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use a mobile app to keep up with yo...
Coursera's online classes are designed to help students achieve mastery over
course material. Some of the best professors in the world - like neurobiology
professor and author Peggy Mason from the University of Chicago, and computer
science professor and Folding@Home director Vijay Pande - will supplement your
knowledge through video lectures. They will also provide challenging
assessments, interactive exercises during each lesson, and the opportunity to
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This course is designed to be a fun introduction to the basics of programming in Python. Our main focus will be on building simple interactive games such as Pong, Blackjack and Asteroids.
Instructors
Instructors:
Joe Warren, Scott Rixner, John Greiner, Stephen Wong
University
University:
Rice University
Instructors
Instructors:
Joe Warren, Scott Rixner, John Greiner, Stephen Wong
University
University:
Rice University
Reviews10/10 stars
3244 Reviews for An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python
Rankings are based on a provider's overall CourseTalk score, which takes into account both average rating and number of ratings. Stars round to the nearest half.
Wonderful, wonderful course on learning Python. The professors seem to like
teaching the class (and really seem to like each other, which come across and
actually makes the class even more enjoyable). The lessons and mini projects
are perfectly calibrated to be challenging without being impossible -- after
the first week I started each homework assignment saying "I DON"T KNOW HOW TO
DO THIS!!", but then realized that they did indeed teach us everything we'd
need to know to complete the assignment. I think I read there were something
like 40,000 students taking the course. How do you grade 40,000 assignments in
one week? You provide a very careful rubric and you do peer review. This is
actually the toughest part of the class, because your peers are even less
forgiving than the professors would be. All in all, I'm glad to be taking this
course, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to learn Python.
I am probably an atypical student. I am retired, in my seventies and took this course for fun and to try to keep my mind sharp. I have no intention of becoming a professional programmer. In my past, I have had experience with several programming languages including Python. I thought this course had several advantages over other online programming instruction. First, it provides a browser-based Python programming environment called CodeSkuptor. This means that you don't need to download the Python language onto your computer and you can access the course from anywhere. Second, the program is project-based. Each week you have to complete a programming project which is a game. Programming is a skill and you need to practice that skill. This course provides you with that practice in a fun and challenging way. Third, it doesn't overwhelm the student with too much information. It only introduced the programming constructs you need to compl...
I am probably an atypical student. I am retired, in my seventies and took this course for fun and to try to keep my mind sharp. I have no intention of becoming a professional programmer. In my past, I have had experience with several programming languages including Python. I thought this course had several advantages over other online programming instruction. First, it provides a browser-based Python programming environment called CodeSkuptor. This means that you don't need to download the Python language onto your computer and you can access the course from anywhere. Second, the program is project-based. Each week you have to complete a programming project which is a game. Programming is a skill and you need to practice that skill. This course provides you with that practice in a fun and challenging way. Third, it doesn't overwhelm the student with too much information. It only introduced the programming constructs you need to complete each weeks project. So you have a limited amount of conceptual information to master and you get to apply that knowledge in completing that week's project. I found the course (both Part 1 and Part 2) challenging and I spent a good deal of time learning the concepts and creating the programs, more than what was suggested. I really think that some prior experience in programming in any language would be very helpful in completing this course. Finally, the one weakness of this course is the difficulty in getting feedback. There is a forum for posting questions, but I found that getting answers to questions could take more than a week, and sometimes they never got answered. Also, this is a weak implementation of a forum, for which I blame Coursera, not instructors. This course was developed some years ago and it continues to be offered, but with what appears to be less active student support than in the beginning. So often, I went on the web with my Python questions and found the answers I needed there. If you take this course I recommend that you always do the exercises each week. They will teach you important concepts and programming techniques which will be useful in the weekly projects. Overall, I would recommend this course for the intelligence of it's design and implementation with the caveats I have previously discussed.
The course is a wonderful beginner's resource for those looking to start learning Python. I wish to move on from this two-part class, since I found it quite valuable and fun to learn important Python basics using professor Scott Rixner's CodeSkulptor web resource.
The course has met my basic requirements of becoming familiarized with Python coding basics, but I seek to finish five other related courses (four on more advanced coding and one capstone project) also taught by Rice University coding professors on the Coursera website in order to receive full credentials for Python coding proficiency. The professors who made this class and its many videos and resources have made this feel both easy and fun, seeing that each week of each semester has only taken a cumulative 6-8 hours to complete, and there are plenty of written resources you may consult as well when in the midst of unexpected bugs, glitches, or problems.
I hope you will e...
The course is a wonderful beginner's resource for those looking to start learning Python. I wish to move on from this two-part class, since I found it quite valuable and fun to learn important Python basics using professor Scott Rixner's CodeSkulptor web resource.
The course has met my basic requirements of becoming familiarized with Python coding basics, but I seek to finish five other related courses (four on more advanced coding and one capstone project) also taught by Rice University coding professors on the Coursera website in order to receive full credentials for Python coding proficiency. The professors who made this class and its many videos and resources have made this feel both easy and fun, seeing that each week of each semester has only taken a cumulative 6-8 hours to complete, and there are plenty of written resources you may consult as well when in the midst of unexpected bugs, glitches, or problems.
I hope you will enjoy these classes as much as I have!
P.S. If you are in China or planning to go there, you will almost certainly need a VPN like ExpressVPN in order to reach Coursera's academic materials and websites. I have currently finished both semesters in Shanghai, and have only done so with the help of VPN's, namely ExpressVPN, in order to have webpages load and effectively get past the Great Firewall.
AMAZING ! First I almost hated the class - but it was my own subjective view - at times I thought it was too hard - but as they say a little patience and it will work!
I really liked it, it gave me confidence, and I think it had just right amount of challenge just the perfect balance of difficulty and help!
Amazing! Again!
Thanks
This is really a great course and I started to love programming through this course. When I was at the beginning of the class, I knew nothing about python, struggling about how to install and use things like pycharm... and I found that maybe python is really difficult. But through this course, I found that python is not that difficult and is a lot more interesting
Actually I am very proud regarding the fact that actually I have built some games. After this classes, I look myself differently because of the skill set I gained after this course. Thanks a lot for the instructor and I really appreciate the way I structured this course
No matter what your skill level is, you stand to gain from this course in the most entertaining way possible! Scott and Joe did a fantastic job at not only the content, lectures and exercises, but also the support to keeping the course going. Check it out if you haven't. It's definitely worth it!
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Aws Sadik
10/10 starsCompleted
1 month, 2 weeks ago
Absolutely excellent. Great motivational projects, very accessible to a novice. Very useful resources and tips through-out and captivating lecturers. I will be enrolling on any further courses by this team.
this course is very very very great and amazing. after finishing all the contents, I even could make a great game, that give me a big confidence. and also, through reviewing peer, my English writing has improved fastly.
it's fun to learn this course, and i can see the insight of the instructors, they are wonderful teachers. the lesson construction make it much more easier to complete the whole course than other MOOCs. but i think i gain the same amount of necessary knowledge.
Excellent course. The lecturers made it fun as well as challenging. I had no experience in Python but managed to create my own programmes as part of the syllabus. I very much enjoyed the experience in addition to learning a lot about a new subject. I thoroughly recommend the course.
It was high level teaching. Incredible teachers and I had no idea whatsoever in programming and finished with 7 working programs which I built myself. I would totally recommend this course
Very good class to learn Python. Instructors give a good presentation and the class is fun. The assignments are to create games which is also a lot of fun. Make sure you have the time to commit to this because it is not easy.
I thought this class was a great learning experience. I would definitely recommend it. The material was presented in an easily-understood manner by the instructors; CodeSkulptor is a great tool for learning Python; and, if you stick with you, you are going to learn a lot.
I LOVE this class. Really. It helps me so much, it makes me falling in love with python also.
I never know coding for interactive games before, when thinking for the logic, it maybe a little difficult, but it's challanging!
Thanks for Joe and Scott for this super class!
Just amazing, this is how coding should be taught!
love the professors!! The content was just on the spot. Not too difficult each week but not too easy either. It has a good pace to it and best of all the instructions for the assignments are very clear. I have seen a few courses which lack this and it is almost frustrating some times. The assignments are a real tester of the subject previously learnt that week
A great introduction course of python programming for beginners. Both the optional practices and the quiz are well designed to help me review what I've learned. I learned a lot and enjoy a lot in the mini-project in each week, though I got stuck many times in debugging the code. And the instructors are humorous, which makes the class more enjoyable.
this course is much helpful for students who want to learn python.. kindly come up with new material and new course about different python libraries like panda, numpy etc.
highly appreciable
i just loved the course <3
The course is really good. It's pretty interesting, but I can learn a lot of things about Python from the course. I really like the mini-project, through which I can apply and practice what I have obtained from the course. Every time I built the mini-game successfully, I would have a sense of achievement.
Absolutely the best course I have taken in Coursera, period. The content, the tools (CodeSkulptor is awesome), the dedication, the pace... There people have developed an strategy to introduce programing and Python that works to everyone. Not only you will end the course with lots of new abilities, but you will go through the course not getting bored or annoyed ever, on the contrary, waiting to go back home to keep pushing forward.
The best!
AWESOME! Truly celebrates the spirit of programming - "Creativity and Fun".
A very well designed and enthusiastically taught course. The instructors are wonderful - knowledgeable and playful at the same time.
I am recommending this to youngsters in my family circles.
Starting with developing games is the best way to start programming. That ensures it remains fun forever.
The mini-projects , specs and pseudo code, templates and unit testes all revolving around the CodeSkulptor were extremely helpful.
Thanks to all the people who have worked in the front and back-end to make this lovely MOOC program possible. Special thanks to the Gurus - Joe and Scott.
One of the BEST MOOC programs I have taken. I have not only learnt a lot about interactive Python programming but also learnt a lot about how to design good programming classes.
Thanks again. Wish the instructors best of luck in their future endeavors and look f...
AWESOME! Truly celebrates the spirit of programming - "Creativity and Fun".
A very well designed and enthusiastically taught course. The instructors are wonderful - knowledgeable and playful at the same time.
I am recommending this to youngsters in my family circles.
Starting with developing games is the best way to start programming. That ensures it remains fun forever.
The mini-projects , specs and pseudo code, templates and unit testes all revolving around the CodeSkulptor were extremely helpful.
Thanks to all the people who have worked in the front and back-end to make this lovely MOOC program possible. Special thanks to the Gurus - Joe and Scott.
One of the BEST MOOC programs I have taken. I have not only learnt a lot about interactive Python programming but also learnt a lot about how to design good programming classes.
Thanks again. Wish the instructors best of luck in their future endeavors and look forward new courses.
Lakshmi from India.
This course is great, very well explained and enjoyable. Instructors are realy fun, the content is easy to understand but also challenging.Hope they keep on making content and teaching you guys are awesome
Content is wonderful. I really enjoyed taking it and am a bit regretful that it's over.
The instructors are amusing and wonderful at what they're doing.CodeSkulptor is quite intuitive but it gets complex as you go on.
Never boring, always enjoyable, and combined with Coursera, with it's tools and resources, is a fantastic learning experience.
I really enjoyed this course as a whole and learned a great deal from it. The instructors had great teaching style and lessons were fun and to the point. I never got bored during a lecture and always realized when re-watching a lecture to finish a mini-project that the instructors covered it and provided enough tips to get it done. As a complete beginner to Python, I discovered through this course how much fun programming can be. The mini-projects were challenging but you really got a sense of accomplishment once you finished and enjoyment playing the games. Overall, this was a fun and rewarding course and I really enjoyed it.
This is a course that I would definitely recommend to anyone looking to get started on Python and building games using a GUI. Joe and Scott were the best instructors to help anyone get excited to learn Python. I truly enjoyed the class. Thank you very much! :)
OMG lecturers in this course are amazingly cute!!!!!
This course goes on a path of teaching-practicing combination, where you take brief introduction videos and immediately use the skill mentioned in videos to build a new cute project, and the projects are all simple but funny games that you would be proud of and play by yourself joyfully. For me, a zero-experience starter, this course is at medium difficulty level. Don't worry about if the course could be too difficult for you, since there are much available help both in the template and from TAs. Anyway, hope you enjoy in this course!
I love this class! Joe and Scott are great teachers. Not only because they explained new concept clearly, but also because the they designed this course in an amazing way. I would say this course a project-oriented program class. Which is great in three ways:
1. It challenged me for any material that I learned from lecture
2. It boost my confidence because I can code in new ways that I cannot before.
3. It was fun!
Thank you guys for this great MOOC course. I wish anyone who tries this course would hang in there. You will find yourself enjoying it eventually.
brilliant, brilliant and brilliant...
If Scott or Joe is reading this, you guys changed my life...
Thanks a lot for making programming fun..
The way the concepts are taught, it really makes complex topics easy to understand. I am pretty much sure that one can never get bored in this course.
For me, this course really means a lot.
Loved the course. Great place to begin if you want to learn coding. excellent instructors. Had lots of fun playing all the game that i build with my friends.
It was great! The lessons and the exercises are well designed to be enjoyable and at the same time have a smooth learning curve. It's fine for complete programming beginners as well.
Rankings are based on a provider's overall CourseTalk score, which takes into account both average rating and number of ratings. Stars round to the nearest half.
