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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Principles of Computing (Part 1) by Rice University

4.7
stars
578 ratings

About the Course

This two-part course builds upon the programming skills that you learned in our Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python course. We will augment those skills with both important programming practices and critical mathematical problem solving skills. These skills underlie larger scale computational problem solving and programming. The main focus of the class will be programming weekly mini-projects in Python that build upon the mathematical and programming principles that are taught in the class. To keep the class fun and engaging, many of the projects will involve working with strategy-based games. In part 1 of this course, the programming aspect of the class will focus on coding standards and testing. The mathematical portion of the class will focus on probability, combinatorics, and counting with an eye towards practical applications of these concepts in Computer Science. Recommended Background - Students should be comfortable writing small (100+ line) programs in Python using constructs such as lists, dictionaries and classes and also have a high-school math background that includes algebra and pre-calculus....

Top reviews

MA

Jan 29, 2020

It was a great course, I learned a lot about Computing throughout this course. It needs a little analytical mindset but if you work hard enough, I believe it wont be a problem.

SN

May 6, 2019

This course is very good for beginners and intermediate coders. Gives important basics about computer science from 3 very good professors.

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76 - 98 of 98 Reviews for Principles of Computing (Part 1)

By Jesús P

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Mar 6, 2019

Excelente curso

By pierre j

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Nov 11, 2016

Great as usual.

By YG F

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Aug 16, 2021

Well organized

By Eugene

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Feb 23, 2021

great course!

By xin j

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Apr 7, 2018

Learnt a lot

By Tsz W K

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Jun 28, 2017

Really great!

By Sambhav J

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Apr 3, 2019

Great Course

By Guillermo C

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Jun 4, 2018

Great course

By Arthur-Lance

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Jun 22, 2017

thanks a lot

By Trim B

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Dec 13, 2016

Excellent.

By Aniruddh M

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May 23, 2021

Awesome!

By Tae J Y

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Mar 26, 2017

Perfect!

By Bakhmai B

•

May 29, 2019

Super!

By Tom P

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May 13, 2016

I started this course straight after finishing IIPP1 and IIPP2 (both of which I loved). I had no coding experience before those two courses but managed to work hard and got through them so kept on straightaway with PoC1. This was a mistake on my part. For me, there was a quite a step up and early on I was getting out of my depth and actually in the end did not finish the course. In hindsight (and actually what I am doing down to re-enroll) I would go and gain much more experience of Classes (they play a major part, and I am thinking or writing all the games as classes that I built in IIPP) and work through the Math Preparation to prepare. I'm giving the course 4 stars because the material, the lectures and the learning is great but I found the amount I was expected to do each week was well beyond my expectations of an MOOC and more than the two modules before.

By Steven K

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Oct 3, 2019

Good course exploring the computer science side of programming. Once I got used to it, I appreciated the machine grader for instant feedback (and ability to resubmit if you did something wrong). Not sure where I will use combinatorics, but it was good to learn anyway.

For the most part the quizzes were good, although the 'find the test cases' questions were very frustrating and hard to approach. I appreciate the intent of trying to get us to think about testing more, but it was very difficult to think of more than a few good test cases based on the logic of the program or the expected uses and it ended up being easier to randomly generate cases.

By THOMAS

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Nov 2, 2020

Excellent Course. In my view the main skill you gain from this course is learning how to read given python programs and use them in your own project. I found this course more difficult than i expected though. Some times the instructions were not as sufficient as i wanted. That led me to discussion pages where many students and members have done a great job helping each other. Without that help i wouldn't have completed the course.

By Tyler B

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Aug 26, 2017

Most of the course was awesome, just wasn't crazy about the testing questions at the end of each quizz

By Renaud T

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May 11, 2016

Great course ! Some assignments were not that easy and required time to be achieved. Enjoyed it !

By Wynand

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Dec 21, 2017

Course was a good progression on the Intro to Python courses

By Alejo G O

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Sep 12, 2018

Very interesting to expand the ways to solve a problem.

By Chris L

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Oct 16, 2020

I'm sure this is a great series, but Python 2 in the tail end of 2020 makes no sense. I may come back later just to audit and do the exercise in Python 3.

By Ryan M

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Feb 5, 2021

the quizzes are not meant to teach you not test you. But we weren't taught enough to help teach ourselves on the quizzes though and the forums are largely unhelpful.

By Na Z

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Sep 23, 2022

The worst course I've ever taken!!!!! Don't wast your time unless you are very rich and have nothing to do. They asked 5 peer revview to pass the course for each project, and they force you to read the optional material otherwise you can't pass the quiz. They only test the hardest part in the quiz to keep you as long as you can in each course so that they can earn money. Anyone see this PLEASE RUN AWAY FROM THIS WORST COURSE!!!!