I think the course could be shorten by half. The instructors extended the course into 3 weeks, but I think the real meat can fit into just 2 weeks. They use too many examples and several similar case studies to make the same points about why big data is important and beneficial -- repeatedly.

I know why it is important, that's why I took the course! Just give a few mins intro and move on already.

They even have a session discussing why should learn basic tools and theory and have a quiz about that; A quiz about why should you learn how to add and subtract before using a calculator. They can just explain once and people would understand.

Anyhow, I feel like I learned quite a lot, but those I can do my reading just first chapter of big data book or watch 1-2 YouTube tutorials.

Should not waste so many hours watching the course.

The course provided almost no value , and there was almost nothing covered that you couldn't find online for free. The presentation was probably the worst part of the course: It was extremely boring and made it hard to get through the videos.

I didn't expect much practical parts in the course, but there was even less than what I expected: What was described as setting up a hadoop cluster consisted of downloading a preconfigured VM image and running it, and then typing in a couple of commands that were provided to you. Again, nothing of value was added, and quickly going over the FAQ page of any of the products mentioned would be more helpful, faster and a lot more interesting.

Perfect for starters!

Good intro that also helped me understand some of my previous assumptions

This was absolutely useless. Lots of definitions with no motivation. The one saving grace is that the slides are comprehensive.

The general concepts of big data (week 1 and week 2) seemed a bit drawn out, much of the same was repeated over and over again. This was not necessary. The peer-graded assignment needs more detailed instructions - like mentioning that it is ok to resize the fields, and that shapes need to be copy/pasted as much as needed.

Very interesting course. Explained concepts I'd heard of but didn't really know about. It is a foundation course for a specialization, it's not enough by itself but very good as a foundation course.

The intro part is too long. You will not start with the practice till the end of next week and I find that the lectures and videos by then are a lot less complete even when the content is harder. I would have prefer is the theoretical part was shorter and there was more support when we start learning about hadoop

I have participated in better courses on Coursera. I think the power point presentations are very very ugly. The colors really don't match well. This could be a lot more visually appealing. Also, for self learners, a bit more text would be cool, even though I know that not having too much text, but rather pictures, is beneficial. The presenter could speak a bit more natural. At the moment, it is very obvious that she reads text aloud. Also, there need to be some more FAQs in the practical parts, because there can be quite a few problems when trying to run mapreduce. I was only able to do it using Google, because I also had to install another hadoop version (5.12.) because my Intel Chipset was not compatible with the version you wanted me to download. There, the file path to map reduce was different from the example you proviided. To be honest, I did not check the Discussion Forums because I was not aware there were any. Maybe I could have gotten help there.

Excelent course

This is an excellent introductory course on Big Data in general and introduce to basic usage of Hadoop using Cloudera on a virtual machine. This course could be improved further especially to working professionals by spreading the course over 4 - 6 weeks instead as the 3 weeks duration is very short as the coverage of this course is quite broad. Thank you to the course instructors for preparing this wonderful course.

Fantastic course that gives a boost to understanding big data

Nice study material, easy and lucid explanation. Covers the basic concepts and gives necessary overview. Teachers are excellent.

the course is in detailed and structured. I will recommend this course to the other beginners. It helps me a lot in understanding big data concepts from the scratch. Thank you to my trainer and Coursera team. I'm highly obliged

Very good Course to getting started on Big data and Hadoop basic.

This course gives a basic view for Big data Analysis through introducing much information in the subject "much theoretically at the beginning and then become more piratical using basics of Hadoop program"

Merits:

excellent overview of the Big Data's concepts

gradual teaching techniques

having flexible time viewing the vids

Needs of improvements

Quiz need to stick on learning objectives (for example: instead of asking about Amazon or other companies practices in some area (which was included as an example), questions need to be practical on other non-mentioned companies.

The course has a deadline (one week after the week 3) it should be extended more

some videos are not directed to the point and much details are asked in the quiz

Some IT concepts need to be explain more (like in the last videos) because for me I'm ZERO IT experience

I had a good overview for the topic because I'm applying myself for Master in Big Data without having a single IT background

Being totally novice in the subject matter, i found this course informative. However, slides could have been better and i would prefer content that is not available on you tube free of cost as many students would have paid to enroll this course.

Over all nice course. It should have more hands on.

The course majorly teaches you the importance of big data in first 2 weeks. 3rd week, it gives you good brief of big data tools and technology. Good course for foundations.

very useful course

liked it.

very weak presentation

Really difficult to understand for the new hand who don't knowledge the knowledge about programming, computer science, etc.

One of the difficulty is the many technique words. I suggest that providing the animation video to present some concept such as MapReduce should be more understandable.

However, after this lesson I can have a foundation perception in Big Data. Thanks for the Coursera, the University and course lecturers.

Very good for people who needs an introduction and with no background on deep technical knowledge of data and computers.

Great introduction to big data. Good struture and well explained