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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Programming Fundamentals by Duke University

4.7
stars
6,733 ratings

About the Course

Programming is an increasingly important skill, whether you aspire to a career in software development, or in other fields. This course is the first in the specialization Introduction to Programming in C, but its lessons extend to any language you might want to learn. This is because programming is fundamentally about figuring out how to solve a class of problems and writing the algorithm, a clear set of steps to solve any problem in its class. This course will introduce you to a powerful problem-solving process—the Seven Steps—which you can use to solve any programming problem. In this course, you will learn how to develop an algorithm, then progress to reading code and understanding how programming concepts relate to algorithms....

Top reviews

ER

Aug 13, 2020

The instruction provided in this course are very clear and anyone who can learn coding by this course. But the course has more readable content for you to take notes and reading it may take more time.

SP

Apr 23, 2020

Whether you are new to programming or an experienced guy, you should absolutely opt for this course because it helps to build a strong base with the basic but most important concepts in programming.

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51 - 75 of 1,730 Reviews for Programming Fundamentals

By Orcun D

•

Dec 20, 2019

I have a background of programming and working as a python dev now. But decided to learn C from scratch. Cant say that this was really fundamental. Couldnt see any explained logic behind programming and quizzes are so meaningless. Like, why do i need to answer the decimal represantation of a character in a quiz? That type of stuff is so unnecessary. Additionaly I found the preparation of this course kinda lazy, just bunch of text material and the short videos from those texts. But still gives a good introduction knowledge about C.

By S. U

•

Jan 28, 2021

The instruction is thorough and easy to follow, but there was a lot of reading - which I didn't mind, but some learners may be expecting more video instruction. I also thought there weren't really enough 'finger exercises' and the quizzes were fairly simple. A good 'get your feet wet' course but ultimately it still felt a bit lacking. I'm hoping the other courses in the series are more challenging.

By Daniel t

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Sep 22, 2021

the content is good, and the explanations as well. However they introduced some subtle things about some black lives matter on some links they gave and LGBTQ+ flags on some explanations. I mean sicence courses shouldn't need to have that kind of political things, even if they are as subtle as they try to input that on education, is just about learning to program on C code, nothing else.

By Girish D K

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Aug 3, 2020

You should be more energetic during teaching so that student will enjoy learning instead of getting bored from your session. And also make more video material so that the concept will be more clear in students mind and reduce reading material and make more video with full energy. Hope you will take this review in positive way.Thank You

By Sidharth G

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Aug 27, 2020

The reading materials are too long and boring, videos should be considered for all those topics which were covered via reading material, also the topics that videos cover could be taken in more depth and more on hand coding experience should be provided via exercises

By GUIRONG L

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Aug 15, 2019

The video is great and instructive however week 3 and week 4 quiz is quite challenging for a new beginner. Many reading materials in each week but the video is not long enough to cover and explain those important concepts mentioned in the reading materials.

By Supreeth P G

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Jul 23, 2020

I feel that more interactive videos with student would be more beneficial to students as they can grasp the concepts much easier than having to read paragraphs and passages

Thank you to all the concerned faculty for helping me to complete this course

By Shuhao L

•

Sep 8, 2020

There should be more video than readings, because I think videos explain things clearer than texts. Also, there should be correct answer sheets for quizzes and explanations after each week's tasks so that we can learn more from our mistakes.

By jenny d

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Jan 10, 2021

I think it is much better to give more demo examples than giving examples as reading materials, because I think It will be easier for the newbies to understand the context if the examples are more on visuals than reading.

By Avishkar

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Mar 25, 2020

Don't by the rating This course was really helpful it gave me a deeper insight into C. The course was well structured with great videos I just felt it could have more videos but everything was just great overall.

By Ragavan S

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Sep 30, 2020

algorithms based concepts were very much clear and explained very well. but the course failed to give insights more on c programming and coding referring only to very few concepts in programming.

By Keshav G

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Nov 14, 2020

The thing that this course should improve is its reading part. It has a very long reading part, mostly students get bored and frustrated in reading so much lengthy paragraphs.

By Neelam H G

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Sep 14, 2020

This is a really nice course for beginners but the problem is there's a lot of reading compared to explanation and videos so might get boring.Otherwise good content.

By Goutham E

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May 20, 2020

The course outline was very difficult. The topics that were explained in the course videos were basic, but the questions asked in the exam were hard.

By Keren Z

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Jan 7, 2020

Too much readings. I wish most of reading materials can be covered in videos.

I don't like the week 4 quiz. It's too subjective.

By saurav j

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May 22, 2020

Too many readings, I got bored also. Not that attractive course. 7 Steps is the Major of this course everyone should practice.

By Swathi K

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Jun 23, 2020

This course will be very good.I'm really thanks full to this course I learned so many things from this course.thank u so much

By Ritik G

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Jan 6, 2019

it didnt specify how to actually write command in lynx or window.also it shoukd specify printf command first week .thank you.

By SAI T K

•

May 10, 2020

Could've had more practice sessions than reading sections.

Too much reading involved. More videos would have been much better

By Büsra G S

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Jun 25, 2020

first of all, this course is NOT for beginners, you definitely need some kind of background, and even then it is hard. when you're stuck in a quiz, you don't get any tips on how to solve the questions, nor an answer at the end, instead you are left with nothing but more questions on the topic. secondly, the "teaching" process of the course doesn't help at all. you might as well buy a book and read that, the videos are literally that unimportant. not worth it, waste of money and time.

By Matthew A

•

Sep 17, 2021

I've already new programming fundamentals, in college there was a course I took in C, taught me the fundamentals, but it wasn't taught to me properly and for a year I skipped over brushing up on my fundamentals because I deemed it to be not needed at this stage. I found during that time that learning a new programming language was much complicated for me even though I have been coding for a while. Sort of became discouraged to program for a bit, after my break I took up web development and machine learning and managed to finish courses and gain certifications on them, during that time I did brush up on my basics, but not to the extent I felt comfortable. September I found this course, using a free trial offered by Coursera plus, I decided I would enroll and see if I can finally master my fundamentals. Duke University and the professors who taught this course was amazing! Not only was I able to go back to my roots and finally get a hang of the basics, but new skills were added to my lists as well. A skill that I walked away with a huge smile on my face was, learning Computational thinking, the professors didn't just teach basic knowledge of programming, they broke down the concepts and explained them piece by piece. Duke university did well with how the course was executed, reading first then videos to reinforce and confirm what was learned, I found it very helpful and was easy to follow along with the videos and complete the quizzes. That being said, I read some of the comments prior to enrolling, the few comments that rated poorly, forget what the others say, a lot of the time when people try something new and it doesn't fit their learning style they get frustrated and deem it bad, yes it was a lot of reading but the reading gave purpose to the videos which went hand in hand. Quizzes weren't bad, just needed to review material and go over the videos and readings if you didn't understand, also to search things you might not understand as well, there are some people out there who could explain it better than how a professor explained it and then you could come back to the video with understanding to follow through with the teachings. This course has taught me that to become a great programmer you always have to plan ahead before doing, apply logic and then get to rolling out the show. Also to go above the scope and do research in the problem your tackling. This raps up my review, this was a great course, Duke University and the Professors did well!

By Nathan S

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May 24, 2020

This course is so fundamental that you don't actually need to write a single line of code to pass. You do everything on paper. But I still found it valuable despite several years in a variety of technical code writing code. Most of the course videos consist of professors walking you through step-by-step evaluation of programs while they talk about the execution and the readings are similar to the first few chapters of any good introductory programming language text. I find it a very useful place to begin, because I'm moving on confident that I have a good grasp of the nuances of C evaluation. It's very easy to spend a lot of time around code and see enough C that you think you could get your ideas to compile this afternoon. I know for a fact that I would be right in my case. But I still wouldn't know the details of the right way to use structs and would likely make the mistake of assuming the C compiler was treating variables like so many other high-level languages (HINT: it's not quite). Looking forward to continuing this series and glad that I chose this path to deepen my understanding of this timeless tool.

By Arkajyoti M

•

Jan 10, 2021

Programming is an increasingly important skill, whether you aspire to a career in software development, or in other fields. This course is the first in the specialization Introduction to Programming in C, but its lessons extend to any language you might want to learn. This is because programming is fundamentally about figuring out how to solve a class of problems and writing the algorithm, a clear set of steps to solve any problem in its class. This course will introduce you to a powerful problem-solving process—the Seven Steps—which you can use to solve any programming problem. In this course, you will learn how to develop an algorithm, then progress to reading code and understanding how programming concepts relate to algorithms

By Ram S

•

Apr 19, 2020

Very helpful so far . I am currently doing course 2 in this specilization . To me , this course had laid down a very strong fundamentals in terms of changing my past perception of what programming is . Also , the examples , video lectures , quiz , assignments are very structural and thoughtful . By the way , before this course I'm an individual who doesn't know what a function is meant to be & it's value e.t.c but this course had immense knowledge even for a beginner like me . I will recommend to continue the course although there might be few hardships in completing the assignments e.t.c but you will get through it . All the very best

By ananyobrata p

•

Feb 24, 2021

This course was really helpful to help me keep going and set foot in the vast and interesting world of computer languages and algorithms. Instead of blowing away the student with unrealistic jargon, the course really helped to initiate the amateur mind into framing complex algo and understanding deeper concepts in simple terms. A must visit course if you are new to programming. And a personal tip, don't think of completing the course in just 4 weeks as the curriculum states, the data needs to be soaked in and skimmed. Take your time as I did mine (Took me almost 7 weeks XD)

Happy Programming.