An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 2)

This 5-week course on Coursera is BRILLIANT! The whole course is 9-weeks long and done in two parts in succession (this one, Part 1 is 5 weeks, then Part 2 is 4 weeks). Do both! It is well structured with excellent videos, quizzes, practice exercises and mini-projects. You can go from knowing nothing about Python to building some simple, fun games (in guided steps), including mini-projects to build simple versions of Pong, Blackjack, and Asteroids. Courses are graded in these Rice courses by you grading five of your peers' mini-projects and then you grade your own - might seem odd at first, but it works OK. Your coding is done in a browser-based programming environment called CodeSkulptor (www.codeskulptor.org) developed by one of the Professors that teaches the course. The course material is released weekly, that way you don't try and race ahead -- not that most people taking this course really could race ahead, especially when trying to get the programming assignments in on time anyway. Yes, at times I was tearing my hair out, screaming at the screen like that'd get my code to work -- but there are "programming tips" and the course discussions forums to help with that, with a lot of input from the Community Teaching Assistants, as well as a "code clinic" (for really sick code) and good documentation in CodeSkulptor. Rice's IIPP is the best MOOC I have taken to date. The Professors who teach (created) this course deserve awards -- they are truly second to none. Not all MOOCs have such engaging personalities as these teaching them. I learned so much from this course and every moment was a blast, especially clearing my local neighbourhood of asteroids at the end, but I still also have fond memories of the simple console version of Rock-Paper-Scissors-Lizard-Spock we created right at the start of the course. I was really quite sad when I completed the course as there were no more mini-projects to tackle!!! I plan to take all of the other courses in this Rice computing specialization as they become available.

An outstanding course!! The best course I have ever taken - Coursera or not! The absolute goal of the instructors was to help students to learn! every question on the quiz was aiming at helping with mini-projects! it was obvious there was a lot of time put in in structuring this course -- they were so many excellent components of it -- the Concepts and Examples section, the Programming Tips videos, the TA suppot, the You Tube videos, the Code Clinic!!! I have raved about this course to my all friends, family and co-workers! I felt sad when the course was over! Never felt anything about any of my classes before! It would be fair to mention TAs -- they were extremely helpful!! and seemed like they were constantly online, always ready to help!

Every little detail of this course was designed to made the learning fun!! IF there is a thing such a best instructor's award, these instructors should have it!!

Learning a new language through designing games! How brilliant is that?

I have to say this is a fantastic class, so great that I am writing my first ever MOOC review online. Since I have some Python background, I skipped Part I and went directly into Part II. What a joy it is to learn this course! I literally can't put my laptop down when it's past my bed time. It doesn't assume much background and is very easy to follow. The exercises have very good instructions and auto checker for results. All the teachers are great, and I enjoyed Scott Rixner the most. I think it is an art to organize one's language to explain things concisely, thoroughly and clearly at the same time. Nothing left out, nothing redundant. That's how I felt when I listen to him. This course is part of a series at Coursera, and I plan to attend more courses from that series.

Very nice introduction to Python programming; the material is very well designed, with progressive difficulty. Projects are not easy but not too difficult, just at the right level : it requires work, but they are funny, and instructors give you lot of tips, helping you to achieve the assignments step by step. Of course you can find most of the solutions on Google, but with help of tips and forums, you can do it by yourself, which is much more rewarding. Definitely the best course i took on introduction to Python. It is however useful to have some familiarity with computer and IT, and a basic previous experience in programming (any language). This second part focus on Object Oriented Programming, and introduce key concepts for any programmer using OOP languages (like Python, Java, C,...). Also you will learn about GUI with the CodeSkuptor Editor, which is very very useful for a pedagocial approach, it allows you to vizualise your code, each steps of your code, and draw easily nice pictures and funny games.

The content of this course (and Part 1) gives a really top notch introduction to programming using the Python language.

The methods used by the instructors to get the material across is stellar. They actually invented a web based version of Python that is used in the course.

The pace of the course is doable for someone who is just getting started. For someone like myself who falls into the category of 'self-taught' is is spot on. The last actual computer classroom class I took was in the late 1970s. Since that time every single language I've learned was self taught.

For the past two years I have looked for a very solid introduction to Python and these two courses really fit the bill. The extended and filled out what I was able to pick up on my own.

I give these two courses a top rating.