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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Internet History, Technology, and Security by University of Michigan

4.8
stars
2,625 ratings

About the Course

The impact of technology and networks on our lives, culture, and society continues to increase. The very fact that you can take this course from anywhere in the world requires a technological infrastructure that was designed, engineered, and built over the past sixty years. To function in an information-centric world, we need to understand the workings of network technology. This course will open up the Internet and show you how it was created, who created it and how it works. Along the way we will meet many of the innovators who developed the Internet and Web technologies that we use today. What You Will Learn: After this course you will not take the Internet and Web for granted. You will be better informed about important technological issues currently facing society. You will realize that the Internet and Web are spaces for innovation and you will get a better understanding of how you might fit into that innovation. If you get excited about the material in this course, it is a great lead-in to taking a course in Web design, Web development, programming, or even network administration. At a minimum, you will be a much wiser network citizen....

Top reviews

TR

Aug 11, 2020

This course was awesome. A combination of the history, sociology and practical architectural / implementation elements of modern digital and internet technology. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks Chuck!

SB

Jan 6, 2016

This is an extremely important course. I would love to see it taught in high schools or in the first year of university. We should all understand how the Internet was developed and how it functions.

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26 - 50 of 670 Reviews for Internet History, Technology, and Security

By Adauton H

Aug 6, 2019

Excellent course. Fun and greatly instructive.

By Roman E

Sep 24, 2019

It was very interesting!

By Rowelyn Q

Sep 23, 2019

thank you so much :)

By Cheng W

Apr 30, 2019

Wonderful!

By Sara A G

Apr 9, 2019

satart

By Ángela S

Dec 16, 2022

Difícil a veces a la hora de entender explicaciones mas complejas o abstractas, sobre todo si no hablas mucho inglés, pero muy muy interesante, he aprendido muchas cosas nuevas.

By csceconomics

Aug 21, 2018

If you are seeking to learn the basics of the Internet - what is a server? What is an ethernet cable? Etc, this is not the course for you. The course basically contains a lot of interviews with people who invented the Internet and you need technical knowledge to understand them. But it is an awesome course for anyone who is taken aback by the brilliance of the minds that created the Internet and is looking to hear from the inventors themselves. I recommend you take a course on the basics of computer networking and then do this course. BTW Dr. Charles Severance is a super guy.

By Kristina G

Sep 13, 2017

I really enjoyed this course. One of the things that I realized while taking it is that the internet is a huge, major, society-altering phenomenon that happened *in my lifetime* (I remember getting AOL at home for the first time when I was about 12) and it's an incredible privilege and an amazing opportunity to be able to study the history of the internet's development while many of the people who brought it into existence are still alive and able to be interviewed! This course is a great way to get an overview in the major milestones in how the internet came into being, as well as understand the foundations of how it works now. Dr. Chuck is a warm and encouraging personality who wants nothing more than to expose students to a subject he himself is very enthusiastic about -- the best kind of professor. I really recommend this course to everyone, no matter what their familiarity with computers, as a first step to understanding a technology that underpins everything in modern life.

By Denise M W

Nov 6, 2015

I am an English language professor. I took this course for "fun"--my BA minor was in history and I am a curious person.

I love this course and Dr. Chuck! The way he explains things is "IN ENGLISH!!" I mean that the way he explains things makes sense to a non-literate IT person. In addition, the content is both interesting and informative. The structure of the course is easy to follow. I have taken a few courses where I was not sure what I was supposed to do next, but not in this course.

Frankly, I prefer a course where I take quizzes. Projects can be educational and interesting and sometimes necessary to the course content, but I am working 40 to 60 hours a week and don't always have time for courses with projects--and those are the courses I have not completed. I liked just taking quizzes about the content.

So far, this has been the best course I have taken in Coursera. And I have already signed up for a second course with Dr. Chuck and the University of Michigan.

By Ahmed A

Jun 3, 2020

If you are here with a limited budget (specially people coming from 3rd world countries), looking to earn a certificate that would help get some better job. Then, this is NOT the place for you. However, this is a course that contain a lot of very useful information and an instructor that will make LOVE anything computer related and will really help in several other courses and give anyone who is new to IT - and modern technology in general - a very good place to start.

My advice if you are on a budget, as mentioned in the beginning, is to look for this course on YouTube. Dr. Charles has all of his materials, books etc., and lectures from all of his courses there. Just name another instructor that does that :) .

By Naushad S

Oct 16, 2015

The course was absolutely what we need and understand the Cyber Security from a course. Special thank you to Professor Dr Chuck he made Easy to understand the subject and all useful information. Always to the point. The online presentation was excellent and dealt with all the relevant information needed to understand why IT Security is so important to the individual and also employers. The course explained the InfoSec mechanics, I would also like to say that the course was presented in such a way that most if not all people would understand every single section covered. So, a highly recommended course which anybody would enjoy and gain great knowledge.

By Vaughn P

Apr 29, 2016

Dr. Charles Severance is by far the best Computer Science professor out there!!! I've done a significant amount of online Computer Science courses -as well as classroom courses back in college - and not one professor has been as fun and easy to understand as Chuck. He puts presents every topic in such a way that you're never scared off thinking "i'll never understand this stuff." He make computers and everything technical make sense. I've basically binge-watched almost every lecture/course he's headed up. He makes learning fun and seems like he's be a really fun guy to get to hang with. Thanks Dr. Chuck for your love of teaching, you're the best!

By mega c a

Nov 27, 2015

it's really great to joined this course. it was an intro from all kind of internet history, technology and security, but it's open my eyes that what we consume almost everyday right now was comes from bunch of brilliant person ever lived in this world. And i'm very motivated to know more and more about this stuff. "sharing is caring". Thank you coursera and michigan university, for bringing up this course.

And.., Dr. Chuck..!. You are awesome and amaziiing lecturer. i hope someday you going to go to jakarta- Indonesia for another coursera business hours.. :). and let me know if that's happen..

Thanks COURSERA.... :* :*

By Judith G

Aug 27, 2015

One of the strongest cases for enrolling in this course is that it will really help to round out the student's understanding and background of how and why computers work the way they do.

The history portion is presented in a really accessible and palatable way, and it looks like it is a thorough job. Charles Severance knows his computers! I started reading Where Wizards Stay Up Late by Katie Hafner because of his interview with her that he includes in the course materials, and it complements the course completely.

The quizzes also do a good job of making sure you've retained the important points and are following along.

By Damon R

Aug 29, 2015

Internet History, Technology, and Security is a GREAT course! I learned a ton. The professor's presentation style was perfect for me. He is obviously very passionate about how awesomely innovative the Internet was in the early years of the Internet. This class has inspired in me a HUGE appreciation for all the geniuses who contributed to the Internet and WWW. I recommend this course to anyone, no matter their level of prior education. I will definitely try to take more courses from this professor, and I will probably take this course again in the future to refresh my understanding.

By Deleted A

Feb 24, 2016

This course is engaging, highly informative, fun, and just the right amount of challenge. Each section (History, Technology, and Security) is taught one at a time. There is a lot of ground covered without it becoming overwhelming.

The extra videos available to watch give you more of a background of the history of the internet.

Given the important role that the Internet and computers play in our everyday lives, having this background knowledge and basic understanding of how things work is vital.

Dr. Chuck is clearly enthusiastic about the subject matter, and it shows.

By Deleted A

Aug 31, 2015

I would say one of the most rewarding experiences I have ever had in my online learning so far. Even though, I hold a MSc in Computer and Information Network I was very pleased to actually hear some really interesting and insightful stories from the Internet era! I would recommend this course to anybody who has a basic understanding of Internet technologies or even more advanced and experienced individual who simply seeks for a new challenge to refresh his knowledge! Jump in! You will be surprised how often we assume we know things that we have not really heard of!

By Nishant

Jan 29, 2023

Thanks Dr. Chuck (Charles Severance) for this amazing course.

I really needed a win, after being stuck at many other courses, I picked this one up because I kept hearing about it in your other courses.

I really loved the effort you put into this course and especially loved the Graduation Ceremony, this was the first time I was in one.

This is definitely just the beginning and I will see you again the other courses I am taking right now, Python and Web Apps for Everybody.

I learnt a lot in this course and re-visited the quizzes multiple times to get that perfect score.

By Jennifer C

Dec 13, 2016

Dr. Chuck's lessons are well thought out, easy to understand and wonderfully created. The way he connects the history of the internet to our daily lives is eloquently articulated and fun to follow. I think it is astounding that he was able to get personal interviews with key players in the development of the modern day internet and integrate them with his lessons. Overall, I would highly recommend this course to anyone looking to learn a little more about this magical thing we all take for granted every day, the internet. Thanks Dr.Chuck! :)

By Doris S

Oct 8, 2015

I've been working on the Internet since before there was a WWW, so I didn't necessarily expect to learn much, but in fact this was highly informative. The history part was mostly familiar, but it was helpful to have everything laid out clearly on a timeline. The technology and security portions did a great deal to clarify my previously vague understandings of how things work.

And, I especially liked the "graduation ceremony" at the end. This is the first MOOC I've taken that included a graduation, and it was a nice touch.

By Md S H

Oct 2, 2020

In this course, we can check the historic preview of internet and related inventions.

We have get to know about so many interesting protocols. The main interesting point

is that there is no mathematics, no hardcore algorithms. It also soothes the learning

process. We can easily understand the underlying architectures of our so beloved

internet. Also there are some important part on security. And every single concept

was well explained without using heavy technical terms.I can not but love this course very much.

By Congyi W

May 22, 2022

I first took Python for Everybody course and then in the course Dr Chuck introduced this course and then after taking Python Class I took this class. This class have many precious videos , although it is sometimes very complicated for a new learner, I still gained a lot of knowledge from this class. Dr Chuck is very fun and kind, and I am grateful that I have met Dr Chuck during my path of studying Computer, and he would always be an inspiration for me to continue to study in the field of computer science.

By Connor D

Aug 23, 2016

I am only on Week 3 of this course and so far I am thoroughly enjoying it. The videos are informative and well put together. Very interesting to learn about the history of the internet and how it has evolved. I currently work for an smaller ISP in Northern Alberta and after stumbling into this job, I ended up loving networking and computers. This really helps with an introduction to some fundamental concepts of the internet. Thank you for providing this course.

By Jean-Nicolas L

Feb 4, 2023

It is an excellent overview of the history, the technical design and the architecture of the Internet. It is an amazingly beautiful design and should be understood by all who use it. Dr Chuck has done a great job with this course and the content is aimed at all audiences - even those with no prior technical experience or math skills. I really enjoy the interviews with people from universities and industries that lay the foundations of the internet.

By Steven W

Apr 1, 2021

A lot of well curated content in this course. The tests seem to assume you've only watched the video material and, that you are using a search engine for some of the answers. However, there's quite a bit more content here. It is survey level but, includes more advanced resources as well. This course is suitable for many demographics. Anyone from the curious individual to a network engineer will find this course worthwhile.