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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Discrete Mathematics by Shanghai Jiao Tong University

3.2
stars
172 ratings

About the Course

Discrete mathematics forms the mathematical foundation of computer and information science. It is also a fascinating subject in itself. Learners will become familiar with a broad range of mathematical objects like sets, functions, relations, graphs, that are omnipresent in computer science. Perhaps more importantly, they will reach a certain level of mathematical maturity - being able to understand formal statements and their proofs; coming up with rigorous proofs themselves; and coming up with interesting results. This course attempts to be rigorous without being overly formal. This means, for every concept we introduce we will show at least one interesting and non-trivial result and give a full proof. However, we will do so without too much formal notation, employing examples and figures whenever possible. The main topics of this course are (1) sets, functions, relations, (2) enumerative combinatorics, (3) graph theory, (4) network flow and matchings. It does not cover modular arithmetic, algebra, and logic, since these topics have a slightly different flavor and because there are already several courses on Coursera specifically on these topics....

Top reviews

IA

Jan 5, 2021

This course requires some background knowledge of mathematics, and the exercises require some hard work. It's interesting, engaging, and has a lot of knowledge on offer!

NP

Oct 22, 2017

Fantastic course. Fascinating material, presented at a reasonably fast pace, and some really challenging assignments.

Filter by:

1 - 25 of 62 Reviews for Discrete Mathematics

By Roberto K

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Apr 13, 2017

After more than 20 courses taken in Coursera (mostly in Math, Ecomonics and Computer Science), this is, by far, the WORST course I have ever taken. The content is fine but it very badly designed as MOOC. I am droping this course after the first week.

On the Peer Graded Assignments it became very clear that most students simply did not have enough math background for the course. I peer reviewed 4/5 assignments and on most of then I graded zero. The problem is that these same students will peer review your assignments. Therefore, you dedicate your time and you will be evaluated by people that do not even know what the correct answer is, what is the point on this? I felt as being part of bad experiment...

Given this a MOOC with thousand of students enrolled, the organizers must implement a fair format to grade the students. It is very clear Peer Graded Assignments format that was implemented is not a option, it put your grade on other's hands.

This will simply repel any student that want to take a serious course and would really undesrtand the course content.

This was a recurrent complaint on the forum, but nothing real was done. I logged a message on the forum, but the TA and organizers never replied.

Curiously this problem is not happening on the course "Introduccion to Enumerative Combinatorics" that implemented a better format to grade the students.

I am not sure if Coursera could do anything about, I just hope Coursera take this feedback seriouly and try to implement higher standards to prevent courses like this.

By Deleted A

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Jul 6, 2018

The lectures online have little to nothing to do with the course material. Way too much informarion that is unnceesary and not nrealy enough practidcal examples. When the book for the ocurse was purcheesd it was a bit of help, but once again the video lectures neevr once mentioned it, or even guided to where to find the material we would need to review for the test. A complete waste of time. I leanred more scouring the internet and Youtube for material that was relevant to the course. And peer reiewed homework is a joke. Haveing hundres ofother people who also do not understand what is going on rating my homework is an absolute joke. Hands down the worse course I've ever taken. There were even parts of the Transcript that simply read ( INAUDABLE) .

By Alex K

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Sep 28, 2017

Poor presentation of material. Peer reviewed material with no solutions given and no explanation or solutions to any problems. The instructor is teaching this as a review course instead of for people who are taking this for their first time. You cannot learn in this course. Very poor. Remove this course its a waste of time.

By Brandon G

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Jul 6, 2018

The video lectures have nothing at all to do with the quizzes. Even the books barely help, and the instructor ( I use that term very generously ) does not provide any guide whats so ever as to where we should be reading, and absolutely no preparation for the quiz. After trying the quiz for days, I was able to learn more by searching on Youtube than I was in these video lectures. Worst course I have ever experienced. If you paid for this, please get your money back.

By Palak M (

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Dec 5, 2018

The course is most pathetically setup. Most of the people are not able to go beyond Week 1 because of the missing lectures and the Quiz, which is set on the content which is never talked about or explained. Ridiculous course.

By Michael M

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May 28, 2019

horribly set up class, minimal actual instruction, very little explanation on how to learn missing concepts, no solutions for quiz or homework problems given

By Bahaa I

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Oct 23, 2018

The instructor is summarizes the content too much. I've been always in need to lookup Youtube for further and simpler detailed instruction. The content is too short (Duration of every lecture) comparing to such an important and wide field

By Adam X

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Jun 24, 2018

Imagine that I have 0 math background. Is it possible for me to catch up with the videos? probably. Is it possible for me to do the quizes? 0% possiblity

By Yi L

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May 19, 2019

have to ready online materials and watch other related videos on youtube in order to pass the quizzes

By Nishant P

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Oct 23, 2017

Fantastic course. Fascinating material, presented at a reasonably fast pace, and some really challenging assignments.

By Abhay G

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Dec 5, 2018

This course is good to comprehend relation, function and combinations.

By Jeremiah K

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Apr 27, 2017

Course materials are poorly prepared and the method of peer review of proofs in fundamentally flawed. Hopefully, once there are some teaching and explanatory materials available and an improved scheme for assignment marking, the course will be worth taking. Unfortunately it is a bit of a mess at the moment.

By Deleted A

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Jan 6, 2019

Not enough explanation for a beginner

By Ionut M C

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Mar 17, 2019

The tests are done very poorly and the material is not covered in the video lectures. I even got me the recommended books yet even those do not offer the answers properly. Don't want to be rude, but this course did not receive the attention it deserved.

By Evgeniy Z

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Aug 29, 2017

AWFUL. Weirdly picked themes to explain. No proper tools to grasp topic is given. Bad explanations.

By Brandon Y

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Aug 3, 2020

Just read all the other reviews. Self-explanatory.

By Lei M

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Mar 14, 2017

Very Poor Course Evaluation Mechanism

By 王詩閎

•

Feb 3, 2020

a waste of time

By Ke G

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Jun 5, 2017

Other than the issue of peer grading, I took the course of the first week and found the course material is missing and quiz of week 1 needs the materials of week 2.

This is not a preliminary discrete math course. I was trying to learn part of the MIT discrete math course then jump on this course to catch up but I found that the first week's content is about 15 week content in MIT so I guess I will just quit.

In the forum there are people seems can't find enough companies for peer grading and almost no posts after week 2.

By Tatu T

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Sep 15, 2020

First of all, this should be Advanced, not Intermediate. Lessons don't explain enough what we are learning or the theorems in exercises. I could not recommend this course to anyone. If you can finish this, you already have the knowledge and you don't gain almost anything from this course.

By Alon H

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May 3, 2020

This course assumes certain knowledge about mathematical notation that is not taught or stipulated one must have. Typically courses will state what other courses you must have taken prior in order to begin. My assumption was that this is a introductory course to Discrete Mathematics, I unfortunately have not looked at set theory in perhaps 16 years. The notation was unfamiliar to me, and requires me to do my own searching for other courses to explain this (refresh) before I can take this course. I am concerned that this will continue to occur each week, and I simply am unaware what other assumptions the course holds. Again, this is not an issue with the subject matter, or instructor, whatsoever. It is more an issue with lack of disclosure on prior required knowledge.

By riscook

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Apr 8, 2020

videos are largely useless!

By Izhar A

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Jan 6, 2021

This course requires some background knowledge of mathematics, and the exercises require some hard work. It's interesting, engaging, and has a lot of knowledge on offer!

By Moli Y

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Aug 9, 2017

Short course!! I use it to review my discrete math knowledge.

By Dmitrij M

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May 30, 2017

Germans cant teach! They give you a lot of example in hope that you solve them