I learned quite a bit in this course, but it wasn't satisfying to me because a large part of the challenge was figuring out how to use all the tools through which the actual python and SQL instruction was delivered, the confusing organization of the modules, and the frustratingly vague instructions in the practices and exercises. If the intent was to demonstrate the range of platforms, tools, and access methods unique to them, good job. But if the intent was to actually learn coding skills in Python and SQL, in my opinion it falls short.

I think a better course would present 3 options: SQLite, MySQL, and DB2. Within each option, spend the minimum amount of time learning how to access the database, and then concentrate on some intensive exercises a little more challenging and "real world" than those we are actually given. Make a generous allowance of time for the course so those so inclined can indeed explore each platform and get even more practice with the actual problems.

The staff were fairly prompt in responding to questions, but many times they seem to either give the answer outright without explaining what a learner did not understand (which led them to ask the question in the first place), or they provide a response that does not really address the actual issue(s) exposed in the question. I think a different course structure might help with that as well, as it would be more easier for learners to preface their questions with the platform they are working from and the staff could more precisely intuit what the issue is.

Week 1 was fine, however I want to complain about the way teaching was handled for week 2.

I am a visual and kinaesthetic learner which means that i really struggle to absorb information audibly, this is fine as in ALL previous courses of the IBM professional certification there are videos supplemented by reading materials and guided labs (I can listen to the videos, and then work my way through the labs to gain understanding of the videos.)

In this course, specifically week two, you had the video, and a lab that had the instructions "do the functions stated in the previous two videos" TWICE.

This is, to pardon my language, total garbage. You are a teaching device who apparently has not bothered to attempt to teach anyone as you can't be bothered to write a brief PDF stating what you want us to do. instead assuming that we will do all the work regardless of whether it's helping our learning or not. I am sure this works fine for some people, for plenty of others it does not.

I'm rating this as all my previous IBM data science courses were very nicely made and acommodated all learning types.I think it's a crying shame that one week has been allowed to be so much worse than the overall level of the course.

This was probably the worst course I have ever taken on coursera. Unless you have at least some basic SQL experience, DO NOT take this course. And if you are in the specialisation which requires this course, do some basic SQL from somewhere else and then come to this course. There are a lot of problems with the datasets when you try to load them into the SQL database server in IBM DB2 and most importantly, the video explanations are too hard to understand. They explain most of the things which aren't really important and don't explain things that really DO have some importance. I'm pretty good at SQL myself (said by my cousin an SQL Database Manager for over 5 years) but I still struggled a lot with problem 8, 9 and 10 of the final assignment. Any moderators seeing this, when it is possible, I beg of you, please fix this course. If I hadn't faced any of these problems, this would be a very fun and interesting course. So what happened here? Everything is explained to us like we have mastered the fundamentals already and are coming back for a revision. Truly very disappointed with this course.

The labs taught me how to write SQL queries in Python for the first time, but the level of difficulty jumps quickly. The videos don't go thoroughly in-depth about how to write queries so when you get to the labs, you are seeing problems for the first time. This means you are learning material there and not practicing enough queries. And basic understanding of how to do certain types of queries is hazy unless you look for outside sources to continue practicing your skills. I also had trouble for 3-4 days trying to connect to labs toward the halfway point of this course. Lot of people complained about connection to DB2.

It is frustrating to work with this course, but I did learn how to write queries more thoroughly because of the structure it gives. I supplemented this course with other online resources to help me through. So I give it a 3-star.

I think the course needs a bit more structure and written labs, some of them just tells you to practice what you´ve seen on the videos but I think it would be much more effective if there were more labs with specific problems to solve.

Also in some of the labs some solutions are given without explanations and those havent been even mentioned on the videos or the readings

The forum is not as effective as the previous course I did of this specialization, teaching staff takes ages to answer, and also answers are not satisfactory.

Anyway, the content is interesting and I have enjoyed learning

This course content itself is excellent. Full documents, brief and useful guidelines, instructors with nice accent, slides are also presented directly so that the basic of SQL is easy to get. But the minus point is that IBM DB2 service is really bad, lag, slow, and often inaccessible. I found this error had appeared long time ago for many previous learners. Unfortunately a technology giant like IBM can let this happen. They need to invest in maintenance and upgrade the system a lot. The course is worth 5 *, but the Lab system is 1 *, so I give 3 * Overall

Overall good course and I'm more confident about performing Data Analysis with Python and SQL. There were some issues with doing labs using IBM's database, but thankfully we had the alternative option to complete labs using SQLite. I preferred using SQLite personally.

Lastly, the wording for some of the problems in the final peer-reviewed assignment could be worded a little better and be more specific. I figured out what to do, but I realized my solutions didn't match the instructors solutions 100%.

Everything went well until the course assignment. The setup to submit one's code and results is nothing short of terrible. Several students have spoken about the experience, especially about being unable to post their results(meaning they cannot be reviewed by their peers, so they cannot complete the course). Much improvement for this aspect of the course is needed. Other courses in coding provide the setup necessary to make it simple for the learner to submit assignments.

I have previous knowledge of Python and SQL. I don't find this course a very useful one because (a) labs takes forever to load and MySQL server often gives unknown errors on different laptops; (b) labs suggest you to copy a solution - how does this help to learn and practice?? Practice exercises are good, but definitely not enough; (c) not enough practice in general. I audited the course with the idea to upgrade and do the locked assignement if I like it. I didn't.

Decent course for an introduction to SQL. Basic commands were introduced well and the Jupyter integration was great for practice.

But the course was a little too basic; could have had more application-oriented content and a steeper difficulty curve. In addition, the Analyzing data with Python video from week 3 had about 1 one minute of voiceover that was completely unrelated to SQL or databases. The voiceover was just about Sodium in Nutrition. Felt very unnecessary.

Though the content is very good, the practical aspect (labs) can be improved to a great degree. I recently took Google's Data Analytics Course and it had so much better infrastructure. The lab implementation can be improved to a very high degree. The videos just describe the theory using general syntax which is sometimes very hard to grasp. IBM's curriculum team needs to take a deeper look as this is their most popular certificate on Coursera!

Somehow i found the some of the lab instructions are quite confusing or not well organized, whereby some of the csv file or data link was unknown to me on how to find the original source link, or suddenly there are several unknown SQL or Python commands are included although those are not guided in first place or well explained prior to the lab. Therefore, i need to do extra effort to research and study in order to have better understanding.

I never got guidance as i expected. It would be ideal to have demonstrative videos for students who do not have prior knowledge in these languages like those posted on YouTube. Had to consult you tube videos instead for me to understand. You were not supportive. I expected guidance not only referring us to links we have gone through. Kindly work on that especially for people who are new in the field and trying to learn a new skill.

el curso hasta la semana 5 es bueno, pero considero que el ofrecido por UCDavis es mejor (es mas retador y explican mas y mejor), le reprocho el contenido con honores porque 1. no sirve el certificado honorifico, y los videos son regulares en contenido, en otros cursos los laboratorios ayudaban un monton pero este no era el caso, por lo menos para la tarea(nunca se explico la funcion call y como concatenar con los parametros:

This is a shallow introduction to SQL. Python API is shown, but not used in the assignments. The videos are OK at best, and many times, the examples are not the best, in that they don't really show why one would use, say, a left join instead of full join operation in real life. The earlier weeks need more exercices. However, the final week is quite good. At least the exercices and final quiz makes you think a little.

The criteria for the final assignment is too strict to follow. If I am able to get the right result, why bother in what way I accomplish it? I believe there are many ways to build up the code without using all those DESC method or LIMIT method, and maybe it is a more convenient way. I got 99% for the course and it really makes me annoying that I have to submit over and over again for what I think I have achieved.

This was a very helpful course - reason I'm not rating it a 4 is due to a few bugs and it was quite frustrating to submit the assignments at times, especially when working in DB2 and having to drag the tables below your query scripts and then screenshot for submission. There also seems to be an issue with the bonus week (advanced sql) whereby students are not issued the honors recognition after completion.

I wanted to like this course more, but wow was it dry. There were a lot of small nuisances with having so many logins to access course material that made things frustrating at times. Although, the point is to get you accustomed to an IBM centric workflow, that when you start to learn it, its not bad. I did enjoy the final project, and found it to be the redeeming quality of this course.

Warning for those whose native language is NOT English: These IBM Data Science courses are in DESPERATE need of review by a native English speaker. If English wasn't my first language, I can only imagine how much I would have struggled. It is pretty unbelievable that they expect people to pay money for courses that have so many many grammar, syntax, and audio transcription errors.

Great content wise. They find a way to teach you something new that you may not come across on other SQL courses. However, I am giving it a 3 only because connecting to a database is pain in the butt. After applying all the tips by staff, and other peers from the discussion forum, I was still out of luck. Only deleting the old Db2 service and making a new Db2 helped me.

The course itself is really good, but the assignments are really broken, it requires a lot of extra work to get some of them to work and it discouraged me from finishing it, it requires some updating to get the links and images working again, plus, I finished the Honors module and got no notification or acknowledment so I don't know if I'm missing something

The course was Ok, buh then the explanations were a little difficult to grasp and when it was time for me to complete my final Peer graded assignment I faced a lot of difficulty as compared to the other assignments before now. There was a lot of difficulty accessing the IBM Db2 Database. Whenever I tried I was prompted to enter my Credit card information.

Though the course content is good and covers the essential portion of SQL and also lets you try your skills on real-world data, the course video feels outdated and monotonous and makes it less interesting to watch. In Majority of videos, the instructor shows screenshots of code and its output instead of running which feels utterly passive.

The online tools are a bit cumbersome - which wasts time - compared to other Coursera courses I've taken. For example, the University of Michigan Python courses use a much more user friendly online tool, a Runestone interactive textbook, which is a much more accessible and easier to use online tool that allows for more learning time.

The overall content in teaching is good. However, the infrastructure is poor. Most of the time wasted on building up the connection between ibm-db2 and the jupyter notebook. The failed in connection repeatedly came up for several months. I finally finish the assignment with sqlite. Totally lost the confidence with the db2.