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Learner Reviews & Feedback for An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1) by Rice University

4.8
stars
3,298 ratings

About the Course

This two-part course is designed to help students with very little or no computing background learn the basics of building simple interactive applications. Our language of choice, Python, is an easy-to learn, high-level computer language that is used in many of the computational courses offered on Coursera. To make learning Python easy, we have developed a new browser-based programming environment that makes developing interactive applications in Python simple. These applications will involve windows whose contents are graphical and respond to buttons, the keyboard and the mouse. In part 1 of this course, we will introduce the basic elements of programming (such as expressions, conditionals, and functions) and then use these elements to create simple interactive applications such as a digital stopwatch. Part 1 of this class will culminate in building a version of the classic arcade game "Pong"....

Top reviews

FR

Apr 5, 2016

Muy buen curso, excelente introducción a python y que mejor que aprender con ejercicios que motiven como los juegos propuestos en clase. Gracias a los profesores y a Coursera por brindarnos este curso

MP

May 28, 2017

The best python course i ever had thanks to the teachers therereally awesome, and the classes are very pleasant. if your aout there trying to start with programming, i definitely recommend this course

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851 - 875 of 951 Reviews for An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1)

By kalla v v s s k

Jul 3, 2020

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By KWONSEMOK

Nov 13, 2018

G

By Lin Z

May 9, 2016

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By Roy H

Jan 4, 2017

While this is a great course for introductory programming, I believe that it suffers from its focus on cokeskultpor UI design. The main issue I have with it is that these skills are not easily transferred to real world applications. I think some time spent on a basic introduction to tkinter would be good to help get people started on how to make their own programs.

I found that the grading rubrick in particular focused too much on simple UI elements and not enough on making sure that the code was good or that the game even worked. For example, I had one person who had everything in pong perfect except that the score was added when the ball hit the paddle. This meant that the game as whole did not work as expected, but it only cost him 2 marks.

By Deleted A

May 8, 2020

Decades removed from doing much math and messing with any programming, I was looking up formulas for the early projects and struggled a little with a couple of concepts (Python is more 'loose' than I remember Pascal and Unix being). However, I was able to get all of the projects to work and took away an understanding of Python. I can look at someone else's code and identify modules, functions, function calls, global versus local variables, understand most of the syntax and a number of other things. The video presentations were good and the end result of each project was something fun. While it was a beginner level class, it was a good challenge. Expect to put some time in and do a little digging around.

By Gman

May 21, 2022

well-structured and useful course but each week's mini project can be confusing to a certain degree – would be nicer the templates include docstrings so we can understand what each function precisely is designed for. The description video and readings explain some of the functions’ logic but not purposes.

Be warned the peer-gradings take painfully long time. At the time of writing this comment, I’m still waiting on my week 3, 4 and 5 project’s feedback. They were completed over 2 weeks ago. Do take a notice if you are on a time constrain for completing this specialization.

By Johannes T

May 28, 2019

The course was a great introduction and also involves a high commitment. The teachers were passionate about the content and teaching. The thing which is pretty annoying for me, is the availability of tasks from other students. At the end, coursera should be a way of efficient learning. For some grading excersises, I had to revisit the pages for a week and at least 20 times. That is not acceptable and does not reflect a efficient learning experience.

By chris s

Dec 18, 2018

Overall a good course. However, it uses Python 2 verse Python 3. It uses CodeSkultper, and CodeSkulpter does not have all of the Python Modules incorporated, and in some Modules it does support not all of the commands . Another thing that I wished this course would have taught was how to use either Kivy, TKinter or PyQT for grahics since CodeSkulpter only works if you have web access

By Song S

Apr 17, 2019

It is pretty interesting, especially those mini-projects. I learned a lot from the courses. However, it is a pity that it dose not use Python3. What is worse, the courses are based on Simplegui, which can only be used on the website. This means I cannot use an IDLE or something like that to finish the mini-projects, and also it seems useless without the website.

By Joshua P

May 21, 2017

I only Audited the course but it was great! I wish I was able to submit my programs and review my peers as an Auditor of the course but was not able to. However, as far as content goes, this course is great! The instructors are knowledgeable and you learn how to program in Python in an engaging and entertaining way! Keep up the great work!

By Travis N

Apr 25, 2016

The team of profs is great to listen to, even for hours on-end if/when going through several lectures per go...

They have really worked through the online presentation of this software engineering 101 course to eliminate bugs, streamline its effectivity, and generally make it enjoyable for technical and laypersons alike.

Kudos Team Rice!

By Abhishek K

Aug 31, 2017

This is a great course to build a strong foundation in python programming.Best thing about the course is that it exposes you to GUI programming and we are given assignments where we have to build games.I never had any prior experience in GUI programming before,so this course was an amazing way to learn python and GUI development

By Marien W

Apr 5, 2017

The audio volume throughout the videos should be improved; consistently, my ears were bombarded during the first shot(s), but as soon as the side-shot plus code came into view I had to crank up the volume in order to understand what was said.

Otherwise, it was a very well thought-out and enjoyable class, thanks!

By Kate W

Feb 19, 2019

Overall, very well done. The only time I struggled was with some of the math as it has been two decades since I've had to do algebra or calculus. I wish the instructors went a *little* more into the math logic behind the code for those of us who are out of practice in that area. Otherwise, fantastic course!

By Vicky M

Mar 15, 2018

Thank you for this wonderful tutorial. I would have given it a five star rating if at the end of the course there would have been just one more week to teach us how to use all of the skills we have gathered here on an actual python compiler used in the industry.otherwise really grateful for this series

By Deleted A

Nov 25, 2018

So great but challenging and hard for pure beginners.. It's recommended to start with their other specialization first "Introduction to scripting in python" which maybe perhaps requires looking on easier specialization like "Python for everybody" before them all if you are a pure beginner..

By Luke D

Jul 14, 2019

The only reason I'm not giving it a 5-star rating is that it's not taught with python 3. To be fair, it's not difficult to make a few slight alterations and do the course in python 3 on your own. The codeskulptor tool is amazing and the instruction is clear and nicely organized.

By Angela i V U

Nov 16, 2020

It' a very good course, but the problem is the graphic interface, it's created just for web browsers and not for python, so you have to learn how to use tkinter or another library for you python GUI. But it helps to understand better tkinter and others.

By Karan J

Jul 14, 2017

The programs are amazing but I expected to program on an actual IDE. I didn't like the cloud based IDE.

The content of the course is very good and the faculty is very nice. They make this course a fun and learning experience.

By Luo K A

Jun 24, 2017

Great introduction course.

However, the use of codeskulptor may be limiting for students who want to grow to become python users. A more generalised program may be better for students to grow outside of codeskulptor.

By Hubert J

Sep 19, 2017

The course is well structured but goes very (too?) fast... I spent so much more hours than indicated to do the practice exercises and the mini projects. Difficult to manage if you have a full time job

By Verónica D M

Jul 10, 2018

Great start course! The learning curve gets a bit steep for people with no prior knowledge after the first few weeks, but the teachers keep the class interesting and the exercises are great practice.

By Vedansh M

Jul 21, 2020

I loved how this course teaches back-end as well as front-end design in unison; it helps the learner visualize their code in action and sets up a strong foundation for more advanced concepts!

By FU K C

Sep 22, 2019

Very helpful for a beginner in computer science. Video and materials are clear. The only downside is that it takes quite some time for some of the projects to be graded by peers.

By Brian T

Feb 10, 2018

This class is fun and gets you moving pretty quickly. I think a little python or programming experience before beginning would probably be helpful, but not completely necessary.