I already expressed this to Coursera, but I'll reiterate here. This was a terrible ending to the specialization.

Let me make this clear, I loved all of the previous courses before this one. This time around I noticed very untypical characteristics.

For one, the teaching staff was very rude. In this course, the came off as argumentative with sarcastic undertones to virtually EVERYTHING posted in the discussion board. Two of the staff members in particular, Tamara Brunnock and Stephen Catto, were very unapproachable and combative. I remember asking for someone to take a look at my assignment for grading, to which I was met with Tamara commenting "Did you not read the assigned reading? You need to allow up to three days for grading. Is 5 hours three days?"

What kind of a response is that? In fact, I wasn't even asking for a staff grade, I was asking for peer grading! To which she ARGUED back "I doesn't say that anywhere in your post."

The interactions in this course are VERY unsettling. If I feel shy or feel as though I'll be verbally punished for asking a QUESTION, what does that say about this organization?

This is a course I sacrifice finances and time for, so I expect quick ANSWERS to my questions, not arguments or sass.

If this entire specialization were a bag of potato chips, the Capstone would be that bland chip that didn't get any salt.

The introduction to the Capstone promises that we'll "build applications" utilizing what we've learned so far with optional assignments for delving deeper. However, none of the required assignments involve even the most primitive of problem solving skills or code writing abilities. If you can download a file and take a screenshot then you've got what it takes to pass this class.

The optional assignments are far too focused around a new piece of video sharing technology that the instructor and associates have developed. Unfortunately, the technology adds almost nothing beneficial to the class and is probably to blame for the sheer lack of quality in the rest of the class.

In fact, the entire Capstone feels like it was so haphazardly put together that it can only be described as the most contrived beta-test I've ever been a part of. Such a disappointing ending to what was otherwise an enjoyable specialization.

Very poor quality course, both from a content perspective as well as from an implementation perspective.

This final class in the specialization is not a programming course. You are instructed to run someone else's code and screenshot the various stages of running these scripts. You don't modify their code and it really takes a step back from the previous courses in this specialization as the instructions and the course staff's direction are significantly misaligned.

I was evaluating this course for use in my organization, but cannot suggest taking the capstone as it provides no value and is simply a waste of time.

My suggestion to improve the course would be to align the staff direction with the instruction given in the course. Additionally if you read through the forums you can see them get frustrated like they are volunteer staff working for free in a hostile environment.

No code writing required to complete the course.

peer grading for mentors very slow.

I am extremely disappointed with how this class was setup. Basically, you had to do next to nothing to earn the certificate for this class. There is a single 26 question quiz (taken in week 1) that just covers basic Python information from the previous 4 classes in the specialization. There's no class videos or assignments other than the single quiz to gain the class certificate. The question set was not challenging and it didn't deal with much of the detailed concepts that were presented and learned in the previous 4 classes. What is the point of doing this???

Now this class is a 7 week class and there is a separate optional honors program (with a note on your final certificate saying that you completed the honors content) that requires the completion of 3 additional peer-graded assignments. There are some videos covering a little new material and some reading but no quizzes. I really don't get it. What makes a fellow student, learning this material like me, capable of fairly assessing my work on larger scale programs that should be part of a capstone course? And what makes me capable of assessing the work of others fairly? Obviously, I'm not a big fan of the peer-grading concept, I feel it is just an excuse for the course creators to excuse themselves from grading which is an important component for learners. I've completed the class and got my certificate and the certificate for finishing the Python for Everybody specialization. But I really don't feel all that good about this since I was required to learn nothing new nor complete any capstone work to receive the certificates. For my own well being (and to help me with future Python work), I'm in the process of finishing all of the honors work now so at least I'll have gained something from this class.

There is also a push by the class creators to pressure students into working together and that's the reasoning they've given for leaving this class so open-ended. I get that (and agree there is some importance to that concept) but this is supposed to be a capstone class, where you put many of the aspects of your previous learning to work on some more real-world problems. And to get some guidance on how best to apply your new skills to real problems. How can you get the class certificate without doing that? I feel all of the optional honors content should be mandatory and the class structure (quizzes & assignments) should be similar to the other 4 classes in the certificate program. Make sure the students you graduate are ready for the work that lies ahead. You wouldn't want it any different if you were the student.

I also feel this setup diminishes the value of this class and the associated specialization certification because students are required to do next to nothing in this last class (which should be a milestone and help lock in all we've been exposed to throughout the first 4 classes). So when possible employers see that you've completed this specialization, there's got to be a question whether you actually did any capstone work and put some programs together using all of the skills learned. In my opinion, the capstone work is a very important part of your completed specialization and should be a required component for everyone who completes the specialization.

This should not be called a capstone. It is way too complicated to understand which is why the assignments have been kept to simplistic (this is reasonable). A bunch of small programs testing smooth amalgamation and application of the learnt concepts would have been more fruitful.

Didn't learn as much as the previous chapters. Markers are slow to mark, my subscription actually expired before they marked, not

For some reason, I lost my motivation so I don't think I'm going complete the capstone. But it is a good course, and the instructor is good too. It might take you some time if you try to comprehend every line of codes. I don't think I would recommend you to enroll this one if you just want to skate through and get the certificate like me. If you are passionate about data science, please enroll. Cheers.

Update: I think I may want to finish the capstone. Good luck to everyone.

Update: I completed.

Honestly not a very good course. The first 3 courses in this specialization were great. We were really challenged to write our own logic and learned a lot of python. The last two courses, however, were disappointing. We essentially just ran pre-written code to "see how a complex app works." It would have been much more useful to have us write our own code.

I thought this was poor. It was basically a re-hash of the previous module with slightly different tasks. Given that I had to wait three months for the capstone to be ready, I found it a bit rich that my deadline to finish it was a couple of weeks! Don't waste your money/time on this particular module.

Instructions for assignments not clear. TA not helpful with providing clarity on completing the assignments.

Need harder assignments which involve editing code and get the user thinking more about what is going on in the videos.This course is basically running premade code and taking screenshots. The optional element is a bit confusing as there is no focus given. I still haven't decided what data to use and what analysis to perform. All in all, Capstone is a waste of time, do first 4.

Absolutely wasting time & money course. Python for nobody. Whole specialization can be merged in 1 course Python intro. A lot of redundant video & same tasks.

The course content is great. But I have a serious compalin to make fro coursera:

In this courses there are several peer assignments, you need to get enough reviews from the peers to get the grade, in order to complete the course. But there are bot enough peers to review my assignments(not means my assignments are wrong). I tried to asked help for both coursera help center and in the course forum, but still did not get enough peer grade.

Because of this I did not finish the last course of the specailization, and have being charged for extra 5 or 6 month......

It's really makes me very upset and now I decided to cancel this course in order not to be charged again and again, and did not get my specailization cetificate, even i finish all assignments...........

Great to see how Python can be used for data visualization; however, in my opinion, most of the code is way above the heads of students at this level.

My expectation was I will do the coding (get my hands dirty) based on the suggestion or ideas from the instructor. I didn't expect to run the code that was written by the instructor and share the screenshots. It would had been good, if the course involved in working on a project.

Week 3, week 5 and week 7 of this course should be made compulsory - my opinion

Now I understand how data mining, API's and dumping and retrieving data from a database works. Excellent course to start understanding how python can be used to work with data sources on the internet.

I loved the other courses in this specialization but this one just really didn't make sense with the others. Before we were learning skills at basic levels and combining them to make bigger and bigger code. I was excited to write a more in-depth program for the final project especially since it said we would make something using our own datasets. It turns out it just meant running already complete code on targets of our choice. The videos were just basically reading line by line complex blocks of code larger than anything we have made, lots of glossed over stuff like java script files, very confusing naming of variables in the python code. It's like we just learned how to drive and then someone put us in the passenger seat of a racecar and is like "look at you you're a professional racer!"

This course was not at all productive. It was a collection of samples that the professor didn't care to go over in depth. I would have preferred if he had spent all of the time on one code so we could know everything about it. The whole course was just attempting "python3 code.py". The homework was vague according to the points that were taken off by the instructor. Once I get "you should have taken a photo from the beginning of the process" and once I get something else which was not asked clearly in the homework. I loved the other 4 courses in the specialization but this one was just a waste of time and money. Sorry for being so frank but I expected a lot more from the teaching staff and coursera itself.

I found this course a little bit easier that some of the previous courses, however, it allowed me to gain experience managing a larger projects that encompass several languages and multiple programs.

I did not learn anything from this course. The administrators are very slow at grading and very arrogant about taking their time to grade. It says 2 to 3 days to grade, but it took 4 days for them to grade on 2 assignments.

Not really sure the point of a course with nothing but optional assignments. Should be replaced with a required final capstone project.

A very disfunctional and disappointing finish to the specialization. The first 3 courses built off of each other and the textbook provided additional explanation for topics. Moreover, there were exercises at the end of every chapter to test the learner's knowledge. Overall, the first three courses were heavily hands-on where we learned to write out own code.

Contrasting this, course 4, and course 5 (captsone) were very different. Important topics and new knowledge was glossed over very quickly, and the difficulty of the programs increased significantly more than the level of the students' current knowledge. The programs were actually so difficult compared to our skill level that assignments started to involve simply copy and pasting pre-written code, making slight changes, running, and screenshotting output. Gone were the days of writing out own code apparently...This is no way to learn.

The captsone...WOW. Basically the previous paragraph but even worse. Same logic, copy code, run it, take screenshots, submit. Apparently coursera and University of Michigan think that this constitutes knowing how to code. Given that the specialization capstone is advertized as something that we will upload to our portfolio, it is concerning that UMICH thinks that this is appropriate. No employer will hire you simply because you have the certificate, or an application in your portfolio that you merely copy and pasted without knowing how it works. Not only this, but I was actually automatically unsubscribed from the capstone because I finished the week 1 quiz and coursera gave me my certificate before I had even begun the capstone project. The fine print that I failed to realize was that all you have to complete to get the certificate is to complete the quiz, the rest of the course, the "Honours Track" is optional. What I did not realize was that it was one or the other...I was under the impression that I could complete the quiz and upgrade to the honors certificate after completing the rest of the course, I was wrong.

Overall, the first three courses I learned a lot and felt confident in my abilities, but the last two courses progressively got worse. Its a shame really. I really enjoyed the first three courses, but the last two including the capstone left me disappointed and discouraged.

It's a good course to summarize all topics learnt in the specialization.

Since the course relies on quite a bit of peer-graded as well as instructor-graded assignments, you need to leave ample time (up to a week while course is running) for grading completion. Some instructors may be unfriendly when asked to expedite. Do not attempt this course if you have some sort of deadline and are short on time.

Nevertheless, considering the quality of teaching materials, lectures and assignments, the course is very well-designed.