Course Review: Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
This course is the first of a collection of courses in the Python for Everybody Specialization by the University of Michigan on Coursera. The course is a very popular one on Coursera and 2.3 million people have already taken the course. The course is also highly rated with 4.8/5 from 195,792 reviews.
Course Link: Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
The course’s content
The course consists of five chapters over 7 weeks. As seen, the video content of all these chapters can be viewed in a day.
Introduction – Installing and using Python
This chapter contains 6 videos, a total of 33 minutes.
In this part, you mainly get some instructions on how you install Python on your computer. The course offers a web function where you can type and run code relevant to the assignments throughout the course.
This means you do not specifically need Python on your computer to complete it. But I would very much recommend you take the time to install Python on your computer anyway since you will be using it in the future.
Chapter 1 – Why we program (two parts)
This chapter contains 11 videos, a total of 79 minutes.
Describes the general workings of your computer’s hardware and how your scripts will function in a broad sense.
Chapter 2 – Variables and Expressions
This chapter contains 6 videos, a total of 56 minutes.
Chapter 3 – Conditional Code
This chapter contains 5 videos, a total of 57 minutes.
Chapter 4 – Functions
This chapter contains 4 videos, a total of 35 minutes.
Chapter 5 – Loops and Iterations
This chapter contains 8 videos, a total of 67 minutes.
Review
As the title entails, these are the very first steps to take into the world of python. The course is fairly easy to grasp and go through.
The free (audited) version of the course only includes the video lectures and not the graded assignments and quizzes. You can go through the video content of the course easily in a single day.
It gives a nice quick background to how computers work and getting you into thinking and understanding the basics of how your future programs work on the computer. On a fundamental level.
As stated, it is a beginner’s course so don’t be scared to try it out. Even if you have a decent understanding of computers and maybe already know some Python programming, it is a nice course to start off the specialization package since some of the examples and ways of thinking return in later stages.
If you have no previous experience with programming or python, this is a very good course to take to start on your programming journey. It is also short with about 6 hours of video material.
If you decide to upgrade and purchase the entire specialization, you will spend slightly more time completing the quizzes and assignments. If you’re serious about your future in programming, this might be worth considering as you’ll get much-needed hands-on examples. Especially if you have no previous experience in programming; It is very important to try and get some feedback as early as possible which is what the paid course offers.
The entire specialization also involves a book called “Python for Everybody” which is downloadable for free at the course’s website.