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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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101 - 125 of 4,432 Reviews for Introduction to Programming with MATLAB

By faracarina

Dec 11, 2019

I love it because currently I am in a lab(on my fourth year of degree) and coming from a background with no basic programming skills, this course have helped me a lot to try to program and also learn about matlab more. I honestly can't say how much I appreciate this course for existing to help those people like me. Honestly, trust me, all those readings and searching on websites are not as helpful as this course. I wish I have all the money to learn everything I am interested to learn on cousera... kudos to all the professors that invested their time and knowledge to help create something so beneficial like this..Love it!

By Hoashalarajh R

Apr 11, 2022

I came to this course as a beginner in MATLAB and I have gained a sound knowledge in not only MATLAB programming but also in critical thinkig, problem solving and algorithmic thinking. The course was very niceand easy to start but as it progressed I was able to gain much more challenging programming problems specially from week 8 and week 9. Eventhough they were cahllenging, after I solved them; they were rewarding as well. Learnt a lot from course and through solving prolems. The instructor explains every programming techniques with patience and at the same time they were also crystal clear. Thanks to Coursera.

By Jeyson R

Sep 20, 2019

This is a remarkably useful and interesting course. Its usefulness becomes more noticeable as you progress through the course and you can use what you have learned to solve problems the way you can think of, and realize that in real life there are problems for which, when creating a series of steps, (the one that suits you or that you like the most), after reasoning a bit, and by executing them, you can give them a solution.

Apart from this, the assignments are quite entertaining and challenging.

Finally, the teacher's ability to explain, in addition to his patience and humor, attests to his experience teaching.

By Vasilis X

Dec 17, 2020

An excellent introductory course from an insiring teacher. I took the course for 2nd time. My first was back in 2014. I decided to watch it again, prior as a refreshing in my knowledge for matlab use, because I plan to take the full specialization that Vanderbild offers. I enjoyed, again all the lectures and I recomment this course to anyone who wants to learn the fundamentals in computer programming and to use of Matlab programming language. Finaly I want to thank the instructors of this course for the high quality presentation of the subject as for the ever going effort towards the evolution of the course.

By Arthur M

Mar 1, 2020

Amazing course! Mike Fitzpatrick explains very well all the concepts covered in the videos and manages to make most of the material interesting. The overall structure of the course is well organized and makes sense.

I gave 5 stars but hesitated to give only 4 because I find the assignments (especially at the end) too difficult. It takes ages to complete them, which is a problem for those who don't 70h to spend on this course. In addition, we don't have explanations and solutions for all assignments after completing them.

Despite those issues, I really loved this course. Thank you Mike, Akos Ledeczi and team!

By Megha M

Mar 14, 2017

I am from biology background and used to have least interest in programming. But the Course is very good. The best instructors ever I can have. They started from scratch so that even a new one can understand. Gradually I got good hands in programming at least in MATLAB.

The best part is the assignment. Brain storming assignments which were very helpful to learn the language. Also the mentors and instructors were great who were quick in responses to our queries. All that was very helpful. Thank you so much. I would appreciate if you can make such a great course with python also.

Thank you.

Regards

Megha Malhotra

By Syed H

Aug 27, 2023

Completing the "Introduction to Programming with MATLAB" course on Coursera was an honor. As an engineering student, I wholeheartedly recommend this course to peers. The instructors' clear explanations make it perfect for beginners. Practical assignments build skills effectively, but the final tasks were notably challenging. Overcoming these challenges magnified the power of MATLAB for real-world problem-solving. Coursera's platform and community also enhance the experience. Despite the tough tasks, they fostered crucial learning. Kudos to the instructors and Coursera for a top-notch learning journey!

By Andres O S S

May 26, 2020

Excellent course to learn programming. I do think it is necessary to make the problem statement more clear. especially the last problems are really hard to understand what they are asking. I would suggest adding some examples of what expected output one should get. That way the students can have a better idea of what they need to do to solve te problem. That will also save you guys having to answer too many emails about similar questions. Nonetheless, I am very happy i took this programming course. I now feel confident enough to challenge myself further in MatLab. Thanks for the pleasant experience

By Ekaterina S

Apr 5, 2020

Amazing course! This was my first programming experience and both Mr. Mike and Mr. Brandon are extraordinary teachers! Lectures are great and the material is explained thoroughly, easily understandable, and with awesome jokes! The assignments are exciting because they are well applicable in real life and unveil the mystery behind some computer processes we often take for granted. This especially refers to the final tests: was so much fun to make my brain crush while doing them! I am so grateful to the Vanderbilt University for sharing so talented professors and such a wonderful course with public!

By Siddhesh S B

May 30, 2020

MATLAB is a very important software and computational tool for engineering students like myself. This course gave a great overview of all the basic yet crucial aspects of the language and MATLAB environment. The assignments were challenging yet not so difficult that they were discouraging. The instructor is also very engaging and has a unique content delivery style. I have certainly become a more proficient MATLAB programmer after taking this course and I urge all those who are interested in computation work or even those who want to learn the basics of programming to start off with this course!

By Yash J

May 27, 2020

A great course, offered by very good teaching faculty ( humourous too I might add) with easy understanding of MATLAB.

It helped me a lot in also enhancing my critical thinking ability in last few assignments. Especially the second the last was very tough for me. But all in all it taught good problem solving skills and and will help in analysing many real world problems of physics. Now it's just a start but I plan on further enhance my knowledge using the textbook and other sources too.

Great initiative and work by Coursera, the professor and forum team. Kudos to you guys. And a final Thank you

By Haoyang Z

Jul 24, 2019

The instructor explained the core concepts in MATLAB very clearly, with delightful anecdotes and encouragements embedded throughout the course. As an intro course, the course contents and practice problems are rather simple, but they lead the way to more advanced problems and applications.

One suggestion is that it would be even better to learn some more functions, especially ones that operate on matrices so that loops can be avoided or simplified. Many such functions are included in answers to specific problems, but still it would be nice to listen to the explanations from the instructor.

By Mazen T

Jan 8, 2018

Wonderful Course, I enjoyed the lectures tremendously. The homework problems were very useful and challenging and some of them took hours to program. The gratification of getting “Your solution is correct.” on the screen after working for hours is just immense. It is clear to me that a lot of time and effort have been invested in this course over the years. The course is a very valuable resource on programming and MATLAB. Now that I am done, I will miss the lectures: from the introductory music to the closing credits. But, most of all, I will miss the lecturer himself, a true teacher.

By Andrew H N

Dec 25, 2020

Introduction to Programming with MATLAB by Vanderbilt University was an excellent course! I would like to thank the Lead Instructor, Mike Fitzpatrick, Curriculum Designer, Akos Ledeczi, and Grading Technologist Robert Tairas for teaching me and thousands of others how to use Matlab through this Coursera course. I completed both the 2015 and 2020 versions of this course, and they were well worth the modest time and effort needed to accomplish them. Completing this MATLAB course is certain to open up many opportunities to its graduates going forward. Thanks Coursera!

Best regards, AN

By Harshit K G

Jun 19, 2020

This is an intro-level, beginner-friendly and an amazing course on Introduction to Programming with MATLAB. With this course, I have learned a lot on MATLAB as a programming language. Though it does not cover the entire MATLAB (only covers upto functions and file-handling), but whatever is covered has been taken in depth. This is certainly the best course to get started with MATLAB according to me.

I am totally amazed with the course, and the way this course has been delivered, though virtually! Getting a free 9-weeks subscription to MATLAB programming adds more value to the course.

By Jesús R M C

Jul 29, 2020

A year ago I hated programming MATLAB, I struggled a lot with my first semester programming classes, my grades of the first semester of university in programming class was 85; then I got this course, now I am first in my class, I got an 98 final grade of my second semester programming class, I really enjoy programming, this course helped me with my confidence, my grades, my knowledge, now I am helping my classroom friends with MATLAB and I am really grateful for the opportunity to accomplish this great course, Mike Fitzpatrick is just one of the greatest programming teachers!

By Panshul D

Apr 24, 2020

I am very happy to say that I have finally completed the course. I am programming from class 11 but in B.Tech now i wished to learn MATLAB. I am thankful to Vanderbilt University for fulfilling my wish. The Professor is very good in teaching, he explains really well.

The assignments are really good problems. Assignments at beginning are easy but with the course it get difficult and most difficult are those 3 problems that are given in the final submission they really messed me. That was a nice experience. Hope I will again come soon to be a part of Vanderbilt University again.

By Aniruddha R

Jul 22, 2020

I was familiar with MATLAB before taking this course. But when I started this course, I was gaining too much interest in this course. I learned too many techniques related to MATLAB programming. The way the instructor teaches its appreciable. If I would not take this course, probably I would miss too many things related to MATLAB programming. I did too many courses related to MATLAB, but this course is stand out from others. Lastly, I liked the Textbook. I am strongly recommending this course to beginners. I can surely say you will learn a lot of things from this course.

By MPD17I018 V S

Jul 21, 2020

This course gives me quite a good knowledge of Matlab programming, even in the introduction course you will get to know a lot of things about the Matlab programming through this course, like how can we deal with different array size with the ease, how can we solve the different real-life problems with the help of programming, and you will find that almost all the problems we can solve. Moreover, it's very fascinating and knowledgable for me. So, In my point of view, you can take this course and get ready to deal with a real-life problem with Matlab programming.

By Stamatina S

Feb 14, 2021

If you are interested in programming this is a great course. The instructor is captivating and made even the most boring videos of the course bareable. That being said, the assignments of the last three weeks are quite hard and time consuming. It would be nice if an extra week was given for the final assignments with some explanatory videos added. With some little programming experience, in other programming languages, I struggled but finished it on time. I don't think this course is truly beginner friendly, especially in the course of the last weeks.

By William S

Jul 22, 2020

I just want to say thank you for the opportunity to take and complete the course. The professors for this class are phenomenal, especially with the youtube videos that go along with the lessons. By far one of the best classes I have taken in general, as it is a topic outside of my background and I was able to do well in the course. It is a very challenging course, and there are plenty of resources to succeed. Overall, I would recommend this course to anyone trying to learn a computer programming language at all stages of your career. Thanks so much!

By Fahim M

Oct 16, 2019

Far beyond my expectations, I didn't know anything about Matlab and computer programming. Now I know how to write a code to get my work done and save time. I remember what Mike Fitzpatrick said during the lecture sessions, that for solving a problem you should stick to it util you solve it, and most of the programming time is actually debugging and polishing the code. These statements were always encouraging me to solve the assignments and learn. The instructors were really helpful and Thanks to Brandon Armstrong for the prompt replying every time.

By Rajkumar R

Aug 19, 2016

This course is a very good introduction to programming in general and covers all the basic concepts that is used in most of the programming languages. The lecturer makes things interesting with a sense of humour. The assignments which comes later on can be a tad difficult for someone new to programming, but as the professor says , stick with it, solve it, and the feeling you get when you finish it is unparalleled. All the doubts and queries in the discussion forums are answered quickly and efficiently. Great course and a great experience over all.

By Devpreet S

May 5, 2020

Very interactive and useful information provided by lecturer. Thanks a lot to Mr. Akos Ledeczi Professor Computer Engineering and Mr. Mike Fitzpatrick Professor Emeritus Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Electrical Engineering, Neurosurgery, and Radiology who share their valuable information to me.

I really used this information in my career growth.

Again Thanks to lecturer's and University who recognised and awarded me valuable certificate. Also thanks to Coursera to provide me the platform where I can update my skill and knowledge.

By Gilberto B

Apr 12, 2020

Introduction to programming with MATLAB it’s the beginning of the exploring process of two wonderful worlds, the MATLAB world and the programming world. In a wonderful way the professors Mike Fitzpatrick and Akos Ledeczi, took me from zero to a great understanding of the basics concepts of programming using a powerful program, they performed this course in a manner to explode your capabilities both in the programming, as in the using of MATLAB, and the troubleshooting process. Definitively one of the best learning experiences I ever had.