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A quick Crash Course on Google Cloud's Offerings.

A little background with GCP, devops in general, and/or software engineering is a good idea. A total novice could take this course, but they spend an almost no time explaining technology terms that are common for me (E.X. NoSQL, TCP/UDP traffic, Regression models, etc) but you could spend a lot of time unpacking the jargon if you don't already know it.

Suggestions for improvement:

1. The Lady instructor talks too quickly, and her slides match too loosely with what she's saying.

2. Any topic might be very unfamiliar to any particular learner. For example, I'm very familiar with data engineering and machine learning but not very comfortable with networks. I'd like to see more quality, optional videos and quizzes that cover some of the rudimentary terminology and concepts in greater detail. I presently don't know (but will research on my own) what TCP/UDP traffic actually is. I know a regional load balancer can be used to share any traffic including TCP/UDP, but I don't know what those protocols are or what they are used for.

3. The labs are almost entirely point and click, copy and paste. This feels a like a "lowest common denominator" approach. While I'm sure it means easier course management and a higher pass rate, it's not very engaging.

4. It looks like there are many unanswered questions in the discussion forms.

Obviously there is a new, updated version of this course, so this older version's sequence (modules divided by weeks) was messed up, and some quizes contain lectures that didn't exist in the videos. Also, I was unable to reset my deadlines (and had to contact support to restore my progress because reset deadlines will wipe out all the progress), however, labs were locked if you don't reset your deadlines (if your END date had already passed), and I had to contact support to manually extend my END date.

Course content itself was good, no problem, but it's just the version & course progress control need improvement ... it's not too much of a big deal since I completed the course in 3 days, but imagine how much trouble if the course lasts for months for someone and then suddenly resetting deadlines wipes out the progress?

Good high level overview of the Google Cloud Platform and how each of it's major services can be used to create applications in the cloud. The videos were well presented, but I really needed supporting text to refer to. Videos are great presentations but very poor reference material. The labs were crippled by the very strict time limits. I could not explore anything or use the interface on my own. I couldn't even type the commands when I knew them. I had to copy and paste the lab sections to beat the timer. Labs are hands on learning, so rushing through using cut & paste wastes the value of having a hands on lab. Because all the coding disappears at the end of every lab, I will have nothing persistent to refer to. I will forget all of this in a month.

Although the topic itself is very interesting, I was disappointed with the way the course was presented. First of all, with all due respect for the trainer, he used a flat voice tone that is challenging you to stay awake. Secondly, I think more details and real-life examples would've been useful.

I liked the labs and the platform, I think this was the most useful part of the course.

One last mention, I don't if this is a Coursera feature or the course itself, but the progress tracking could be improved in my opinion. There were time when you had to scroll all the way down for the next video and the scroll all the way up to see it.

Even though it’s an introductory course, I believe it could and should be exciting and encouraging. Unfortunately, it’s quite the opposite. Boring and monotonic, it feels very formal, and it is presented without even the slightest spark of interest from the author.

To add insult to injury, there are a lot of small flaws and bugs in the Coursera interface. That’s quite unexpected and, in the end, simply disappointing.

On the bright side, I did learn new things, and I am genuinely grateful for that.