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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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26 - 50 of 4,432 Reviews for Introduction to Programming with MATLAB

By idrees k

•

Dec 20, 2021

Basics concepts are well covered within a short time and a few videos. I would recommend it for those who want to learn complete basics. but to master it, you need to enrol in a specialization course.

By Caleb A

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May 7, 2018

As a physics/math major transitioning into mechanical engineering for my graduate degree, I enrolled in this course to refresh and refine my programming skills as well as to aid improve my MATLAB-specific skills. I had been briefly exposed to MATLAB, and had also taken some introductory courses in Python, R, and FORTRAN, but I expected to learn from this course. And it did not disappoint!

The course is well designed with an emphasis on general programming through the use of MATLAB as an interface. I believe MATLAB is probably one of the better intro programming languages to learn because its syntax is comparatively intuitive and simple for beginners compared to other languages such as FORTRAN and C/C++/C#. The primary lecturer in the course video instruction is Dr. Fitzpatrick, an adjunct professor of electrical/computer engineering who demonstrates expert level proficiency in both presenting and explaining the material. He is also, dare I say, quite a charming and witty gentleman who gave a refreshing and engaging presentation of material that may otherwise have seemed monotonous. I highly recommend the complementary course e-text, which is filled with more in-depth explanations of more advanced topics, more worked-through problems, and more practice problems with solutions. It's only $10, and it will be a great reference guide.

I will mention that the course demands a significant amount of time, especially towards the end where problems become much more complex. Even having some background in programming, it still took me much longer than the suggested homework time to work through the last several assignments. I also would have preferred the course to have a more detailed explanation of some of the aspects of MATLAB that make it stand out as a programming language, such as its plotting. I suppose much of that is included in the extensive documentation, though, and the course is designed to provide beginner programmers with the basic tools at their disposal to code. I would look forward to a more advanced sequel course that would provide further details on solving more complex problems, especially in the physical sciences, as well as outlining how some of the numerical methods of problem solving are implemented in MATLAB.

By shashank s

•

Jan 21, 2022

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!!!!:)))

By Simone A

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Apr 19, 2020

First of all, I am a chemist. I had no idea on how to start programming, therefore I started the course convinced to get some basic skills on Matlab (I had no idea on how Matlab worked) in the beginning I found it really helpful. But then at the end the assignments were really hard and quite difficult to understand for a non-proficient user. I strongly recommend to follow the first part, really helpful, but the second part probably it is more for experts in the field or students in informatic... maybe it can be useful to divide in half parts this online course. Maybe, it can be really helpful to cite the use of polyfit commands to fit functions. Really interesting until the 7th week.

By Nengah W G

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May 5, 2020

This course is really an interesting experience for me...although I've known Matlab years before. The course's material has been intriguing from the beginning, with the increasing difficulties until the final exercise. I've noted that for some exercises, the most difficult part is not the coding, but to understand the question and find the proper solution. The forum surely helps a lot in handling this difficult part, but for everyone who do the course in Coursera for the first time, it's like walking in the maze...haha..

The most inspiring quote for me is from Prof. Mike Fitzpatrick, programming is a humbling and often humiliating experience..should I write it on the wall?? maybe I should haha...

Last but not least, thank you for Prof. Akos Ledeczi, Teaching Staff (sorry, I've only remembered Mr. Brendan Armstrong there, did I miss someone?) and all the Coursera team...

Good Job and Thank you very much...

By Arnab D

•

Sep 18, 2021

The lead instructor Mike Fitzpatrick is able to teach MATLAB in a way that it feels like a normal communication language. The course curriculum is very efficient and it is taken care of that every topic is taught in detail with utmost precision. The assignments provided are very interesting and challenge the learners to think logically and apply what they have learnt. Personally I have learnt a few languages before and never have I felt such interest from the beginning as here. Credits must also go to Akos Ledeczi for designing such a wonderful curriculum with topics arranged in increasing order of difficulty such that the new learner finds enough time to cope with with newly taught topics and master them.

Overall a wonderful experience!

By Nima S

•

May 1, 2022

Loved the online course, the intro music and everything else! Thank you very much Professor Ledeczi and Professor Fitzpatrick as well as the team behind the scenes for this very well designed and also amusing course. Special thanks to Professor Fitzpatrick for his sympathetic way of explaining difficult things. He kept my motivation for this course at a high constant level and it didn't get boring at any time. I also want to thank Brandon Armstrong for giving tips on how to solve the problems when it wasnt clear at the beginning. I will highly recommend this course to my fellow students.

By Felipe R

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Aug 14, 2020

It is a fantastic course. You will learn from the very basic features of programming such as data types up to complex arrays and mathematic calculations. Professor Fitzpatrick will also teach you everything about loops and conditional statements. Besides that, the tests you need to pass and the assignments you need to complete are quite educative and they show you the expected answer when the assignment is particularly difficult.

By Aditya K D

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Jan 20, 2022

One of the most exhaustive courses I have ever taken on Coursera. I liked the level of assignments provided by the course designers. They made us refer to the material provided by them. Real hands-on knowledge was gained by me due to following the course to the T. I thank the instructors of this course for introducing me to the power of MATLAB. I believe this course will help me in my further studies.

By Ali B

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Mar 16, 2021

This course help students to learn the basics of Matlab language and how to write simple and efficient programs. It gives a good view of the Matlab environment and programming process. It is much better if the quality of the videos goes higher when they have downloaded. I thank Mr.Mike Fitzpatric and Mr.Akos Ledeczi and Coursera's team for providing this wonderful course.

By AHMED K

•

May 17, 2020

The first thing you will notice in this course that , the lessons are easy to understand and assignments are fun and worth digging hard.

and the staff members(Mr.Brandon Armstrong) are avalible .

a good introduction !

By Satyendra k

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Aug 13, 2020

Extremely well written tutorials,real world problems,and an excellent theme background music makes this course a must for every MATLAB programming enthusiast.

By Sudhanshu S

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May 1, 2021

Professor Mike Fitzpatrick has good humour. No doubt this is an excellent course even for a beginner in programming.

By Olatomiwa A

•

Jan 25, 2022

Wonderful course. Currently using the knowledge to build up on other programming languages. Thank you MATLAB.

By Prateek G

•

Apr 20, 2020

A well structured course in MATLAB that stars from basics and accelerates to advance problems.

By Sina D

•

Sep 18, 2021

The course was truly perfect. My endless gratitude to professors Fitzpatric and Ledeczi.

By mayank k

•

May 3, 2021

if you're looking for MATLAB courses this is the best one

By Ali F

•

Apr 10, 2022

Excellent course.

By Mert Z

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Jul 30, 2020

It is a really informative course overall, the assignments are interesting and generally not boring, however some of the assignments need more clarification. Digging for info from discussions is an experience on its own but that can discourage people from completing the course and giving up on programming entirely so that seems like it needs some improvements. Fitzpatrick is a great instructor and tries to keep the videos chill and a bit more enjoyable and to be honest he made me laugh out loud a couple of times. Other instructors seem to help people taking the course regularly on the discussion forums so don't be afraid to ask questions there. Thank you for the great course. <3

By Mohammad T I

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Feb 26, 2020

The 'About the course' section is partially true.It was ,in the beginning, felt like being really for the beginners, but nearing the end of the course, the assignments were not anymore for the beginners.Whereas the instructor taught with great effort, the difficulty of the assignments should have been taken into consideration beforehand and examples similar to the tasks should have been included therefore.When the course can be enthralling for someone already have proficiency over other languages, the majority of the beginner would find it near impossible to solve the assignments and achieve the certificate by following ethical coding.

By Panagiotis I

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May 16, 2020

Good videos, the assignments were too heavy for non-used people to these topics (maths etc). I would prefer shorter assignments focused on programming and solving simple conceptually topics though with the use of code gradually getting more difficult.

The three stars are given mainly for the videos and the effort to make it comprehensive. More informative slides would be needed as well. This way people would be able to review key things faster/more efficiently.

By Rahul R

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Apr 9, 2021

Course is taught well. Assignments/week are really good as well. However, final three assignments were very tough mainly because the questions did not clearly mention what steps must taken. Thus, the assignments were more like a puzzle to understand the question rather than programming. In real engineering problems where MATLAB is utilized, the programmer clearly knows what steps are to be taken. It is just a matter of translating that into code.

By marco g

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May 4, 2021

Very useful course for learning Matlab for "beginners". The language is clear and the teacher was professional and fun too. The only drawbacks are the fact that there were no more quizzes after the first weeks of lessons (liked it a lot, it's something that helped me learn step by step) and that some assignments are very difficult compared to the examples expressed in the lessons or even to previous exercises done.

By Samarpreet S

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Jun 29, 2020

Overall the course is good but the assignment questions are at a different level (especially week 8 and 9). If someone previously have some knowldege about the subject then only he/she can solve the assignments ,otherwise it will consume a lot of time.

By Gwilym C

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Jul 15, 2020

First 4-5 Weeks were brilliant, but I found the last 3 weeks to be less engaging and I often had to look outside the course for help with the activities because the material given was either not enough or too confusing for me to follow.