By Patrick Di Justo from New York, New York 5 months ago Taking Course Now

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.

By Natalya Ivanova from Kyiv 5 months ago Completed

Wonderful experience! I'm impressed so much with both the material and the way this course is organized. Lectures, quizzes and mini-projects were entertaining and challenging. Still, while I was enjoying and having fun, I also learned a lot about the language which was new to me.

The professors really love what they do, which is the most important. They put really a lot of work into this course, so that even newcomers could write applications with GUI using some OOP. This is incredible! I'm looking forward to other courses of the professors! It was really a 8-week long holiday to me, despite hard work upon the assignments:)

By Ron May from Keswick, Ontario 5 months ago Completed

Excellent class to introduce Python and programming in general.

This was my first course on Coursera and I am very happy with the format and interaction.
Having done distance learning and selfstudy courses before I am most impressed with the
student to student and student to instructor interaction this adds the missing dimension
to distance learning bring it up to the level of being at there.
I will be taking other Coursera courses and hope the experience continues.
I have used the MIT open course ware and although it's content was good it lacked a
fundamental part of the learning process, interaction with other students,
instructors and there feedback. This course format gives an experience very
close to being in College and thats something that has been lacking in distance
learning. So well done Rice, Coursera and everyone involved.
Thank you everyone for putting in the time and effort.

By Paul Stock 5 months ago Completed

Very entertaining course. The instructors refused to take themselves too seriously and made the topics very interesting and easy to follow along.

I thoroughly enjoyed this course and would encourage anyone who wants to learn basic Python to give it a try.

By Justin Eittreim from Sacramento, California 5 months ago Completed

This class makes itself different from others in a few different ways. The class works around an open, friendly, and supportive environment that makes learning easy and welcoming. The professors of the class do a great job of making things interesting and at times very funny, while at the same time walking you through learning to program with Python and teaching you the fundamentals of programming in general. This class is a gem, and something that everyone should take, regardless of their skill level.

I've been programming/coding for the past 8 years, and was quite familiar and comfortable with Python before even starting the class. I initially started the class because I liked the way the professors did things, and I thought it would at the least be a fun experience overall. I ended up learning a few things that I didn't even know about Python, as well as alternate ways to do things I already knew of. And this, in my opinion, makes the class priceless and well worth the time I spent on it.

I truly have to give my thanks to the professors, to Rice University, and to Coursera. All of you have made a valuable impact of my life that I will keep close for the long run.

By Jeanne Boyarsky from New York 5 months ago Completed

I already knew a decent amount of Python before this course started which means I didn't learn that much. (list comprehensions were the only thing new.) I signed up because I wanted to see how an intro to programming course could be taught online.

I think the professors did a great job. The videos were clearly designed for internet learning and they tried to be fun. The quizzes and homeworks had strong ties to the course.

Peer review went better than in some other classes I've taken although I would like to have seen more review of the code and not just the functionality.

I liked this discussions held in the forum. I learned about pyUnit (on my own) to make the assignments more challenging - and easier since I had regression tests. Another student did the same so we got to talk about it.

The course also held a video contest where the winner got an iPad. I didn't follow along with that during the course, but I think it was a good idea.

The course used http://codeskulptor.org as the development environment which introduced consistency and prevented needing to download Python. (I had it already and used my Python for pyUnit.) The browser version didn't work consistently in all browsers. If we are supposed to use Chrome, it would be nice to say that week 1.

By Alex Jeffrey from Virginia Beach, Virginia 5 months ago Completed

Absolutely extraordinary class! I feel confident and comfortable in a programming language that I hadn't ever worked with before two months ago. Thanks again to the fantastic professors. I'd take any class offered by them!

By Celso Agustín Hernández Díaz 5 months ago Completed

Great course if you want to introduce yourself in the world of Python programming. No previous experience in programming is needed.

By Vadim Solomonik from New York, New York 5 months ago Completed (Partially)

very well done. starting with specially designed sandbox - http://www.codeskulptor.org/ you have everything to learn the basics of Programming and Python.
the learning curve is perfect: from nothing to complex game design in 8 week.
requires curiosity, persistence, and sense of humor.

By CrunchyCookie from Palo Alto 26 days ago Not Completed

66 reviews and only one that's below 4 stars, eh?

I agree that this class has a lot going for it: the professors are smart, cool guys while also being skilled communicators who explain things well (Mr. Rixner especially -- maybe he should be the sole instructor). Watching the video lectures, almost everything made sense while it was happening, and it encouraged me to press on.

But then came the first test and project, which both left me stumped on several points. I ended up spending hours on each, mostly on scanning the forums in the hopes of finding a message thread that would answer my question (I often got lucky eventually, but not always).

I'm not sure if it was a matter of being tested on concepts not covered very thoroughly in the lectures, or the class not giving enough practice for the material to absorb properly (there's no homework; maybe it would help?), or whether I'm just slow. In any event, the frustration, coupled with my subsequent inability to meet the deadline, inspired me to drop out.

It's strange: I always saw math, logic and analysis as my strong suits. Either I was wrong all along or this course needs tweaking to be more n00b-friendly.

By Chang-Wu Chen from Chungli 3 months ago Completed (Partially)

This course is very useful for Python beginners. Not only you can learn how to program in Python, but it provides several interesting game practices to attract people to do that step by step.

By Ricardo Teixeira from Antwerp 3 months ago Completed (Partially)

A delightful course that will get you learning Python in no time - and incredibly fun too! Instead of developing complex statistical algorithms, the professors make you write (and evaluate) games! They went to the trouble of creating CodeSkulptor, which is pretty much just a web page, so there's no need to install Python. The course is incredibly engaging - but unfortunately no certificate was awarded.

By José González D from Hermosillo, Sonora 5 months ago Completed

A great course for begginers and pros were you learn how to program in python and the basics in game development.The proffesors are awesome and pretty entertaining; There's even an online python env where you can write, save and run your code. Can't wait for the next course!

By Rosa Valles 5 months ago Completed

This is a fantastic course:
* It's well planned and the staff is always at the ready to help students.
* Forums are very active.
* There are interesting projects every week and since the class is game oriented that means a new game per week!.
* As a bonus, there is no need to install Python, professor Rixner developed codeskulptor.org specifically for this class and it's fantastic.
* The professors are awesome, very committed and funny.

If you are new to programming, don't be afraid, this course is perfect. The pace is just right and the mini-projects (games) at the end of each week have the right level of challenge (and you can share them with your friends by sending the link!). If you are not new to programming but are to python, you won't find it boring, that's for sure!

Thank you again professors, I had a great time and I'm looking forward to your next course! And thank you Rice University and coursera =)

By karan 5 months ago Completed

One of the best courses ever for beginning programmers to learn python...the weekly projects along with awesome professors make the course extremely enjoyable

By Kelsey Layos 5 months ago Completed

I was already taking another coursera class in programming in Python and thought this course might be a good addition. The other course, from U of Toronto, was narrower in scope with more carefully organized/clear lessons, but this course had much more challenging projects that helped me get the concepts down more effectively. I think they worked very well simultaneously! This is a fun and challenging course - if you're new to programming, you'll get some valuable experience in frustration and the reward of getting past it / solving problems.

By Barak from Tel Aviv 5 months ago Completed

I have no words to describe that fantastic experience that I had in these 2 month. Its the best course ever. I really liked the way it was planned, the short lectures, the humor and atmosphere, and of course it content. I love playing computer games (and playing childhood games like pong and asteroids - own made was even extra fun) and had to learn python for my work, so I got 2 birds in one shot.

You guys made these videos, in a way, that I really felt like i'm actually sitting in your class (and even a small one), so even it was hard for me to spend the required time, listening, answering the quizzes and coding the mini-projects, and I'm happy to be able to "return to my wife and kids", I'm going to miss watching your videos. btw, some WERE crazy.

Thanks again, for preparing such a well design and warm course.

By Jim Cumming from Leeds, England 5 months ago Completed

A superb introductory course in event driven GUI programming using Python. Suitable for anyone from beginners to perhaps people who program in othe languages but want to try some thing new.

I've been programming as a professional for over ten years and still took a lot from this class. The instructors really went out of the way to make the class fun and informative .

By Philip Hobson from London, England 5 months ago Completed

This was the first online programming course that I have taken, I am a complete novice and I have previously tried learning from books. The way this course was structured really helped to focus what I was doing. The lectures are not only very informative, but a lot of fun as well, and I will certainly miss watching them each week.

The course is a combination of lectures, quizzes and mini-projects. There is a logical progression to the teaching and how to implement the mini-projects introducing you to many aspects of Python. By using games as your mini-projects and coding in a browser, you can easily share your programs with friends and family, I found this incredibly fun as they not only bug tested, but also gave me many ideas of new things to implement, leading me to experiment with my coding.

The buzz you get on completing something that initially seems quite daunting, but when broken down into small steps is very manageable, is truly incredible. I will actually really miss this feeling as the course has now come to an end. I thoroughly recommend this course, it is very well taught and a lot of fun!

By George Hudson from Norman, Oklahoma 5 months ago Completed

This is the beginning of a revolution in teaching. In my 59 years, I have taken many classes. This one simply was the best. The instructors worked very hard to prepare the material. The framework provided by Coursera worked well. How do you develop a bond with a professor? I now conclude that you don't have to be in the same room. I really miss Joe, Scott and John. The next amazing thing is that the next time the offer this class, I'm sure it will be even better. I will be watching for great things from this fantastic teaching team.

By Jen Lee from Hammonton, New Jersey 5 months ago Completed

I took this course at Coursera.org. It was fantastic. The instructors were engaging, funny and thorough. They always look like they're having so much fun! I learned a lot about Python and how to write code for interactive games. The course moves very fast, so if you don't have a mind for logic or programming it might get difficult. But the professors walk you through each step, and give you detailed instructions about every step, so it's definitely possible to go from never having written a stitch of code to writing interactive programs.

By Andy Wetzel 5 months ago Completed

Wonderful class. The lectures were fun and a good length to consume on a busy schedule. The lectures supported the projects well. The professors did an excellent job with this course. (I have a BS in Engineering and would rate this as one of the better courses I've taken)

The unsung hero is the Discussion Forum. It provided useful information from the professors and students and fostered a community feel for the class and allowed more advanced students to mentor beginners, providing an engaging experience across skill levels.

Only bad thing about the class is that it ended without a Part II to follow-up. If they ever release that, I hope I can be the first to sign up.

By Kevin Harris from Seattle 5 months ago Completed

Many thanks to Joe, Scott, John and Stephen. I learned a lot and had a good time doing so.

This was my first MOOC and I'm afraid that this course may have set the bar too high for subsequent courses.

Great use of the format, great instructors and a wonderful example of what can be accomplished on-line. The projects were challenging but fun, the instructors were engaging and I can't recommend this course enough.

By Milos Jovanovic 5 months ago Completed

Great course, with good amount of humor incorporated into teaching videos. Great experience with peer assessments of the games you make, which helps improve your coding by looking at others code. Short course that leave you feeling you learned so much! Hope to see some more advanced course from the same team. You Rock!

By Mike from Boston, Massachusetts 5 months ago Completed

If you want to learn programming in python and basics of event driven model, this class is excellent. Lectures are well thought out, and class structure is superb. And it is fun!

By Anita Lewis 5 months ago Completed

I had no experience with Python, but after 8 weeks I feel I am pretty solid on the basics. The course begins at moderate difficulty, but progresses to difficult. I put a lot of work into it, but nowhere near what the instructors put into it. They monitored how people were doing on projects and provided help and hints to keep me going. The quizzes seemed to be a layer of learning for me, because I could retake them up to 5 times to continue to improve. I learned a lot from doing quizzes. The projects each week are great for utilizing what is learned in lectures with the result of a working game when completed.

By David Willson from Houston, Texas 5 months ago Completed

A first rate class from a first rate University. The videos are fun to watch, the banter between Scott and Joe is very entertaining. John's programming tips are definitely worth taking time over. This is what Coursera should be about; this is the third Coursera course that I've completed so far, and by far the best. It's challenging, but completely doable. There's something here for beginners and for Advanced Programmers alike. You'll take away knowledge. Do it...

By Don Radick from Atlanta, Georgia 5 months ago Completed

Great course. A bit challenging if you don't have any prior experience, since they move pretty rapidly. If you can hang in there, you learn a great deal in a short amount of time. Great instructors

By Yvonne 5 months ago Completed

The course was a lot of fun while also teaching the basics of computer programming. It's a beginner course but people from all levels could use this course to learn Python. I had a computer science background and still got a lot out of the course because I had never used Python.

All projects are games which makes them fun to code.

I suggest that people are comfortable with math and have some knowledge of programming or scripting. If not much time will be spent in trying to understand the basics. The class is short which is good but can be overwhelming to a total newbie.

I've never had as much fun at a computer course as this one.

Posted anonymously 1 day ago Taking Course Now

I am a complete beginner to programming and this course has been invaluable so far. I loved the way the professors teach and the tools they developed for this course like CodeSkulptor. The quizzes are carefully written to make one explore and learn before answering and the practice exercises are of great help. I am loving the experience of working on mini projects and receiving feedback from peers. Thanks a lot Coursera/Rice and Thanks Joe, Scott and company! You guys rock!

By Shantanu 7 days ago Taking Course Now

GREAT COURSE!! I had a basic understanding of C when i started this course. I had no prior experience in Python. The profs are great, it's a lot of fun listening to them. Codesculptor the python environment especially created for this course is great too!! Forums are engaging. The Video competition is a good part too. The quizzes are fun and informative. ALSO WE GET TO BUILD GAMES AS ASSIGNMENTS!! HOW COOL IS THAT? :D

By andykp 36 days ago Completed (Partially)

very fun assignments, dynamic and fun teachers, projects are peer graded every week, good programming tips on mistake to avoid as a beginner

By Pan Yang 54 days ago Completed (Partially)

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.

By JT 58 days ago Completed

This class was great, you learn a lot very quickly. It is truly focused on interactive programming, and so basic programming principles are only dealt with briefly. It really helps to have taken another introductory programming course before you take this one so that you already know programming basics. The programming language the course uses is Python 2.7.

By ANISH from Mumbai, Maharashtra 4 months ago Completed

the things i liked about the course is the way the instructors teaches the concepts.
i was expecting moderate difficulty and so it was.
i think rather than only running behind games and simplegui the course could have been spread more around the other topics and be more focused on the real version of simplegui.
i dont think there would be any prereq required for the course but a bit of programming background is a bit motivational :)

By Michael from Copenhagen, Denmark 4 months ago Completed

In the past I have taken other programming courses but this one really sticks out as on of the best. The instructors are very good at explaining the material. The homework is both fun and challenging.The course revolves around making games, which means that there is a common thread throughout the course to help the student to stay focused.

By Ellen Boeke 5 months ago Completed

This was a fantastic class! The pace and content of the course is challenging but that is also why it is so great. It pushed me to quickly process simpler concepts in order to grasp the more complicated ones. I finished the class feeling really confident and am excited for more programming classes and, especially, more programming classes with Joe, Scott, John and Stephen.

By Andrea Crain 5 months ago Completed

I had a great time taking this class. I have a CS degree, but wanted to learn the Python language, and this class made it very fun. Each week we programmed a game as a mini-project, and the tool we used, codeskulptor, was built by the professors to work on modern web browsers, so I could work whenever I had time from any computer. I was really impressed with how well that tool worked, and with how entertaining the class videos were. Overall, a great experience with online learning.

By Virginia Morris from Carol Stream, Illinois 5 months ago Completed

Excellent course! Very well organized, excellent progression from beginning material to heights I never expected to reach. I am happy that there were hard deadlines on the submission of quizzes and mine-projects; without deadlines most of us put it all off until the last minute and don't learn as much as we could. My only suggestion for "improvement" is that there be more of it!! I would suggest some comfort with high school math as a prerequisite; a number of students in the beginning were quite upset about having to deal with fairly fundamental algebra. This is the first MOOC that I have taken, so I have no standard of comparison - but if this course is any indication of the general standard of excellence of MOOCs, then this will truly be "disruptive technology". More power to it!!

By Josh Miller from Cottonwood Heights, Utah 5 months ago Completed

This course is an excellent introduction to the Python programming language. I have previous experience with programming, and found python to be powerful.
The most exciting thing about this course is that you get to build your own little games, and truly feel like you accomplished something.
It would be helpful for future students if they spend a bit of time on object oriented design, so those chapters don't throw them for a curve ball. These instructors do a fantastic job of introducing the topic if you don't have that chance.

By Aparna Khare from San Jose, California 5 months ago Completed

I loved the way the course was designed. Making students design games is a very creative idea, and it definitely kept me engaged.
The professors went to an incredible length to make understanding easy. Codeskulptor is a marvelous interface, and I'm sure the amount of effort that went into building it, and the simlegui library, must be tremendous. There were lectures on geometry to make the game design easier for everyone. All this shows how genuinely the professor want everyone to learn.

By Alex Livanov 5 months ago Completed

Really good and entertaining course which keeps you engaged. After the first lecture you'll be able to start making games and you'll see how fun it is. Professors are really good at explaining the concepts and keeping the fun attitude - really recommend this to everyone who wants to step into this area.

By Arka Bhowmik from Kolkata, Bengal 5 months ago Completed

This course is one of the best things to happen in my life! I loved it from start to finish! I learnt a lot from this course through building games. The learning process was amazing fun for me! I started taking a few other courses too, but this course just stands head and shoulders above all! I must mention here that the professors have really done a brilliant job and put in a lot of effort!
For a person with no prior programming experience, the Object Oriented Programming lectures maybe a little fast paced, but if you put in a little more effort, it will be fine.

It just goes to show that learning can be massive FUN!

By vardhanam 5 months ago Completed

One of the best online courses I have come across. Very well planned. It is very clear that the profs have put in a lot of effort to design this course.

If you haven't taken this course then you are definitely missing something.

I'd say just sign up and try it out and you'll see for yourself.

By Neha Shah from Los Angeles, California 5 months ago Completed

I enjoyed learning python with this well structured course. I looked forward finishing quizes to move on to mini-project every week. This is my 1st online university level course and professors were amazing. Having interactive games as mini-projects was fun way of working through difficulty level. I can't thank enough to discussion forum participation. Classmates were great contributor to help move along when someone is stuck on a problem while working on a project. Student videos were outstanding.

By Mary Moineau-RIegel 5 months ago Completed

Fantastic, great class. I entered with very little experience and learned a great deal. It was challenging but exciting and fun. Not only did the exceptional, engaging professors teach how to make fun games, but also sharpened logical skills. I loved this class from beginning to end.

By Juan Parra 5 months ago Completed

One of the most fun and challenging courses I have taken. This course is complete with the basic concepts, if you want to begin learning how to program and to create games.

By Mufasa 5 months ago Completed

All the lecturers were extremely enthusiastic and presented a very well paced course with lots of excellent mini-projects along the way.

By DrewC 5 months ago Completed

This course was amazing! I started out with absolutely no programming knowledge (outside of some basic HTML and CSS) and finished it feeling like I could build a simple game of my own design using the knowledge and experience I had gained in just 8 weeks.

Yes, it was challenging. Every project pushed me to the edge of almost quitting, but I persevered and had a break-through moment every time.

The faculty managed to explain complicate concepts in a straightforward manner, the course was well planned, and the support for people like me who kept running into mental brick walls (from both the faculty and other students on the course forums) was amazing!

I cannot recommend this course highly enough, and I'll definitely be signing up again if this team decides to run an intermediate Python course.

By sylvie 5 months ago Completed

This class is really great!
It is challenging, but I learned a lot and had a great time!
the teachers are really good and they complement each other well. I was so excited every saturday morning to see the new class and begin the new project, I kinda miss it now....

I had a lot of fun and highly recommend it!