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Learner Reviews & Feedback for How Computers Work by University of London

4.6
stars
534 ratings

About the Course

Computers are everywhere, they aren't just the desktops and laptops we use for work but the phones in our pockets and even the watches on our wrists are also computers. You probably use a computer every day and in fact you are reading this on a computer! Just because we use computers all the time, doesn't mean that we understand them, or find them easy to use. Computer Science is the science of computers, it is the field of knowledge that experts use to understand computer systems. Knowing a little computer science will help you understand the computers all around you. This isn't a how-to course for a particular piece of software, instead you will learn some fundamental concepts that you can apply to any software or computer system. You'll apply these concepts to the kind of computer systems we use every day, including word processing applications, e-commerce, the internet and web sites. You will learn how to apply computer science concepts to solve problems in daily computer use and generally be a better computer user. Taking this course could be the start of your career in computer science, and the course is an introduction to the Bachelors in Computer Science from University of London, but it is also for you if you just want to learn a little computer science to help you better understand the computers you use in your ordinary life....

Top reviews

P

Mar 24, 2023

Amazing course once you start this you'll get a basic introduction about computers, How the webpages work. Hat's off to University of London for providing this course in simply way and fun manner

JJ

Sep 24, 2020

Good Course for a person who is not in the field of computer science and who wants to get deep knowledge in computer science.Thank You the University of London for that wonderful course.

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1 - 25 of 153 Reviews for How Computers Work

By Sebastijan P

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Mar 8, 2019

Terrible video content. Changing background all the time and distracting the viewer, a person mostly saying "what all we have learned" in every video instead of talking about the subject. No diagrams, no flows of data shown etc., just a person speaking and bragging; slides are very purely and unprofessionally prepared. The level of prepared content is for primary school and not for UNI. I could write about it for hours so I will stop. I just hope and believe this is just a sample and not a real content in a real study for which we will be paying 600 pounds. If you compare the content to for example 30 pounds Machine learning from Stanford University, where you get pdfs of slides, complete written notes, detailed prepared pdf with a very rich content for assignments and where professor actually talks about the content, it all becomes a bit strange.

By Nelson L W

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Jan 4, 2022

A good introduction to computers and computer science. Even someone experienced in the field can learn new concepts, though the course is really geared towards inexperienced learners.

By Aziz U M

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Dec 1, 2020

I am really happy that joined this course. The all lessons in this course was perfect and I really thankful of cursera specially from Dr. Marcro Gillies. Thank You!

By DONGPIN H

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Jan 10, 2019

I enjoy the MOOC and would introduce it to my friends. I think the course has revolutionize my previous understanding of Computer and Internet. Thumb Up!

By Dustin R

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Sep 20, 2019

Very good course as an introduction to computing. Could stand to be more challenging, but the material is certainly easy enough for a true beginner.

By Vadim S

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Jun 28, 2020

one of worst courses I've encountered. It attempts to teach a lot of things but nothing deep enough which can only complicate beginners. I'd rather suggest taking Computer Architecture course

By James J

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Sep 24, 2020

Good Course for a person who is not in the field of computer science and who wants to get deep knowledge in computer science.Thank You the University of London for that wonderful course.

By Damon M

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Oct 12, 2019

A great course. Although I have come from a background in website development, I still picked up many useful tips and information about the fundamentals of computers and how they work.

By Keith C

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Jan 25, 2019

Excellent overview, with lots of quizzes and assignments designed to help evolve learning into understanding.

By Yousuf K

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Feb 21, 2019

The course is very informative and helped to build notional machine and abstraction concepts.

By Preda

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Oct 28, 2018

Excellent course. I felt that I learnt a lot of computer science concepts that were new to me but helped me to appreciate how computers work. Dr Marco Gillies was an excellent lecturer. You could tell that a lot of careful planning went into structuring the course. Because the course was so well designed, I do not have recommendations for improvements.

By Jonathan M

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May 20, 2019

Great introduction to thinking about systems in terms of notional machines

By Deleted A

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Oct 26, 2018

Nice taster for the degree - can't wait to get started with the full BSc hopefully in April !

By Josephine K

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Jun 7, 2019

Very informative and fun course to take! However there is too much dependence on peer-submission. It shouldn’t be in other peoples’ hands if you can complete an assignment or not. I had to wait a long time and beg for reviews in the discussion area, even though I submitted the assignment on time. I think that is frankly unfair, especially if you pay to access course content.

By Emmanuel M

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Apr 16, 2020

There is a lot of casual talking and when the interesting concepts are introduced they are hastily dismissed and not well developed. I'm still wondering what a notional machine really is (and modules ?). You would be better just reading the introduction of the book cited "computer science - an overview". Surely you'll learn some interesting notions about the internet; other capital concepts in CS as Algorithms are not even mentioned. A mixed lot.

By Basil S

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Jan 12, 2019

mostly useless, but free

By Durga S

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Mar 22, 2020

I really enjoyed taking this course online because the videos given comes with a transcript, the professor explaining the concept explains it very clearly (they do not assume that you know what they are talking about), and most of all I really enjoyed how interactive the course was. There were discussion questions we may or may not participate in and when we submit the assignments our peers get the opportunity to review our work using the rubric given to us.

By affan a

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Aug 6, 2021

Amazing course learned a lot of new things state, modularity, networking, security didn't know all these thanks for the amazing knowledge the best part for me was the difference between internet and the World wide web and also TCP/IP was great topic after knowing that finally, I know how the internet, wifi routers, packets, distance it travels, different servers and also the different service provider (ISP).

By Clyde M

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Jul 14, 2019

An excellent and accessible course for the layperson that encourages broad understanding of the concepts behind rather complicated aspects of the modern use of computers, as well as the computer itself. A good footing for further investigations into the mechanics and theory of computing.

By KIM M

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May 25, 2019

Once you complete this course, you can understand how you use computers as a IT person, even though your first major was not close to IT fields accurately. And if you are office worker and want to learn about IT, this course would be great for you to study basic knowledge.

By Lucio S G

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Sep 30, 2019

This is a very fun way to learn at basic concepts for Computer Science which we can apply in our daily life.

Although this is an introductory course, it gives a glimpse of more complex and interesting topics which are key to computers and the way we interact with them.

By Dustine R

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Jan 12, 2021

It gives me a lot of lessons that I should know and enhance my skills in the field of Computer Engineering. All the basic understanding of the concept of how computer works are truly informative and precise. Thank you again for everything!

By Maham A

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Jun 16, 2023

Friday 6/16/2023 is the day I completed my course. This is an amazing course. It covers the primary concepts including Computers, Networking, Web and Internet very well. I appreciate the efforts of instructor. Thank you!

By Ramil J A

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Oct 20, 2019

Dr Marco is an enthusiastic, animated, and fun instructor. The course is laid out well and pace is nice. Highly recommended course for everyone who wants to learn more about abstract concepts about computer science.

By Luca G

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May 30, 2019

Very interesting course, is an overview complete and well structured.

I would suggest this course as first start to understand the logic used in appications and how computer works for give us the services.