Chevron Left
Back to Bioinformatic Methods I

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Bioinformatic Methods I by University of Toronto

4.7
stars
1,683 ratings

About the Course

Large-scale biology projects such as the sequencing of the human genome and gene expression surveys using RNA-seq, microarrays and other technologies have created a wealth of data for biologists. However, the challenge facing scientists is analyzing and even accessing these data to extract useful information pertaining to the system being studied. This course focuses on employing existing bioinformatic resources – mainly web-based programs and databases – to access the wealth of data to answer questions relevant to the average biologist, and is highly hands-on. Topics covered include multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetics, gene expression data analysis, and protein interaction networks, in two separate parts. The first part, Bioinformatic Methods I (this one), deals with databases, Blast, multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetics, selection analysis and metagenomics. The second part, Bioinformatic Methods II, covers motif searching, protein-protein interactions, structural bioinformatics, gene expression data analysis, and cis-element predictions. This pair of courses is useful to any student considering graduate school in the biological sciences, as well as students considering molecular medicine. Both provide an overview of the many different bioinformatic tools that are out there. These courses are based on one taught at the University of Toronto to upper-level undergraduates who have some understanding of basic molecular biology. If you're not familiar with this, something like https://learn.saylor.org/course/bio101 might be helpful. No programming is required for this course. Bioinformatic Methods I is regularly updated, and was completely updated for January 2023....

Top reviews

SA

Jul 11, 2020

This course is very well organized, easy to understand, and explained everything steps by step which will help to grasp the concept easily. If you are a beginner like me, you should take this course.

BA

Nov 2, 2021

Bioinformatics 1 was very interesting and enlightening for me. I learnt practical skills which I can now apply in to ace an impactful career. Thank you so much Coursera for this amazing opportunity!

Filter by:

26 - 50 of 372 Reviews for Bioinformatic Methods I

By Benson N M

•

Sep 5, 2016

This course is great! The materials provided are topnotch. In addition, the instructor was very active in the discussion forums during the period i enrolled; He was very helpful. As well as students who had enrolled at that period of time. (July to September 2016)

I think anyone with some background in molecular biology can handle this course. Plus, do most of the labs in Firefox or any other browser namely Opera, Safari as an example. Google chrome doesn't support the Java apps you'll use in this course.

By sara c

•

Sep 26, 2019

I have learned a lot. All the lectures and laboratories are carefully explained and prepared. The course teaches how to use different bioiformatic methods, but also explais in a clear and simple way the background behind. It is the first course that I do, and I am sure I will do more (at least Bioinformatic Methods II).

I liked a lot that there were explained also some research proyects done in the field of bioinformatics (e.g. the examples in Lecture 5), as well as practical applications.

By Anton K

•

Dec 21, 2023

If you are a noob in (Bio)informatics, such as myself, and you need a quick and easy to follow introduction to Blast search, Multiple sequence alignments, phylogenetic assemblies and other basic bioinformatics tools required in modern biology take this course! Labs are really nice because they give you a step by step guide on how to do the tasks, how and why to fiddle with the settings. Probably gonna do Bioinformatics II as well.

By Alexander K

•

Feb 5, 2017

The course is excellent, the lecturer is brilliant. Maybe it is a bit tough for students, also background in biology, chemistry and biochemistry is very helpful. Nevertheless I will recomend it to my advanced students because it absorbs and makes significant progress in understanding or the modern tools and techniques in bioinformatics. And the second part of the course is promised to be even more interesting.

By PRABHJEET K

•

May 8, 2020

Very good course to build skills in bioinformatics. doing lab and analyzing the results - good experience. Thanku professor Nicholas for making lab sessions easy to do by giving every detailed instruction , step by step performing on MEGA X to do multiple sequence alignment and generating phylogenetic tree. Discussion forums that are really helpful to clear your doubts and augment your knowledge . Thanku

By Adrian B

•

Apr 30, 2016

Great Introduction to the topics and broad concepts of bioinformatics. If you are looking for a course that goes gives you a sense of the breadth of the field, this is the place to start. The learn-at-your-own-pace was also great for me, since time commitments and travel schedules make it difficult for me to block out a set time each week to complete each lesson-- so the flexibility was great!

By Margarida M d C

•

Mar 11, 2016

I personally found the course very useful. It provides a good overview of some of the most widely used bioinformatic tools nowadays, without being too demanding. That labs are particularly good, and you are able to explore at your own pace but with the necessary guidance. I have a background in molecular and cell biology, so I found it very easy to follow.

By Daphne R

•

Nov 11, 2020

This was thorough course with great explanations. It provides an excellent overview of sequence acquisition and analysis, fine tuning of BLAST analyses, alignment and phylogenetic methods. The course also provides a solid overview of next gen sequencing, expression analysis and metagenomics. I'm excited to get started with the next course.

By Rida F

•

Dec 21, 2020

The course is very informative. I've learned a lot about different useful databases of genetic importance as well as various techniques that are being used in DNA studies. I'm sure it is gonna be very helpful for me in my studies. Credit goes to Prof Dr. Provart for covering all the topics so nicely. really grateful!

By Md. S H

•

Jul 6, 2020

I am very happy and much more pleased to see this course. Thanks to Mr Nicholas, I would say what a wonderful man. Before taking this course I do not have any knowledge of bioinformatics. But after finishing this course I have learnt a lot. But I would be happy if there are more section to practice for ourselves.

By Debabrata S

•

Dec 11, 2019

I have been searching a basic course on Bioinformatics since many days. This course really help to get that . I have learned lot of new things from this course. I feel lab work is very useful. And if anyone solve the quizzes that given after each module, then you can explore more on bioinformatics.

Thanks Prof.

By Priyadharshini M

•

Sep 12, 2020

This course was really helpful for me to understand and use basic bioinformatics tools.The lectures were easy to understand .The best part of this course was assignments and the lab quiz.It's quite difficult and interesting to find correct answers.Overall I'm happy on gaining knowledge from this course.

By Abdullah A J

•

Jul 11, 2020

This course is really interesting to me, I've practiced a lot with the lab practice modules that have given throughout the course. I would recommend this course, to learn basics of Bioinformatics and look forward to complete Bioinformatics methods II. Thanks to instructor, Dr. Nicholas J. Provart!

By Mahveesh g

•

Jun 6, 2018

As a beginner I found this course really easy to learn with all the lecture materials provided, it gives you a clear picture as to what bioinformatics is all about. The labs and the lab vedios are very interesting and clearly explained. Can't wait to start my second course. Thank you

By Carlos A C d S

•

Jan 6, 2016

The best course ever ! Easy, well teached and breathtaking.

This course helped me a lot in my university in my undergraduation. You can get a good knowledge about bioinformatics enough to work with it, and these teachings is necessary to improve skills to get better in this area.

By Jacqueline B

•

Jul 15, 2020

Extremely informative and practically very helpful. I've learned to use the theoretical knowledge that I've studied in my grad and post-grad. I'm glad I decided to take this course because it really helped me and I would recommend this course to students studying biotechnology.

By Suzanne S

•

Aug 24, 2015

Very practical introduction to bioinformatics tools from a biological perspective. Labs were excellent, and the quizzes were mostly well-designed. Only downside is that some required software/web tools are difficult to run on Linux, but that's unavoidable given the field.

By Elaisyah Z

•

Mar 2, 2021

for this course, I find that every assessment has its own level of easiness and hardness. My attempt to complete every task is guided by a lecture and lab discussion video. A lot of thank you to a lecturer of this course for share his knowledge and experience.

By Nergiz Ç

•

Apr 30, 2020

I really wanted to learn bioinformatics, thanks to this course, I am very pleased to have taken a course suitable for me at the beginner level. it gave me a lot of unbelievable things, and sometimes it was a lot of fun even though I had difficulty. thankful :)

By Arif A

•

Jun 19, 2021

Being plant biologist in current era this course is really needed by plant bioinformatic. The course was very intresting and informativie breifly explianed. I would like special thank to professor Nicholas Provart for sharing this course on coursera.

By Yuliia M ( A

•

Apr 17, 2020

I absolutely loved this course! All labs were perfectly explained and Dr. Nicholas Provart answered all my questions. I hope that this course will help me with my future research and I will probably enroll next part Bioinformatics Methods II ! ;-)

By Aswin K

•

Jan 28, 2021

Professor. Nicholas James Provart is an exceptional lecturer who clearly explains the intricate details in the world of bioinformatics with perfection. I feel wonderful to be a part of this course. Thanks to Coursera for providing the platform

By Tess J

•

Jul 1, 2023

Very practical, great refresher with some new tools and databases so really helped keep my knowledge current. Lots of free tools so I know I can easily access them in future to apply my knowledge regardless of where I'm working or studying.

By Alejandra R S

•

Mar 4, 2016

Excellent course, I've learnt a lot. Maybe the labs are a little "do what I'm saying", but that is only if you are looking for the Certificate. If you dedicate enough time to read and "play" a little bit, it's a very complete course.

By Arturo M F

•

Sep 28, 2017

A very well explained course by Dr. Provart that show us the most important tools for data acquisition and data banks in biochemistry and molecular biology that help us to find correlations among proteins as well as nucleic acids.