Chevron Left
Back to Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners by University of California San Diego

4.2
stars
1,485 ratings

About the Course

Are you interested in learning how to program (in Python) within a scientific setting? This course will cover algorithms for solving various biological problems along with a handful of programming challenges helping you implement these algorithms in Python. It offers a gently-paced introduction to our Bioinformatics Specialization (https://www.coursera.org/specializations/bioinformatics), preparing learners to take the first course in the Specialization, "Finding Hidden Messages in DNA" (https://www.coursera.org/learn/dna-analysis). Each of the four weeks in the course will consist of two required components. First, an interactive textbook provides Python programming challenges that arise from real biological problems. If you haven't programmed in Python before, not to worry! We provide "Just-in-Time" exercises from the Codecademy Python track (https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python). And each page in our interactive textbook has its own discussion forum, where you can interact with other learners. Second, each week will culminate in a summary quiz. Lecture videos are also provided that accompany the material, but these videos are optional....

Top reviews

HD

Apr 17, 2016

I give this course 5 star because I did Bioinformatics I and I totally enjoy it.

This is where programming can be fun, and practical, and you'll learn some basic biology too.

What's not to love?

HL

Aug 15, 2017

I learned a lot from this difficult and time-consuming course! It covers biological concepts using Python. It made learning Python more interesting for me, since I have always loved biology.

Filter by:

401 - 425 of 445 Reviews for Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners

By Anhiti

•

Jun 10, 2020

The external tool was too complex for a beginner in programming, which defeats the purpose of the exercise. This made me lose interest very quickly.

By Rithvik S

•

Oct 21, 2020

Can be more interactive with videos for beginners for more comprehensive understanding. Otherwise, wonderful, highly informative content!

By Afonso L

•

Oct 3, 2021

Very complex for students. Coding wise very dificcult to follow for beginners, but with perserverance you can understant the message.

By Adam J

•

Jul 7, 2018

Programming part not well explained and too difficult- it can clearly be seen from the comments that many people have the same issues

By Jaher N

•

Oct 13, 2018

no 6 quiz of week 4 is bad in answering every time ans submit the right ans i got the wrong in after assessment. it may be improved

By Ammar Y

•

Oct 29, 2022

It's really helpful and amazing for those who know basic statistics, maths and programming. But it's not for beginners at all

By Florian H

•

Jul 14, 2020

Gets quickly very confusing and difficult. Also, do the Codeacademy Python class before even starting this course.

By Kyle S

•

Oct 6, 2020

Programming Level is NOT FOR BEGINNERS. The Codecademy was useless when compared to the coding assignments given.

By Ojochenemi E

•

Sep 12, 2020

the coding aspect were neither clear nor easy enough for a biologist who is new to programming to grasp

By Shana M

•

Mar 20, 2021

Steptik images in week 4 aren't showing up which means its impossible to understand what's going on

By dheeraj K

•

Dec 23, 2020

in my opinion, this course is hard for beginners. i do not have computer background in programming

By Celine B

•

Jul 16, 2020

Too complicated for a beginner's course, the quizzes don't match the stepik chapters.

By Haritha I J

•

Jul 6, 2020

It is hard for beginners. Especially for some who has no computer lesson background.

By Víctor R D

•

Aug 15, 2020

It has been the most stressful and frustrating course, certainly not for beginners.

By Spencer P

•

Jun 16, 2020

Its called Bioinformatics for "Beginners", when it is still extremely difficult.

By Vidya B

•

Jun 15, 2020

This course is not for begginers. please change tag line.but good to learn

By Nabeel A

•

Nov 16, 2021

this course is too tough for the python and bioinformatics beginners.

By Jad A

•

Jan 19, 2021

Takes A LOT more time than they say and the explanations aren't clear

By Beatriz R D

•

Nov 5, 2020

Really not for beginners. Wish i would know this before engaging.

By Vaishnavi I

•

Jun 8, 2020

This course is definitely not for beginners.

By Lina S P R

•

Jan 9, 2021

Is NOT FOR BEGINNERS, WAS SO HARD.

By Sara R D

•

Mar 19, 2022

:)

By Cecilia N

•

Jul 12, 2022

It is telling that the vast majority of 5-star ratings seem to come from people with a background in programming. For those of without any programming knowledge, the sink or swim format of this course is unhelpful.

I think I would have learned a lot if the logic of the correct answers to the programming questions had been explained more clearly, if at all. Looking at answers of other students, I often saw syntax that had not been introduced in the course yet. I had to unenroll because this was supposed to be just for fun for me and it was just a headache.

By Kaelyn B

•

Nov 8, 2020

This course was supposed to be for beginners, but I found that this is not the case at all. I had to spend about 10 hours a week for about four months outside of the course using other resources to actually be able to complete it. The fact that each question in the interactive learner does not show the full code is extremely limiting and frustrating for people completely new to learning to code. I would not recommend this course to others as a result.

By Berea R A

•

Jan 20, 2021

As a biologist, I find this course way more avanced than for beginners.

The Codecademy links provided are useful and do teach the basics of programming, however the Stepik tasks associated are far beyond what's explained on Codecademy, giving me the impression that to be able to pass this course you need to have a basics on programming more than on biology.

Mad respect to the biologists that are able to finish this course without going crazy.