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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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126 - 150 of 4,432 Reviews for Introduction to Programming with MATLAB

By Peter V

•

Apr 28, 2019

This is a great course. It starts from scratch, so if you have never seen Matlab, you can still follow along, because it does not skip essential basics such as what the different windows and such mean. After a while the assignments get pretty challenging though, but the forum provides a lot of hints in case you really get stuck. I learned a lot from this course. Thanks!

I also liked the dry humor in the lectures. The self deprecating "ironing my shirt"-joke in week 8 (?) was amazing, if you like that sort of thing...

Best,

Peter Vissers

By patrick m

•

Mar 14, 2017

This is a fantastic introduction course into MATLAB programming. The course is very well structured, delivers in-depth knowledge of the main fundamental skills needed to use Matlab. The presentations are concise and well delivered. During the homework help is always available at the tip of your fingers and it takes usually less than 30 min to get a response (even on the weekends... IMPRESSIVE).

In addition, the recommended book allows you to delve deeper into MATLAB and I suggest you get that!

In short, I highly recommend this course!!!

By Nicholas L

•

Jun 25, 2020

Although I had experience with programming from previous courses, this class definitely tested my skills and I came out learner a lot. My experience with MATLAB was quite limited to projects that I created for myself or through school, but this did a good job of expanding my knowledge and exposing me to a wide range of MATLAB's capabilities. Really glad that I found this class and was able to finish! Many thanks to the professors and teaching staff for putting this course together and providing ample resources and support throughout!

By SHUBHAM K S

•

May 30, 2020

This course has really helped me in programming concepts and how the little mistakes we make or neglect, definitely affects us in the long run. Although you it might takes hours (especially me) before you could complete the assignment, solving through each and every step but when the green tick showed up, it was all worth it. Got little disappointed when the solution of tough problems were solved in just a few steps and it took me so much time. But still, each line of my program was a learning step for me. Thank you for this course.

By Mojtaba A

•

Mar 17, 2024

The lecture videos were all very effective in communicating the concepts. The professor of this course is probably one of the best lecturers I have ever seen. I really enjoyed it. That said, the weakness of the course in my opinion is that the graded quizzes are too few. Programming is very similar to Math in that the only way to learn it is by solving problems (or in this case writing code) Therefore, if there are more graded quizzes required to earn the certificate, the students will learn more. Thank you for this great course.

By Francisco S R

•

Jun 4, 2018

I just want to thank Mike Fitzpatrick and Akos Ledeczi for this amazing course, that for me has been the best experience I ever had, every day watching the videos, doing the homework. I don't have words to express what I really feel.

I want to apologize too, because I don't have the money to pay for the certificate, I'm starting to work as a teacher so I don't get pay well, but I hope later in the future I will be able to pay for it and even send you more money, because I know you did a lot of work to create this fabulous course.

By Jorge A F C

•

Jul 29, 2017

This course helped me a lot! I started it when at the same time I started with my thesis project, in which I needed to use MATLAB. I only did 5 out of the 7 homeworks, but I saw all the weeks videos. This was because I felt that I had learnt what I needed for my thesis and the 5 homeworks were great enough for my thesis project. I appreciate that people like you share your knowledge and take the time to do this kind of courses.

I didn't finish the MOOC (due to my thesis), but I will finish it after my Thesis defense.

Regards,

Jorge.

By Guillermo E P

•

Sep 5, 2019

It was great for beginners or professionals from other disciplines who normally do not include programming in their bachelors. I am glad to have achieved and succeded the last week of this course with reasonable effort and satisfaction. Now, I am able to solve minor problems, check commands in other softwares and deal with neuroscience behavioral and electrophysiological issues I could not solve before. For a deeper knowledge of the application of Matlab to this field I suggest everyone to follow Mike X Cohen tutorials and books

By Zirui W

•

Aug 1, 2018

This is a good course! Initially, I thought it will be a too simple course for me. (Because, as a student interested in financial engineering, I am already experienced in R programming and Python.) Then, I was admitted by Berkeley MFE and they required me to take a course in MATLAB. So I came to take this course. It turned out I like this course a lot! The professor is very humorous and good at teaching. This course renewed my knowledge about input and output and memory storage. I sincerely wish the producer of this course well!

By Peter R C

•

Oct 29, 2021

The practice assignments really do challenge you as you have to solve the earlier assignments without the use of loops which makes you think and understand the the tools you are being given to use. Good amount of content and examples given. It is very interesting to see how few lines of code are necessary to complete the final assignments compared to what you used to complete it but gives you an appreciation for it. Would definitely recommend this course if you are looking to refresh your MATLAB skills or start learning MATLAB

By Seyed M T

•

May 18, 2020

This is definitely the best introductory MATLAB course, ever. It is also one of the top-quality courses in Coursera. Prof. Fitzpatrick is just one of the coolest, smartest, and likable professors I've ever had. I'm really grateful for Coursera and Vanderbilt for giving this opportunity to be in his class.

One thing that could be done to improve the course, is to enhance some of the assignment to be more relevant to the content of the corresponding week. Some assignment didn't require the use of the concepts taught in that week.

By Willem

•

Jan 29, 2020

Hi,

Thank you very much for the Matlab course on Coursera. It was really very interesting and you kept me interested to the very end. It was not always easy (sometimes I needed help from more clever people then me on the Internet) but that does not matter, the more difficult things in life are, the more worthwhile they are, as we say.

I am not a future programmer, I am 70 years old but my doctor told me to keep, together with my body, the brain moving. Well, this course really did.

Thanks again and take care,

Willem van Gogh

By Binh L

•

Apr 29, 2019

This is a great programming Matlab course I'd ever learned. The professor Mike did great on his lectures. Weekly assignments were not many but not easy. Especially, the assignments of the last two weeks (week 8 and week 9) were so time consuming and difficult. Honestly, I wasn't able to do it and got help from Google search. I wish the professor would have given more assignments, but the assignments would be constructed from easy level to hard level so that it could encourage me learning. Thank you the professor!

By Jitendra V

•

Apr 9, 2020

A very well designed course for beginners. This course takes you from the very basic to a stage where you will be able to instruct a computer to solve iterative problems or at least you will be able to counter them on your own, thanks to MATLAB documentation. The Assignments are very well designed and those at the end of the course are very challenging (well.... at least to me for being a beginner) which encourages you to explore and built algorithms in MATLAB on your own. Thanks for providing this valuable course.

By Ilias I P P

•

Dec 14, 2021

After succesful completion and exploration of all of course's paths i can say that this course is an excellent opportunity for someone who wants to learn the foundations of MATLAB and 101's of basic composing of algorithms . Past experience wont be necessary. Even if you have past experiences with other programming languages you wont find it boring, contrawise it will be an excelent moment to freshen the basics such as if,or,while etc. The sure thing is that after completion you will be ready to program on MATLAB.

By Khoa d

•

Jul 3, 2020

Loved this course. I was really put off of Matlab programming during college because I couldn't understand anything my professor was saying in terms of the functionality. While the explanations in these videos can feel like they are unnecessarily detailed, it was those details that filled in all of the gaps left by my previous professors. If I had videos like this while taking my college coursework, I could have been doing amazing things in Matlab by now. Thank you for putting this course together the way you did!

By A. S M S H

•

Mar 10, 2020

This course is thoughtfully designed and carefully structured so as to provide a through concept as well as first-hand experience of coding to any level of learners, especially the beginners. I myself had been introduced to and using MATLAB for some time now, but this course has redefined my idea about MATLAB about using it as an object-oriented numerical programming tool. Furthermore, I gained insight into the professional scriptwriting style and documentation both inside and outside of MATLAB built-in functions.

By Abedeera J S P N

•

Nov 22, 2017

The best course which I would recommend for any of beginners in programming with MATLAB. Though i had little experience in MATLAB while I am completing my M.Sc. course work, there I did not get an opportunity to learn the basic stuff. I had the thought of filling the gaps in my knowledge and followed the course. Actually, I learnt a lot and to the best level which anyone can have knowledge of the basics. Thank you Coursera and Vanderbilt university. Special thanks goes to chief instructor Prof. Mike Fitzpatrick.

By Saad G

•

Apr 17, 2023

I just loved everything about the course. The instructor, the book, the lesson plan, the workflow, the content and especially the Matlab graded tool for assessment. I found myself growing and developing better understanding about MATLAB with each consecutive lecture. The course content was manageable and require you to work on your ability to solve them with critical thinking. I started this course with no knowledge in MATLAB but now I stand at a far better place. There is still more to learn as there always is.

By KHALEEL U R K

•

Apr 13, 2020

This course covers all the basic knowledge you need to start programming in Matlab. This is an introductory course. It will definitely lay a strong foundation in Matlab. All the assignments are on a range of easy to moderate. I found the last three assignments a bit tricky and time-consuming. The instructors and support staff all are doing a fantastic job. The support staff is active and helps us during the course. I took this course before taking a Matlab course at my institute and it proved to be very helpful.

By Tianyi S

•

Aug 29, 2019

I greatly enjoy my time taking the course, and the professor's way of explaining the MATLAB codes throughout the course is good (esp. of his cold jokes lol). I cannot imagine that I registered the course during the first sem of my freshman year, and now I am entering into my final year of my college study. I cannot think of any better examples of how my procrastination is always switched on. But anyways, thanks to coursera and many thanks to the instructors. I hope that I can finish my other courses on coursera.

By Vignesh B

•

May 9, 2020

Prof.J. Michael Fitzpatrick is certainly one of the most engaging instructor and I'd straight up recommend this online course to anyone who not only aims at learning Matlab but also having a fun interaction with the course staffs who are kind enough to sit all day on queries and questions. I'd give a 6 star if I was handed an option just for how the course videos were produced and compiled and yes, I did tear a bit at the tail end of the course since prof.mike was an integral part of my routine the past month.

By DRIPTA D

•

Nov 9, 2018

I was looking for a basic course on Matlab for a long time until I came across this one on Coursera. For every beginner who wants to learn Matlab, this is where you should start. Well paced course, with attention to minute details that would help every novice to not only learn how to code but more importantly how to avoid bugs. The difficulty of assignments rise gradually, which again is a sign of how amazingly this course has been designed. Kudos and thanks to the team of Coursera and Vanderbilt University !!

By Huanglei P

•

Jun 8, 2017

The course is well organized, and the instructor gives nice lecture and clear examples. The mentors are very conscientious and helpful, when I met troubles in homework and put them on the forum, the mentors answered my questions very quickly, which surprised me a lot! Some assignments in homework did struggle me for a long time, but when I finally solved the problems , I was ravished with joy just like completing levels in games! In a word, I really enjoy the process of programming with MATLAB in this course.

By Eric B

•

Jul 2, 2019

I've used Matlab for over 20 years, but I have never really tried to program with it. Truth is, I haven't really tried my hand at any programming after my first course in programming (C++). If I had taken a course taught like this one, I might be a programmer today! The lectures are entertaining and interesting, and the assignments are difficult enough that you have to do research (well, I did), which I believe is appropriate for a course like this. Than you for helping this old dog learn a few new tricks!