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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Introduction to Programming with MATLAB by Vanderbilt University

4.8
stars
17,372 ratings

About the Course

This course teaches computer programming to those with little to no previous experience. It uses the programming system and language called MATLAB to do so because it is easy to learn, versatile and very useful for engineers and other professionals. MATLAB is a special-purpose language that is an excellent choice for writing moderate-size programs that solve problems involving the manipulation of numbers. The design of the language makes it possible to write a powerful program in a few lines. The problems may be relatively complex, while the MATLAB programs that solve them are relatively simple: relative, that is, to the equivalent program written in a general-purpose language, such as C++ or Java. As a result, MATLAB is being used in a wide variety of domains from the natural sciences, through all disciplines of engineering, to finance, and beyond, and it is heavily used in industry. Hence, a solid background in MATLAB is an indispensable skill in today’s job market. Nevertheless, this course is not a MATLAB tutorial. It is an introductory programming course that uses MATLAB to illustrate general concepts in computer science and programming. Students who successfully complete this course will become familiar with general concepts in computer science, gain an understanding of the general concepts of programming, and obtain a solid foundation in the use of MATLAB. Students taking the course will get a MATLAB Online license free of charge for the duration of the course. The students are encouraged to consult the eBook that this course is based on. More information about these resources can be found on the Resources menu on the right....

Top reviews

KB

Jun 23, 2020

I would like to thank vanderbilt university for providing such a wonderful course and i am much impressed by the use of the basic matrices in each and every programming purpose.thank you again!!!!:)))

DA

Jun 5, 2020

Instructor of this course Mike Fitzpatrick is a very good teacher who encourage students to do something new and interesting.

I really enjoyed learning this course and learned new skills in MATLAB.

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51 - 75 of 4,432 Reviews for Introduction to Programming with MATLAB

By Rajat R

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Jun 12, 2020

the course instructor was very friendly , very expressive , he made all concepts very clear

but one thing i want to add is that add some videos on explaining some more advanced plotting debugging and file input/output.

By Arthur C

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Jul 19, 2020

The course is very good, learned a lot. But there is a problem, for a course stated as Introduction, the exercises get much more complex than the classes by the seventh week.

By Virendra M

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Aug 11, 2021

decent content but I'm unable to understand what is being taught due to complex understanding by the tutor therefore im not able to complete the course

By PAWAN K S

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Jul 21, 2020

Assignments are very difficult after 6th week.One enters 7th week without enough preparation.I mean slope of learning is too high after 6th week.

By Jackie W

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Aug 15, 2020

too difficult assignments

By Justin D

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Feb 13, 2021

Like many of the other reviews say, the lectures were interesting for the most part and it was a valuable course overall. However, the later assignments (especially week 9) were way too hard for the material taught in the course. A recommendation would be to show examples on how to solve more complex problems, and be more thorough/detailed with lectures opposed to only giving a few examples of built in MATLAB functions.

By Timothy C J

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May 27, 2020

This is a good course. Some of the programming assignments are way too hard for a beginner level class. I would like to be able to get one-on-one time with the professors via Microsoft Teams or Skype. Mike is an outstanding teacher and he reminds me of some of the best of the best teachers from my high school days and my classes in college.

By Caitlin H

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Jun 15, 2020

Videos were very good and easy to understand but didn't provide enough help to actually do the assignments. Not recommended if you have no prior programming experience before this.

By MOHITE S M

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May 28, 2020

Lot of assignment had functions which were not taught in the video lectures.

By Afkar A

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May 26, 2021

Quiz questions are too difficult and are not covered in the theory lessons.

By mohamed e

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Nov 20, 2020

the assignment is too hard it's not suitable for a beginner in Matlab

By Martha T

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Jun 4, 2020

I am sure this is a great course for someone who has been exposed to computer programing somehow.

I was way ahead of my assignments and watched the lectures at 3X each chapter before getting to my assignments.

I got to a roadblock on week 4 and I am unable to move because the assignments have gone from 0-60 without much input. I am able to claim that because many others, who btw seem to be a bit more educated in the matter, experienced difficulties.

I understand the moderators can't just give out answers, but they just become robotic in their answers.

I am very glad I did not pay for a certificate. Otherwise, I would have wasted both my time and my money. I am out $10 for the book, though.

My advice is: don't take this class unless you know "something" about programming.

By Peter d B

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Jun 4, 2020

Teaches neither programming nor MATLAB effectively. Videos are too long and useless for the assignments. Very disappointing. I worked all the way to Week 7 and got 100& on all assignments. Then the lectures and assignments started to come from different worlds and the course became torture (which most people who like programming seem to accept and even enjoy; I don't.)

By Pamela P

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Apr 27, 2018

The videos are good, but have no relationship to the homework problems. There are too many problems per week, and they are very difficult given there are no examples in either the videos or book that cover the material examined in the homework. The entire course was just frustrating.

By Anna S

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Jun 11, 2020

The instructor is incredibly self-obsessed and just unbearable. All the 'jokes' are neither funny nor useful. Just stick to teaching if you have to.

By Saiful A

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Aug 30, 2016

Boring Professor

By Eisuke I

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Mar 7, 2020

Hard.

By Amy Z

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Oct 7, 2019

This is a fabulous course. It was exactly what I was looking for. Although of course it won't suit everyone's needs, I think it succeeds in providing a broad overview of basic Matlab functionality in a short period of time. I appreciate the instructor's self-deprecating humor, which is just enough to keep things light without detracting from the purpose of the class. The forum is great, and I always found T.A. responses to be prompt and helpful—kudos to those unsung heroes of education!

I had a bit of an unusual experience with the course in that I actually began it in December 2018 while on a school break, but had to stop after Week 7 when my university classes resumed. I wasn't able to return to this course until September 2019, at which time I began at the very start again and completed all 9 weeks. What I found is that the format of the class had changed in the interim. Both the earlier and the current formats are fine, and most of the lecture material is the same, but there are a few notable differences. Now, assignments are interspersed with the lectures, rather than being clustered at the end of each week. It seems to me that as a consequence there's a bit of misalignment between lecture material and the assignments on occasion, and it might be good to review that to get a better mesh. Also, the grader has changed. I like both the old and the new grader format equally well, but it would be good to be able to see the test conditions for each test case in the new grader, which (as I recall) students were able to do in the previous format. Lastly, my impression is that in the new format there are fewer assignments overall, and I would suggest to the instructor that the number of assignments could be increased. To sum up, nothing is perfect, but I really don't think you'll find a better introduction to Matlab. Highly, highly recommended.

By Devarshi P

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May 27, 2020

After doing a lot of research online, I feel fortunate to have come across this course. It is a perfect introduction for anyone to get ready to make excellent use of all tools/capability available with Matlab for practical purposes, especially in science and engineering field. The instructors have really thought through on how to expose programming concept and Matlab concept to someone with almost zero experience. If you sincerely finish this course, including all the exercises you are way ahead of the crowd. Even the textbook (optional) is offered at a student friendly prices. The concepts in textbook covered great breadth & depth of real-world problems that can be tackled with Matlab. This is much more than plain-n-simple Matlab Onramp course. It really prepares you to go deep into Matlab if you wish upon completion of course.

Many people complain of difficulty of final exercises. But without that you won't be able to tackle real world engineering problems. So these assignments strongly make you think logically on how to make best use of function of Matlab. The stronger the training, the better prepared one becomes.

Thanks a ton Prof. Fitzpatrick & Prof. Ledeczi. You have delivered more than what you committed. We are thankful to have gotten exposure to this seasoned class being taught for decades at Vanderbilt.

By Özgür Z

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Jun 27, 2016

This is the only one course, I have paid for certificate. I liked most of the course. Instructor has a unique way of teaching Matlab. He started Matlab basics. After that, he had shown functions. The reason of showing functions at the very first times was to evaluate the problems. I am so surprised when I have seen the usage of column operator in such different ways. Course was followed by decision structures, loops, strings and file I/O. The course content was well prepared. Video lectures are quite helpful. Especially, 1 hour problem solving example video was so beneficial. However, at the end of the course, problems become quite challenging and time consuming. In first 6 problem set, my success rate was 100%. But, in last two week's problems I was able to solve only 5 of 8. The problems become difficult to understand, there were not enough explanations or hints. Discussion pages were not useful some times. I had to make further research on internet to understand the problem and it was time consuming. In the new version of the course, it would be better if problems are clear to understand.

In short, the Instructors and Mentors did great job. Do I suggest this course to anyone else? The answer is definitely YES! Thank you.

By Tim R

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Jun 3, 2020

Great curse. I had a little bit of MATLAB experience so I was able do complete the first 5 weeks in a few days. Watching the videos in 1.75x speed saved some time when dealing with the easy topics. However, week 6 and following got harder and I spent quite some time figuring out how to code. It's fascinating how one can spent multiple hours to code something with loops and difficult indexing etc., but then when looking at the solution afterwards there is that big "aha" moment when one becomes aware of how simple the code could have been. Its like everything in the world...practice makes the master.

The 3 final problems in week 9 were interesting and great programming fun. I would say there could be more final problems though in order to get more practice. Overall the course is fantastic and I recommend it to everybody who wants to learn programming. The videos explain everything you need but also how to search for tips independently. A little bit feel for linear algebra is advantageous but in general there is no higher math skill required in order to be able to complete this course.

I will search Coursera for more programming/MATLAB courses. Thank you to all who make this online course possible.

By KANISHK K

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Aug 10, 2020

If you really want to learn (honestly) MATLAB lemme tell ya this is the place! I am amazed with the fine quality of this course everything lectures , materials provided , assignments , tie up with MathWorks everything...

one thing i loved the most about this course is it's not like any ordinary course i.e there are long lectures but not one which kills your curiosity honestly the way of delivering lectures is just excellent ,at every moment you will feel like what's next , how is so , why is so , can i try this , what will be the result of it..... this list is just never ending

and the whole credit for delivering and making such excellent lectures goes to Sir J. Michael Fitzpatrick

he makes this course work like kinda interaction with us by his mysterious ways.

NOTE : If you have 1% mood/need/desire/curiosity etc to learn MATLAB let the god assure you in the name of J. Michael Fitzpatrick he will give you your rest 99%

and am writing this review because of him & because of this excellent course

my sincere thanks to J. Michael Fitzpatrick , VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY and COURSERA

By Akhil R

•

Jun 25, 2020

I found this course not only a perfect start for programming but also for Matlab. Before starting with this course, I had no prior knowledge in programming and thus used to hate it. I always used to think that programming would be difficult and it's not my cup of tea. But now, after completing this course, I can proudly say that I know programming, and more than that, I have just starting loving it !!!!

I would like to thank Vanderbilt University and Prof. Fitzpatrick for providing with this wonderful course. This online course not even once felt me like an online course. The credit for that totally goes to Prof. Fitzpatrick's way of teaching. My favorite part of the course was not only your quirky remarks and nerdy (but hilarious) jokes but also that you made programming extremely interesting. After this perfect basics foundation, I am completely ready to dive in deeper into Matlab programming.

In short, the Instructors and Mentors did a great job. Do I suggest this course to anyone else? The answer is definitely YES !!!

Thanks for such a great opportunity!

By Aniket C

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Jul 8, 2021

It have really been a great experience for me during this course and I really wanna thanks a lot to Professor Fitzpatrick. He's been so amazing in the way of his teaching throughout the course. The assignments part was the real pleasure at learning. In the start they were really easy but in time it'd become challenging a bit. Solving everything on my own have really boosted a lot of confidence every time. It was a pleasure to see the green signals when your code was right and you solved some really good problem on your own. Sometimes I had to wake up all night just to solve the assignment at once. I don't know why during the last week in file I/O lesson things started becoming not as clear as everything I learned before. Maybe I hadn't practiced much more on reading and writing files. This was my first Coursera course and I'm looking forward to finish other such exciting and valuable to my skill building courses here.

By Zhang P

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Mar 20, 2017

(1) lectures and example codes are good

(2) assignments have some good questions that make student to become familiar with topics

(3) some assignment problems are not clear. It is hard to even understand what the question asks. You don't know what to do until you have found a discussion post that a tutor explains what the question is. It will be helpful if the assignment could use more narratives and figures to make the questions clear to student.

(4) Some later assignments are hard and may requires more thinking.

(5) It is recommended to have an extra week/lectures videos on Object Oriented Programming. This topic can be optional/not for grades if it is too advanced for some students. However, it is good to have this topic covered in this course, as your lecture explanations are good and assignment questions are the best and optimal way for us to quickly master a topic.