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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python) by University of Michigan

4.8
stars
226,322 ratings

About the Course

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....
Highlights
High quality instructor

(1484 Reviews)

Introductory course

(4203 Reviews)

Top reviews

GL

Feb 28, 2016

Excellent for a beginner!! Professor Severance follows a very smooth and efficient method of teaching that reduces anxiety and increases passion for learning!! Recommended to anyone starting Python!!!

DJ

Oct 19, 2017

Dr. Chuck has a special ability to teach programming to people who doesn't necessarily have programming background. This is rare among programming teachers, and shows that he is an excellent educator.

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301 - 325 of 10,000 Reviews for Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)

By FELIPE P G

Jul 4, 2022

Aprendí mucho, aunque sé que me falta mucha practica. Los conceptos fueron claros. Sé que hay que inconrporar otras disciplinas y seguir trabajando durante mucho más tiempo hasta que los conocimientos hagan parte de mi ser mismo. El profesor fué muy claro en sus conceptos. Es bueno saber que además, hay ayudas como manuales que complementan y aclaran los conceptos. Se necesita mucha constancia y dedicación en tiempo para completarlo. Y aún más importante, gusto por la programación, Aunque aveces dudaba de continuar, pero simplemente, me sentaba y comenzaba cada tema sin pensarlo. Muchas gracias y felicitaciones a la Universidad de Michigan, a Coursera, a CLARO, la empresa para la que trabajo y me dió también esta oportunidad y a todas las personas que hicieron posible que pudiera realizar este curso y disfrutarlo.

By Ashwin P

Dec 27, 2016

Great course to learn the basics of Python. Even though I had studied C and C++ earlier this was my first computer course as such. It gives you a good flavor of the way one should learn programming. Dr. Chuck's lectures are exceptionally interesting. I would however like to suggest that some non-graded worksheets could be provided in the duration of the course so that discussions may also take place in the forum. But the textbook provided has sufficient exercises and practice questions but arent discussed in the forums. Overall a very informative and interesting course and will definitely teach you enough to carry forward the knowledge to grasp higher and more complex concepts of programming especially with the help of the textbook that is provided with the course.

Thank you so much Professor. Im deeply grateful.

By Christine B

Dec 29, 2020

This course was overall a great experience for me. I started with no programming experience and a very basic understanding of what Python was. Professor Severance is a wonderful instructor and his teaching style is one of the reasons I will continue on to the next course. The teaching staff that assists in the forums are responsive and helpful and I often found the assistance I needed for assignments just by going through different threads. The program is also very flexible with pace so if you're unsure or intimidated by the material, I encourage you to try it anyways. This course helped me to slow down and search for different solutions which will make me more detail-oriented, and more importantly, not feel discouraged/give up if I hit an error or cannot produce useful code on the first, second, or third go.

By Jorge A B B

Jul 11, 2020

I have programming background due to my BS in Digital Systems/Robotics, and this it is the most comprehensive introduction I've had to a programming language. Most of my courses, and teachers thought we had previous knowledge, even if it was an introductory course. That's why I recognize this course as the most basic way to enter a programming language, and anyone can grasp the concepts in this first course.

On the other hand, persons with previous knowledge like me, but with no knowledge of python is a good way to remember the simple things when you started. Also it helps you to slowly get to know the syntax, and you may finish the activities in record time due to you logical thinking of previous knowledge. Finally, gives you an idea on how to help introduce people with no previous knowledge to programming.

By Sourav B

Aug 17, 2016

Hello, I am glad that I am getting this course from one of the (Best) Author of Python Book. I am really happy with the contents & teaching style that made me so confident about coding in Python. Contents are helpful, discussion forum clarifies many doubts & the deep understanding of each module in this course make it a perfect choice for anyone to who even does not know 'A' of Python's Alphabet or of any coding language can start & learn to code. Good initiative by Author & Mentor. Please provide many such courses in near future so that we can learn best from Top University which is anyway not possible for students like us with financial problems! We learn many things from home & from Greatest University like in this case University of Michigan! Thanks for all work for making this course available online.

By Muhamed S O

Jul 18, 2020

It is a wonderful experience to have these kinds of lectures. Dr. Charles way of presentation of the content draws attention of all types of students according to me. It gives the student the idea of how a programming languages is taught in addition to learning the programming itself. As a teacher in the university level I am very thankful to Dr. Charles Severance, Coursera and University of Michigan for giving such an opportunity to learn how to teach Python rather than learning it.

The quizzes and assignments during the course are little bit challenging. Short videos make sure students attention. Students get opportunities for creating their own codes during assignments. I appreciate Dr Charles and his team for these.

I enjoyed it through out.

And one more thing, the 'try/except' is new to me. Thank you.

By Oscar G B C

Dec 29, 2017

I am just finishing the second part of the Python for everybody specialization "Data Structures", I have found this course very interesting, since the first part (getting started with python) I found this familiar with R language because it can be run line by line and it does not require a compiler, additionally I tried to develop a program to do some tasks for me (and more efficiently) while learning python and the helps me move forward. Let me be clear, this course is not difficult, Dr. Chuck has a good way to teach this course, I am doing other in parallel that I have found I little boring but still interested as well, I have a tight schedule and that is why I need from time to time a motive (find usefulness of or practice what I have learned) to keep me moving forward with this courses. give it a try!

By Roger B

Nov 30, 2017

I just wrote something about the course allowing the student to access a few various coding exercises (that act, look and feel like the real practice graded exercise) that could appear before each of the chapter graded test exercises. I know that it would require more content, but it would loosen the student up just to have some super simple practice exercises for each chapter that aren't graded so the student could just to get used to typing variances of code (mostly all the nuances of syntax) and allow them to repeat the same code layout in a non-judgmental way just to see if other variances of similar code could produce a very similar outcome. I don't know if this makes sense... I guess in a nut shell, just letting the student goof off more and try coding the chapter exercises in different ways??? :)

By Shawn T R

Jul 13, 2018

Full disclosure, I blew through this in a couple of hours so this is not the perspective of a true beginner. However, that being said I think it's a great introductory course for someone who is a beginning programmer. The instructor puts programming terms and ideas in very relatable and visual language, which is extremely helpful. It's very easy to get abstract and esoteric with programming concepts, so the fact that he keeps it grounded is great. I'll also say that the instructor has a laid back and friendly style that makes the subject seem less intimidating. He's funny and occasionally goofy and I think technical subjects need that kind of approach when they're geared towards beginners. I'm going to continue this course series to shore up my fundamentals and I'm very excited to see how it evolves.

By Benson L

Jun 19, 2020

The professor provides detailed and clear instruction of the basics of Python and clarifies our notion of some concepts where most beginners might make a mistake based on his ample teaching experience. It lowers the entry barrier for students like me who studies in business school.

Although I have been taken a Python course at school, some vague understanding then has been fortified through this online course. For instance, how to define a function with parameters, the meaning of parameters and the relationship between arguments and parameters, were the concepts that confused me in function building. Furthermore, loop control was another difficulty for me to get through. All the topics mentioned above is clarified now, so if you get some related problems, this course will bring you a lot.

By Muhammad A B I

Nov 3, 2023

I originally did this course on 2020 where Malaysia Digital Economy (MDEC) sponsored many Malaysian for Coursera course. I read on the internet that this is one of the best courses in Coursera. With no programming basic i took this course. And I fell in love with Python language with Dr. Chuck's as the instructor. The teachings is good I can understand and most importantly the practical part, programming assignments. Unfortunately I can't complete this course as the MDEC sponsorship is last. So in 2023, I dropped out of my degree because found that I didn't interested in the field and found it not suitable for me. So, I remembered this unfinished course and decided to subscribe to Coursera Plus. It is worth it. I feel I want to finish all the courses in Python For Everybody specialization.

By TATIANA L A M

Jul 15, 2020

El curso es buenísimo para principiantes, te permite entender y trabajar en tus habilidades, el profesor explica muy bien y cuenta con material de estudio traducido en distintos idiomas, el único problema es que los vídeos no están traducidos al español. Si eres hispanohablante y no sabes inglés no podrás realizar el curso cómodamente porque no todos los vídeo cuentan con subtítulos en español.

The course is great for beginners, it allows you to understand and work on your skills, the teacher explains very well and has study material translated into different languages, the only problem is that the videos are not translated into Spanish. If you are a Spanish speaker and do not know English you will not be able to do the course comfortably because not all the videos have Spanish subtitles.

By PRANSHU P

Oct 24, 2018

This course is very helpful. I have enjoyed this whole journey of learning. I would like to thank Foundation For Excellence and Coursera for giving me this much needed opportunity. I also thank University of Michigan for it's outstanding course material, lectures and videos. I also appreciate teaching methods of my guide, Charles Severance. He truly put all the herculean efforts in creating 'Python for Everybody'. Thank you so much all of you. You all helped me a lot to build my career in a proper way. I just want to request you that it will be very kind of you if you can allow us to access this material whenever we want, even after the completion of the whole course as it will help us to revise all the matter just before the placement session beginning. This is my only request to you.

By Kippin W

Jun 12, 2020

I'm a complete beginner (my IT experience limited to Word and web browsing) and was apprehensive about learning any code. But thanks to Severance's clear explanations I feel like I've learned so much, I've a long way to go but and I'm really hungry to learn more and want to keep going. I completed the course in 3 weeks (about 30 hours) but I think I'd better go back and try some assignments again to really get my head round them. The forums could be better organised and utilized but I couldn't have completed the course without them.

I recommend everyone to follow Severance's advise and use a text editor like Atom and run your assignments in Command Prompt (this is clearly explained at the start and in worked assignments). It seemed a bit of hassle at the start but was well worth it.

By Gaurav B

Mar 8, 2018

I have completed the course and I found it great. I do think it is a bit slow if you have programming experience in other languages. The instructor Charles Severance explains the important concepts with emphasis and that helps build in ones brain a highlight of things to do or not do. Also the bonus videos are great to either get a backstory on python or the tech world in general. Overall this is a great course.Just for fun: If anyone from the construction of this class is reviewing this comment - I do think the macarena example has not 3 but 4 mistakes. 3 syntactical mistake but 1 mistake is in the steps itself where the left hand is on the right shoulder then the right hand is on the left shoulder. The next step where the left hand goes to the back of the head cannot be performed.

By J A M

Dec 21, 2015

Dr. Chuck is da man! Awesome class. Dr. Chuck touched upon all the nuances of basic Python that most students are too embarrassed to ask about but which are nevertheless mission-critical to effective programming. This capacity to address unspoken concerns both in presentations and assignments is one of the secrets of a good MOOC professor since students can't ask questions.

This class is especially useful for those students who just completed codecademy.com's Python class since it explicitly addresses several issues that weren't addressed there. Finally, no one can rival Dr. Chuck's ability to access celebrity programmers whose presence adds an important dimension of context and helps students feel like they already belong to the international community of coders. Job well done.

By PAVANA H A

Jan 3, 2021

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.

By ozan y

Jun 9, 2020

In my opinion Dr. Chuck one of the best teacher in the world for Python. Course was amazing and it is very easy to understand for everybody even if you don't have any programming background. I couldn't realize that how quick this course finish and it gives me really good starting knowledge for Python. Content of course was also great and examples are giving sufficient information every week. Quizzes are measuring in a good way to your knowledge and if you have any mistake you quickly realize that what was the wrong. Conclusion, thank you very much Dr. Chuck you have helped me a lot! For sure I will use this Python programming language for my new carreer and I will improve myself all my entire life. I am appreciate for this opportunity and waiting for you office hours in Turkey!

By Hong H D N

Nov 26, 2021

It's good to join the course with zero programming background, yet I would suggest you join at least one course about the fundamentals of programming to understand the concepts illustrated more quickly. Chuck is a great guy considering he's a Slytherin, and his additional materials are interesting, yet I think it shouldn't be counted as a must to pass the course. The given assignments are ok, yet I would love to have 20 instead of 10 questions for the multiple-choice so that I could further understand more of what I'm good at or what I'm still missing. Furthermore, the coding assignments are great; it would be better if we have videos or materials that explicitly explain some of the harder assignments (such as 5.2). Overall, this is a great course and I strongly recommend this.

By Omar S B

Aug 31, 2016

Whatever level you are at programming, you will learn something new with this course because of the amazing teaching style provided by Dr. Chuck. Takes a seemingly complex subject and makes it incredibly simple and comprehensible to everyone! LOVE LOVE LOVE this course and any course taught by Dr. Chuck. This is part of an entire specialization. The only thing that is really lacking is an in-depth discussion of OOP. He briefly touches on it so that you know to go and look at it on your own time, but I wish he touched on it a little more. Nonetheless, 5/5 on this course. Thanks Dr. Chuck and supporting staff that make this course worth taking. The forum is still ACTIVE and if you run into problems a TA will be there to help you out! Critically to anyone's style of learning.

By Freud L L P

Jul 7, 2020

I'm used to other programming languages such as C and C+, I have been told that Python is one of the easiest, most understandable programming languages and I can confirm that is true. At first I was a bit slow in this class, but as time goes, the teacher makes it easier to follow and makes it interesting. The videos are not long, so I definitely found myself throughout the lectures. Although I was expecting more practices, I think with the basic I acquired, I can move on by myself. The topics are quite enough for beginners!!! Another thing I like about the class id how the teacher bring us to the programming world with his interviews with Guido Van Rossum, the creator of Python himself and with Massimo Banzi, co-founder of Arduino project. I really ENJOYED!!!

By Farha A R

Dec 1, 2021

Prior to this course I felt quite intimidated by Python and the whole idea of progrmming. However, Dr. Sevenrance has totally changed that for me. After having completed this course, I now feel more confident to unbdertake further courses on Python. For me, along side all the rudimentary topics of Python, the biggest takeaway has got to be learing to interpret the 'error' messages, and work through that, instead of getting frustrated and alarmed by it. Dr. Severance deserves a massive shout out for that, because through out the course, he introduced many practical setting where one may get error message and how to detect the issue from there. In fact, he did such a brilliant job of simplifying all the terms and explaining it in layman's language that anyone can get it.

By Saul T

Jun 3, 2022

This course was not what I expected it to be. It was better than I could have imagined! Starting out with absolutely no coding experience was a bit daunting, but I stuck with it and I'm glad that I did. Dr. Severence explains each topic clearly and makes things interesting. He seems to be a wholesome, really cool guy and I look forward to the next step which is Data Structures. The best part of these courses is that you can go back and review material if you get stumped on an assignment (Week 6 for me). The hardest part for me is finding time during the day to go over the course material since I'm working 12 hour days in remote locations. Even so, you can download lectures for later which is what I've been doing to make up for the poor cell service I get while at work.

By 陈诗哲

Mar 11, 2020

Thank you for Dr. Charles! it's the first time in my life to really finish an online course delivered in English and it's extraordinary that the way it delivers can be so simple and systematical. Homework can really inspire me to review what I've been learning. By the way, English skills get improved.

I really appreciate many comforting word set at the very beginning. When you see "Syntax error", it doesn't mean you are not suitable for programming language or you are a bad guy. It simply means Python can't understand your language. on the way to learn, finding something wrong is just because Python is not smart enough, you have to find more accurate words to communicate better. That must be great help for a beginner like me. Many Thanks! Fresh Pythonista, Shizhe Chen.

By Carlos E P V

May 9, 2017

The course has very nice tools to help you check your code. Although I had a bad time installing python at first, eventually I could made it run both on windows 10 and mac os Sierra. I highly appreciate Dr. Chuck´s humor, not only is highly unusual to joke so much in a class, but needed for something as black&white as a programming class can be. I do have one HUGE advice for the course, do the little problems in the video. Each video has several structures and ways of doing things, do them each, and squeeze them. You will need it to fully understand more complex problems. I wish the course would do a lot more short reviews, instead of a general review after each video. Continuing evaluation is critical to get more feedback and improve significantly. Best of Luck !