Good but for beginners

A little simplistic

ca va aller ...

thanks

Disclaimer: I did not finish the course. I decided after week 2 to use a different course to learn about Databases and Python.

While I value the availability of this kind of courses for free, I just did not like the style of teaching of Mr Severance. I have a hard time watching 15+ minute videos after a full day of work already in front of the computer, when the teacher does not go straight to the point or make clear sentences (if a deaf person was reading the transcript, they would be struggling to follow).

I am just not that interested in the history and how people did databases before etc., but I don't criticise that, some people might be interested. However I think that stretching a simple concept over more than 10 minutes is not helping students to grasp what is going on.

On the other hand, I liked having cheap access to the book because it was faster to read about a subject than to sit for 15 minutes in front of the video, skipping ahead, trying to guess where the important bits are.

Plus, running us through a code that the teacher doesn't write as he explains is not a good way to engage. As a student you think that you understand, but you'd be hard pressed to write that code if asked.

So that's why I decide to go for a more interactive approach to learning, with lots of examples.

As an experienced programmer, I am unimpressed. The assignments cover a good set of tools; classes and databases. I would have introduced classes much earlier to emphasize critical coding habits of productive programmers: modularity and reusability. Unfortunately, classes seem to be included here as an afterthought. They are introduced in week 1 and never seen again. Inheritance is mentioned but not explored and an important documentation feature is ignored. The lectures extoll the wonder of SQL but don't even mention outer joins. In later examples, databses are used to house data; but that data is extracted to Python variables with simple queries, where it is manipulated with Python. Programming exercises consist of running his poorly written code and posting results for peer review; students are instructed to grade leniently. Overall, the presentation looks rushed and unpolished. Example code looks like it was hobbled together until it worked and never edited for clarity. If someone I cared about wanted examples of good programming, I would tell them to avoid this.

Although I do not want to write a negativ comment, I have no other choice than saying that this course was almost useless to me and that I wouldn't have understood anything if I hadn't had the basics of SQL in university.

The SQL language isn't explained at all, only some full commands which we are supposed to copy and paste into our program. If one wants to explain SQL one should start with the basics of the language from the very beginning and talk about each single command / word of the SQL language and how it is build. Learning or copying and pasting full commands will definitely not help.

In addition, I expected to learn some basics of data visualization with certain libraries but in the end it was (as always) nothing more than copy this prepared program and just change a few little easy things so that it works.

The only good thing about this course was that sometimes Dr. Chuck broached certain topics which were quite interesting to hear about which made me notice that I have to learn more about these topics more (obviously somewhere else).

I definitely love the instructor, but this class is really poorly structured. I could not understand the course material, but use my instinct and basic logical thinking to pass all assignments. This course does not teach you how to write code, but to give you a very vague idea of what python can do. I was enrolled in a VBA specialization before taking this course, and that one was really good. Fair assignments, great explanation, and most important of all, I was able to write hundred lines of code (maybe exaggerated a little bit) independently after passing the course because the way it taught force you to learn and understand. But for this class, I am confused from the beginning and still confused after finishing the course. I feel like after course 3 under this specialization, everything was taught in a effortless way so that you get your certificate.

This is the only course in this specialization that doesn't seem to belong with the rest of the material. It seems out of place, and too little was done to relate it to learning python.

Moreover, learning databases and SQL is easy; rather than taking up a whole course, this content could be relegated to one week of lectures in conjunction with some external references for further reading. Four weeks were spent on this external topic while the more interesting discussion on using python with databases is glossed over haphazardly in the last week.

I am a big fan of this specialization and think Prof. Severance does a great job explaining some of the basics of python in a short amount of time, but this course needs to be restructured.

This course is too basic to be helpful. Many of the programs are just read through like how reading from a textbook in college. I expect the class to be better than that. Many of the concepts in programs are also skipped which gives the impression that Dr. Chuck is not thoroughly aware of these concepts.

I am disappointed by the teaching and topics covered in this class

If this course focused just on SQL or just on Python, I would have given it a 5-star rating. However, the course tried to tackle both concepts at once, and did neither justice. At best, this course gave a peek into db connections with python. I left wanting more.

Another disappointing course in the Python specialization offered by UMAA. The assignments are laughable. A mostly superficial course. The only reason I undertook the course is because I had already paid for the 5-course specialization. I wouldn't recommend.

So far this is the weakest of the Python courses, it has missing videos and very little information about actually using DB with Python... Quite disappointing, I will have to rely more in the documentation or another course to complement my skills.

Its okay there's a lot more tweaking of code than actually building your own. The first two classes of the specialization are great but as it progress its like your writing less and less code.

The assignments are old and out of date. Learning how to program is hard enough as it is. I spent more time troubleshooting than learning in this course.

Please reset my week 5 assignment in using databases with python. Sorry for plagiarism

Too much SQL. It would be more useful to go deeper into using csv files.

It was in a very fast pace and the examples are upto the mark

Not enough material covered to make it worth the cost.

I dislike coding but this was kinda fun.

A very shallow course.

It is disappointing. If you are looking for learning Python for database management, this course does NOT show that. It discusses basic concepts of database management on SQLite, eventually running pre-prepared Python codes.

The course is nice the problem is on the forum the staff don't have time to answer some of your questions when it comes to have detailed explanations of some part of the code that is not explain in the course.

Good overview. Needs to include more hands on development. 1 star because Coursera wont let me take the capstone even after completing all four pre-requisite classes (this one is the fourth).

Didn't see That I have to complete the specialization in one year. I'm sure If I knew this information I wouldn't start the specialization. Feeling really frustrated