A good introduction to the topics and concepts in the field of genomic data science in general as well as the other courses in this specialisation.

I did this course close to the last (6th) being a professional in the Bioscience field for some time and so the first three 'weeks' I pretty much did in a couple of hours with close to full marks (not a boast but a statement: this course will give you the overview I accumulated in the real world; there is nothing esoteric or missing from this course).

The final assessment I found a little quirky compared to the other courses I'd done being a comprehension style 'read a research paper + answer questions' rather than a 'enter the number of X given conditions Y applied to dataset Z' as many of the other course use. Still, celebrate diversity and all that...also I can't think of a better assessment for this entry level / background course.

Very great starting place for the specialization. Easy level of difficulty and does not jump straight in to the nitty and gritty. Easy for me because: 1) I have a MS in Biological Sciences and work in functional genomics. However, This course really added in the importance of "good statistics" in genomics. In addition, I am excited to not only learn more about bioinformatical methods, but also become more engaged in the data science behind it all.

All in all, I think this is a great beginner course for all kinds of students or post-graduate individuals that want to keep on learning and maintain skill sets that are not only great for staying up-to-date, but also putting ourselves in better positions for the future.

The first 2 weeks were quite good. The were a great introduction to the biological part of genomics. Part 3 was way too generic, and did not give any insight as to what would be covered. It felt like it was taught by someone who's a biologist, not a computer scientist. Section 4 was the worst, while it instilled in me the importance of statistics and how the lack of good statistics can derail important investigations, it was not really a good introduction into the world of statistics, or even genomic statistics. Also, the last part was not taught well - it covered a lot without bothering to explain some of the parts, and was quite boring too.

The first three weeks were too easy, then Jeff Leek introduced a bunch of Statistical Concepts at once. I think I would rather have spent more time taking an overview of the field and what the certificate has to offer in application to my job as a biologist/learning bioinformatics.

The project at the end reminded me of evaluating scientific papers in college. Very useful, but out of context I thought. I think I would like to have more of a refresher in certain concepts in advanced genetics prior to being quizzed on them through a project.

Overall, it was a good course, but someone without a background in biology will certainly struggle with it

I am completely new to Genomics but with some technical background in statistics and computer tools etc. This is a good course to step into the world of Computational biology and get some understanding of tools involved. I had to do lot of side reading on sequencing technology and Gene science. If you dont have this background, this course is a exercise in button pushing. I wish the instructors emphasise this and suggest on-line refernces(beginner friendly) to get the necessary background. In the end, it was a positive experience for me to understand the Galaxy tools and what they are capable of.

This course was very helpful in determining if genomic data science is something you find interesting and want to persue further. If you do not have a background in statistics, be aware that that section of the course may prove rather difficult to understand; however, I hope that this doesn't dissuade you from learning more about genomic data science! This course is a great basic overview and as such covers some high level concepts without much context. Im sure the other classes in this specialization explain the complex computer science and stats problems better.

The entire course took me about 8 hours to complete. The videos are on average around 10 minutes long. The first two weeks of the course were very introductory and had they stayed that way I would have been disappointed (however they were focused on my specialization). Week 3 and 4 made it worth it for me and were very helpful (computing technology and statistics). I thought the course project could have been better. I didn't feel it was a strong overview of what I learned about the course. Either way, I'm glad I went through the entire thing.

The content in this course is very interesting and valuable. For someone with background in biology-related fields, most of this will be known already and can be seen as a refreshment. For people who aren't in biology fields, this content is great as an introduction to basic biological technologies. The only downside for me is that the content hasn't been updated in a long time. This can be an issue, because in science everything changes very rapidly as new things get discovered. The paper for the final project is from 20 (!!) years ago.

This course is great for people like me, who know almost nothing about the topic, lectures are good, points are clear, understandable and not too long. Only thing I actually didn't like is amount of lectures. The course is planned to be completed in 4 weeks and for me it was over in few days. I would like to add that I've listened the lectures from work and spent 1-2 hours a day on it. All in all, I'm glad that I've started from here and plan to continue with the rest of the specialization.

Thanks for all of the knowledge! It was a nice course covering both biological and computational aspects, well defined and visual easy to understand for 3 weeks. For the week four, I believe it was not so informative, I understand that it is a huge topic but besides that quiz for week four was not coherent with lessons. I have seen people complaying about it in forums too. I took too many tries for week four you should at least update week 4's quiz.

Overall a good intro course. Molecular biology basics were covered so quickly and with terms and concepts pulled almost out of thin air, anyone without a pretty substantial background would probably be lost fairly quickly. And those of us with a genetics background fairly bored until we got to the later weeks. Still as a course designed to get everyone on the same page for the rest of the Specialization, I feel ready for the next course.

I appreciated how the instructors presented the content in a fluid and limpid manner, with relevant examples and auxillary knowledge that you couldn't find in a textbook. The assignments provided the opportunity to apply the learned content to analyse and parse statistical data from actual journals.

The new and up-to-date knowledge I gained by taking this course made me more confident to apply to graduate school.

Thank You

The four modules of the course are well suited for an introduction. For graduates in biology the questions might be a bit too easy (especially considering you can take the test again after reviewing the lectures).

The last part with the genomics paper might be too hard because it includes some genetics concepts that have never been talked about in the lectures.

I think this is a great introductory course to genomic data analysis. however, the primer of molecular biology and techniques could be more detailed. It also helps to have some prior knowledge in this area to really understand the details and complexities. Looking forward to the other classes though. It was refreshing to jog my memory on many of these things!

This was a great overview of the computing, statistics, and biology required to understand bioinformatics. The only negative was, that I found the final exam to be somewhat unrelated to the course.I am also hoping that there will be more references later on if we want or need to go deeper into these three areas, especially in the area of molecular biology.

Overall this course is good, beginners friendly. as a biology student as me, you can expect a very fundamental introduction of both computer science and statistics. not much of bioinformatics tools into so far. one suggestion for the teaching groups, would be better if employee more practical examples to explain any new value, concept or formula:)

I'm fascinated by bioinformatics and genomics, which is why I took this course. I gave the course four stars instead of 5 because I think the flow of the lectures could have been better. When watching lectures, I often found myself jumping around in my notebook to write something down. Other than that, the course was an excellent introduction.

The course was interesting if you want to start learning Genomics and Data Science. Some of the videos are very basic if you're a biologist but if you don't know any basic NGS and statistics, it is worth taking this course. Overall I enjoyed the course and it encouraged me to continue taking the other courses of this specialization.

A good brief overview of the topic. Not sure that it fills a full four week course. More in-depth coverage of topics such as the process and tools for sequencing and some explanation of the raw data produced would have been appreciated, as would have references for additional resources on topics covered.

For the most part I really liked this course. The teacher for the first 3 weeks was great. Things really go off the rails with Week 4. The instructor assumed a much greater understanding of Statistics than an introductory/beginner level. I didn't think the lectures from Week 4 prepared me for the Quiz.

Decent. There are some strange trivial errors in some of the questions. One that comes to mind is that RNA is not a "copy of DNA with U instead of T" - it's RNA! I think you also would do better not to sledgehammer Vivian Cheung twice....plenty of people made mistakes...spread your fire a bit.

It would have been much better if we could have found out why our quiz answers were wrong and what the correct answer is supposed to be.

Quizzes sometimes seemed unrelated to the material.

A "deeper learning" option, were we could read amterial that went beyond the video would have been great.

This was my first course on coursera and this course is very well structured . i did the molecular biology and measurement technology very easily but found little difficulty in data science part as that part was new for me. I feel good that i got to know more by joining this course.

The last module and the final paper was a little confuse for whom is not from Biology (I'm from computer science). But the course is very well made and gave me the notion I'd like to have. The professores are very well qualified and inspired me about the subject.

Very good intro course. Information is presented clearly and concisely, and it was pretty easy to comprehend even with no background. Only reason I didn't give it 5 stars was the quizzes were a bit too easy and I don't think touch on all the important details.