This course started out very good but spiraled out of control quickly. There was no detail in the later materials (Weeks 3 and 4) in uses/applications which made it virtually impossible to finish the course without spending an incredible amount of time outside of the class attempting to learn material. The early quizzes were not bioinformatics focused and required a fairly sophisticated level of machine learning to answer some of the questions. In regards to the later material, there should be much more detail. For example on learning how to create dictionaries. That was AWESOME! But nothing beyond how to create them and how to use them. This is NOT a beginner course. Also, the female instructor was awful, she read from a que so much that it was easier to just download the PDF and read it myself.

Class videos provide good information for a beginning programmer, but quizzes are certainly beyond beginner level and cover material not covered in lectures. Potential for a great set of courses, but needs work.

The Final Exam was way too difficult compared with the knowledge provided by the lessons.

A really good class for a complete beginner. The first three weeks was great for anyone that has is a beginner in Python. Although the last week took giant steps and was a little bit unclear, especially with the introduction to Biopython. If you are new with Python, this it is a great course, but be aware of the last week being very difficult! I also hope that there can be another course that could go more in depth and explore the functions of Biopython. But besides the difficulty of the last week, this course was really great.

Errors and glitches in the first two quizes that aren't fixed ('Don't worry, be happy, it's just a formating error, ignore the literal text displayed and just use your imagination to interpret what we thought we meant to say') have left me too unimpressed to spend more time wondering if I need to debug my code or debug their quizes.

There are many other resources for learning python out there, and some of them take pedagogy seriously. Not, it seems, this one.

I learned a lot. The final exam was more difficult than the course content, but I think it was critical for ensuring that I was able to apply the course content.

Compared to the lectures, the final exam was very difficult. It would be great if the professors provide more practical examples in the lectures similar to exam questions.

If you don't already know some programming, then don't take this course. Without some idea of the concepts involved when you go in you will be setting yourself up for failure. This course is very poorly taught.

In just the first 2 weeks I found several quiz questions that are not correct. Example code in quizzes is not complete. Spacing and indentation are incorrect in quiz samples(I realize this is probably to prevent copy paste testing of code, but you cannot answer is this code correct if you don't know where they wanted indentation to line up). Lecture presentation is not very engaging, almost seems like the female instructor was forced to stand in front of a camera and read note cards. Withdrew early.

This course is really a great help for students like me, but it has many small problem which are. The lectures and the questions asked in quiz are very much like two shore of river did not have practically sounds. the lecture are much more focused towards genomics but really problem of data and how to handle that data need to incorporate in the course.

so an incredibly basic intro to python and string manipulation? thanks, guys.

A very good course for its length and the amount of time it requires. It improved my python skills and knowledge of Genomics. I'm more engaged in my pursuits than before taking the course.

Easy to understand and very powerful examples. Not just it made me familiar with python, it also made it easy for me to teach to my students and inspire them to pursue python further.

Poor lectures by one of the instructors makes it hard to listen.

Nothing about genomics is taught.pretty much disappointe.

Very poorly organised material and illustration

terrible course

Really good introduction to Python, Genomics in the two together. This was the first Python course - of many - I've since done and then gone on to use Python professionally and for my own 'Hacker/Maker' projects.

A few typos / mis-alignments between the slides and the explanations - but nothing serious. The presenters know the material and present it well.

A couple of good TAs (full disclosure - I am / have been one of the less good ones!)

Out of what I have tested so far, I think this is the best Coursera course for beginners.

I frequency use regular expressions, so I think that might be helpful. However, you also thought of things that I frequently use that I might not have remembered were important for beginners. So, perhaps there could be a recommendation of what to do to learn more intermediate skills?

The course was very good, in general. The instructors and classes were also good. I'm a beginner in python, so I had a lot of difficulties. The final test was difficult for me, I couldn't solve all the questions. I think the course could offer more basic classes, but I intend to study more to understand some points that were not clear to me.

Good to learn the new paradigm of science in my life. Biology and the advanced scripting with Biopython are really interesting. I hope to learn more about the subject in detail.

I love to spend my hours on this course. Learn developed a new way of thinking. Overall great learning from the Professors.Thanks for creating wonderful content.

Thanks for the interesting course made by two brilliant teacher. This is my first time to learn something about computer science on coursera and I really enjoyed this kind of experience. As a beginner of Bioinformatics, this help me a lot. In the futrue I will continue focusing new courses on coursera provided by Johns Hopkins University!

This was an in-depth course about python. Being a doctor, it was tough grasping all the content. And considering the short amount of time I have, this course taught me a lot; however I needed lot of external help to finish it thoroughly. Thank you so much for this one, it will really help me in my future endeavors.

This course was really excellent! Basic enough for starters and with challenges to put the learned skills into action! The only way to improve this course would be to share the slides to make it easier to browse through the course. THank you very much for this course.

Great way of teaching. Hats off to the teachers. This course is excellently designed for biologists like me. The basics were clearly explained with subject examples. This created more interest in sticking to the videos and course. Thanks to the academic faculty.