowledge based systems programming and university level teaching in ASM, C and C++ in the early 90s and was looking forward to seeing new programming tool developments as I had not been exposed to web coding tech (Java, JS, CSS etc) in my years. From a conceptual perspective Chuck does a great job of explaining and exemplifying the fundamental concepts of Python flow control. He is entertaining and manages to convey the human side and the evolution side of the house via the optional video material. Fon non native speakers the English transscript is helpful. Assignments are 5 10 min exercises and very reasonable so they do their job of providing some experience while not putting off interested candidates. I share the view of some of my co commenters that software engineering needs a debugger and ideally an SDE but this is an introductory course and such pro concepts should be introduced later in the training process when there is a level of learner involvement and commitment that justifies the expenditure and ensures a better appreciation. Nice job.

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  33. Bryan Birchmeier

    Dr. Chuck is an engaging lecturer even in virtual reality. The discussion boards are useful, but a bit confusing as you’re not allowed to publicly post code that could lead to an answer for other students (for obvious reasons, which I’ve forgotten a time or two already).

    Because of this, you can’t publicly ask questions of the instructors and other members of the forum pointed questions about your code if you’re very close to getting the right output and just need clarification for a tweak or two. That part is a bit of a bummer, as MOOCs are specifically designed to maximize the number of learners that can benefit with the least amount of resources needed from the hosting institution. Because of this and the way my brain works, I had a fairly negative experience with one of the moderators who came down on me for posting code (and they were right to, as I said earlier I’d forgotten the rule about posting code), but did it in a very snarky sarcastic way which came through even in a forum post (that takes talent and a familiarity with social media practices that make it apparent that person should have known not to do that to someone who’s trying to learn how to do something on their own and relying on the help and good graces of others).

    However, aside from the frustrations and singular truly negative experience, it’s important to understand that I received incredibly patient assistance from an online instructor that must have canned responses for students like me who post things which basically amount to: “derp, my code looks perfect but it’s not working.” That instructor’s patience and diligence and the materials culled from Dr. Chucks actual introductory programming course taught at the University of Michigan School of Information make this an experience with the potential value of that course’s cost of attendance.

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  34. Anonymous

    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!

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  35. Anonymous

    I know about a bit of programming language skills by using c or c++. But I also wanted to learn about the python programming language, so I decided to go with Coursera & I want to say….waao…Dr. Chuck is awesome, the way he taught is pretty great… i mean to say that… this course is pretty awesome for everyone who wants to go with python programming language So, I’m highly recommending to go with this course.

    A very good introduction to basic programming. Very easy for beginners in python who have already some programming background but still extremely useful to quickly and efficiently learn python basics. It was a worthwhile course. Entertaining as well. I just wish that there were more sample homework before the exercises so students could see how the lessons are applied to actual problems. Lecture videos were broken into small parts whereby it’s easy to understand and digest. The assessment given was relevant to what was taught for each segment. Navigating around course contents were easy.

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  36. Wenjing Liu

    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.

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  37. Anonymous

    Good work and nicely teached

    Well it’s very important course and they have good knowledge about subject

    They having good display with good scripting operations in style sheet

    Python is now trending language and also having nice and easily learn design small coders also learn easily python

    this gives you a certificate to keep resume

    Full and good looking for interviewers

    Well this is my opinion you use this and you will feel this is good python and

    Coursera is providing good language with excellent professional s ilthis is a great job by them providing like this for who willing to learn but not having time and transport issues it helps a lot

    coresera is providing the python for everybody Getting started with the python they having five chapter for basics as well as some what deep also they also provideing the continues language with python and python datascience

    What do you like best?

    There are some free courses that you only pay if you want the certification / tittle, it is great. Also the UX and UI is really good to come and go managing your own learning agenda, but it keeps you in track by dividing it in weeks of study

    What do you dislike?

    Sometimes its hard to keep track of all your courses, if you stop making progress, it kind of leave them behing, it does not tracks them down easily

    Recommendations to others considering the product:

    Learning while working, it is most important and having one format replied through different concepts, gains a lot of time. Sometimes it is hard to find the right course, but the forum they have has a lot of responses and they can point you in the right direction

    What problems are you solving with the product? What benefits have you realized?

    Learning while working, it is most important and having one format replied through different concepts, gains a lot of time.

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  38. Anonymous

    This course is awesome! I had tried to self teach Python but I failed many times. However this time, I find it really interesting and efficient to take this course and just follow the instructions of the professor. Prof. Charles is so funny and wise that he has managed to not only pass on the knowledge to me but also make me so happy and fell in love with coding with Python. I am a student of art, which makes me pretty self conscious about my ability of finish this course. Luckily, it turns out that I don’t need that much knowledge for mathematics or data science to complete the assignments, I believe that this course is truly suitable for everyone! I enjoy it so much and I would definitely recommend it to my friends!

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  39. Anonymous

    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!

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  40. Anonymous

    The course perfectly justifies its title. A perfect course for an absolute beginner. The way Professor Chuck explained was far better than what my profs taught me in college, (BTW i study in a college of National importance, so top quality. but still i prefer Prof.Chuck over mine at college). The lectures are easy to follow, and not to forget the interface coursera is too good. I just love the calendar sync feature..you’ll never miss your deadlines. Coming back to the course, you don’t need any prior knowledge, this course got everything covered for an absolute beginner…not just for python but also programming. According to me everyone who wants to learn coding should take this course. Even if you are not a beginner, you can take this course as revision ..It covers all the basics.

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    Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
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