Best Python Courses - Q2 2023

Content Coverage (5/5)

This course is structured in 5 modules, comprised of video lectures, readings, coding exercises and quizzes. Course length was very appropriate for a beginner to intermediate learner.  All topics that we feel are essential for a Python course are covered, as well as many useful additional topics. Concepts are covered in an easy-to-follow sequence that allows learners to build their knowledge.

Extra topics covered:

• Kwargs
• Exception handing
• Modules
• Machine learning concepts
• Python web frameworks
• Test automation

Lecture Quality (5/5)

The video lectures in this course are short, focused, and high quality.  They consist of a presenter introducing a topic, the use of well-designed graphics and animations, and screen sharing as specific coding examples are demonstrated.  Lectures also include “pop-up” quiz questions to test the learner’s knowledge of the concepts covered.

Lectures in this course tend to be between 5 and 10 minutes and are separated in logical points to allow the learner many breaks as they learn.  The sequence is easy to follow and allows the learner to build concepts as they progress through the course.

Quiz Quality (5/5)

Practice quizzes and end-of-module quizzes are consistently offered throughout the course. Quizzes contain multiple-choice, multiple-select, true/false, and fill-in-the-blank questions.

There are an adequate number of questions in each quiz to test the learner’s knowledge of the material covered in the module.

Learners must receive a minimum score of 80% to earn credit for the quiz.  Quizzes are automatically graded upon submission and learners are presented immediate feedback.  If the learner answers a question incorrectly, they are provided a link back to the lecture covered by the question.

Learners can retake quizzes up to 3 times every 8 hours.

Assignment/Exercise Quality (5/5)

Coding assignments are provided throughout the course.  These assignments are well described and designed.  Learners complete most assignments by working directly within a browser-based interactive development environment (IDE).  For most assignments “stub code” is provided as hints to the learner.   Assignments are submitted and the code is automatically graded.

Certificate Brand Quality (5/5)

This course is provided by Meta through Coursera.  Meta is the parent company of Facebook, a well-respected technology company.  Coursera is one of the leading learning platforms.

Content Coverage (5/5)

This course is structured in 6 modules, comprised of video lectures, readings, discussion forums, coding labs and quizzes.  The course length is appropriate for the material covered.  Most of the topics expected for a Python course are covered in this course.  The sequence is easy to follow and allows the learner to build concepts as the progress.

Essential Topics Missing:

• File processing

Extras Topics Covered:

• Principles of code reuse
• Coding style

Lecture Quality (5/5)

The lectures in this course are well written and of high production value.  Lectures consist of a poised instructor covering the topic, augmented by conceptual graphics, animations, slides, and screenshares of code being written. Lectures are relatively short (3-10 mins) and focused to allow the learner to take breaks as they move through the course.

Quiz Quality (5/5)

Quizzes are consistently offered at the end of each lesson within each module. Quizzes contain multiple-choice, and a kind of fill-in-the-blank question that allows the learner to write and execute python code.  Each lesson has roughly 5 questions, which we found to be adequate to test the learner’s knowledge of the material covered in lesson.

Learners must receive a minimum score of 80% to earn credit for the quiz.  Quizzes are automatically graded upon submission and learners are presented immediate feedback.  If the learner answers a question incorrectly, they are provided with helpful hints. Learners are able to retake quizzes as many times as necessary.

Assignment/Exercise Quality (4/5)

Many, but not all, of the modules include “labs” that allow learners to try guided exercises in a web-based interactive development environment (IDE).  The labs are well designed and do allow the learner to practice and apply what they’ve learned.  However, no instructor feedback is provided.

Certificate Brand Quality (5/5)

This course is provided by Google through Coursera.  Google is one of the most respected technology companies in the world and Coursera is one of the leading learning platforms.

Content Coverage (5/5)

This is a nicely structured class on python programming. The course is comprised of video lectures, code examples, discussion forums, coding exercises, and timely quizzes.  The course covers all topics we consider to be essential in a Python course, as well as a few extras.  Most of the topics were covered in a sequence that allows learners to build their knowledge.

Extra Topics Covered

• Frozenets
• Regular Expressions

Lecture Quality (5/5)

The instructor for this course – Mihai Catalin Teodosiu – is really a strong python enthusiast and has very impressive credentials. He holds a B.Sc. degree in Telecommunication and Information Technology from University of Polytechnical of Bucharest, Romania. He also holds several professional certifications such as CCNP, CCNA, CCDA, JNCIA and ISTQB CTFL. His work experience spans Networking and Quality Assurance Engineering using python vastly in Network Automation and Test Automation. He has been teaching with Epic Python, Udemy, and other e-learning platforms since 2015.  He had over 100,000+ students from over 170 countries.  He teaches smoothly and nicely, explaining in the most empirical/foundational way.

Most of the video lectures are simple screenshares as the instructor codes within an IDE.  The code examples are well thought out and the instructor provides clear voice-over that walks through each example.

We found that some sections, such as strings and string manipulation, are not as thoroughly covered as we feel they could have been.  Overall, the duration of the videos in this course seems appropriate.

Quiz Quality (5/5)

Quizzes are consistently offered at the end of each module in this course.  The number of questions for some quizzes are not always sufficient to test the learner’s knowledge of the material covered.  However, most sections also included Coding Exercises. Between quizzes and coding exercises, there are more than enough opportunities for the learner to assess their knowledge.

The quizzes are automatically graded and learners are presented with helpful feedback upon submissions.  Quizzes can be taken as many times as necessary to earn full credit.

Assignment/Exercise Quality (5/5)

This course provides regular coding exercises for which the learner can use a simple IDE embedded within the browser.  Each exercise contains adequate instructions, and the IDE provides immediate feedback.   Learners can attempt the exercises multiple times.  A full code solution is provided for all exercises.

Certificate Brand Quality (3/5)

The course is offered by Mihai Catalin Teodosiu through Udemy.  While the instructor is well qualified, he is not well known within Computer Science.  Udemy is a leading platform, but content quality varies widely within their courses.

Content Coverage (5/5)

This course is structured in 19 modules, comprised of video lectures, coding assignments, and quizzes. The course is extremely thorough, covering most of the topics we consider to be essential for a Python course as well as many additional concepts.  The sequence is easy to follow and allows learners to build their knowledge as they progress.

Essential Topics Missing:

• File processing

Extras Topics Covered:

• Stacks and Queues
• Searching
• Sorting
• Recursion
• Dates and Times
• Regular expressions
• Numby
• Pandas

Lecture Quality (4/5)

The presenter for this course is poised and easy to understand.  The lectures consist of the presenter speaking to the learner in one part of the screen while code examples or conceptual graphics and animation show in another part.  Each lecture is very well written and designed.  However, the presenter does not seem to be an expert in Python herself, and sometimes reads the scripts in a way that a programmer might not.

Quiz Quality (5/5)

Quizzes are consistently offered within most modules of this course. Quizzes contain multiple-choice questions that often require the learner to evaluate actual python code. There were more than enough questions in each quiz to test the learner’s knowledge of the material covered in the module.

Learners must answer all questions correctly to earn credit for the quiz.  Each question is automatically graded upon submission and learners are presented with immediate correct/incorrect feedback.  Learners can answer the question as many times as necessary.

Finally, each quiz has a lecture following it that explains each answer to the learner.

Assignment/Exercise Quality (4/5)

There are exercises with downloadable resources in each of the modules.  The exercises require learners to solve a real-world scenario using prescriptive coding practices.  Each exercise also has a solution that students can watch after attempting the exercises.

The exercises are not submitted and no feedback is provided by an instructor.

Certificate Brand Quality (4/5)

This course is provided by Data is Good through Udemy.  While not widely known, Data is Good is professional technical education company with verifiable credentials.

Content Coverage (5/5)

This course is structured in 11 modules, consisting of recorded video of lectures, readings, notes, slides, source code, discussion forums, and assignments (problem sets).  The course is taught in a sequence that is easy for learners to follow, building concepts as they go.

The majority of topics expected for a typical python course are covered in this course, as well as some extras that can be very helpful in professional coding.

Essential topics missing:

• Lambda functions
• Tuples
• Sets

Extra topics covered:

• Handling exceptions
• Debugging
• Using visual studio
• Unit testing
• Regular expressions

Lecture Quality (5/5)

The lecturer for this course – David J Malan – is a Harvard professor as well as a Professor in Residence at GitHub.  The video lectures consist of the instructor lecturing directly to class while writing specific code.  The code used in each lecture is well planned and often scaffolds to present new ideas.  Most lectures also include frequently asked questions from students that the instructor answers. The instructor also covers some complicated concepts a bit fast for some beginning learners.

Lectures can be skipped forward, which can be useful, but does allow learners to skip specific parts of the lectures.

Each lecture includes full notes with code examples and graphics.  This is an excellent resource.

Quiz Quality (1/5)

There are no quizzes offered with this course.  However, there are sample coding exercises.

Assignment/Exercise Quality (5/5)

The assessments are mostly problem sets containing practical coding questions. Each module of the course has a problem set that allows learners to practice and apply the concepts in the module.

Learners must attempt each problem set and submit to a cloud platform, where they are graded either automatically or by Harvard staff.

There is also a final coding project, which allows learners to conceive of and build their own project.  Learners must record a video explaining their project, a readme file with full explanation of the code, and code, which is submitted to GitHub for review by Harvard staff.

Certificate Brand Quality (5/5)

This course is provided by Harvard University through edx.org. Harvard University is one of the most well-known and respected universities in the world and EdX is one of the leading learning platforms.

Content Coverage (4.5/5)

This course is structured in 5 modules, consisting of video lectures, readings, discussion forums, assignments, and quizzes. All topics expected for an applied python course are covered in this course.  However, we did not feel that enough time and coverage was provided on some of the more complex topics.

Extra topics covered:

• Exception handling
• Loading and working with data using Panda
• Working with APIs

Lecture Quality (4/5)

The lectures for this course consist of animated visuals accompanied by voice over.  In most cases, the visuals are very useful.  However, since there is no person on screen, the course lacks a personable feel.  We felt that several of the lectures on complex topics were presented too quickly and without enough coverage.

Quiz Quality (3/5)

Both practice and graded quizzes are consistently offered within each module in this course. Quizzes tend to be short, with 3-5 multiple-choice questions.  Many of the quiz questions only have two answer options.  We did not feel that the number of questions nor the answer options were sufficient to test the students on all the concepts covered.

Quizzes are automatically graded, and helpful feedback is provided when students answer questions incorrectly. Learners are able to retake quizzes up to 2 times.

Assignment/Exercise Quality (3.5/5)

In-depth hands-on assignments are provided with each module.  The assignments are presented within a browser-based development environment.  They have review material and interactive and prescriptive ways for learners to experiment with code.  The assignments are not submitted for grading or feedback, however.

Certificate Brand Quality (5/5)

This course is provided by an IBM Developer through edx.org.  IBM is one of the most well-known and respected technology companies in the world and edX is one of the leading learning platforms.