Terrible video content. Changing background all the time and distracting the viewer, a person mostly saying "what all we have learned" in every video instead of talking about the subject. No diagrams, no flows of data shown etc., just a person speaking and bragging; slides are very purely and unprofessionally prepared. The level of prepared content is for primary school and not for UNI. I could write about it for hours so I will stop. I just hope and believe this is just a sample and not a real content in a real study for which we will be paying 600 pounds. If you compare the content to for example 30 pounds Machine learning from Stanford University, where you get pdfs of slides, complete written notes, detailed prepared pdf with a very rich content for assignments and where professor actually talks about the content, it all becomes a bit strange.

Very good course as an introduction to computing. Could stand to be more challenging, but the material is certainly easy enough for a true beginner.

Excellent overview, with lots of quizzes and assignments designed to help evolve learning into understanding.

The course is very informative and helped to build notional machine and abstraction concepts.

Excellent course. I felt that I learnt a lot of computer science concepts that were new to me but helped me to appreciate how computers work. Dr Marco Gillies was an excellent lecturer. You could tell that a lot of careful planning went into structuring the course. Because the course was so well designed, I do not have recommendations for improvements.

I enjoy the MOOC and would introduce it to my friends. I think the course has revolutionize my previous understanding of Computer and Internet. Thumb Up!

Great introduction to thinking about systems in terms of notional machines

Nice taster for the degree - can't wait to get started with the full BSc hopefully in April !

Very informative and fun course to take! However there is too much dependence on peer-submission. It shouldn’t be in other peoples’ hands if you can complete an assignment or not. I had to wait a long time and beg for reviews in the discussion area, even though I submitted the assignment on time. I think that is frankly unfair, especially if you pay to access course content.

There is a lot of casual talking and when the interesting concepts are introduced they are hastily dismissed and not well developed. I'm still wondering what a notional machine really is (and modules ?). You would be better just reading the introduction of the book cited "computer science - an overview". Surely you'll learn some interesting notions about the internet; other capital concepts in CS as Algorithms are not even mentioned. A mixed lot.

one of worst courses I've encountered. It attempts to teach a lot of things but nothing deep enough which can only complicate beginners. I'd rather suggest taking Computer Architecture course

mostly useless, but free

I really enjoyed taking this course online because the videos given comes with a transcript, the professor explaining the concept explains it very clearly (they do not assume that you know what they are talking about), and most of all I really enjoyed how interactive the course was. There were discussion questions we may or may not participate in and when we submit the assignments our peers get the opportunity to review our work using the rubric given to us.

An excellent and accessible course for the layperson that encourages broad understanding of the concepts behind rather complicated aspects of the modern use of computers, as well as the computer itself. A good footing for further investigations into the mechanics and theory of computing.

Once you complete this course, you can understand how you use computers as a IT person, even though your first major was not close to IT fields accurately. And if you are office worker and want to learn about IT, this course would be great for you to study basic knowledge.

This is a very fun way to learn at basic concepts for Computer Science which we can apply in our daily life.

Although this is an introductory course, it gives a glimpse of more complex and interesting topics which are key to computers and the way we interact with them.

It gives me a lot of lessons that I should know and enhance my skills in the field of Computer Engineering. All the basic understanding of the concept of how computer works are truly informative and precise. Thank you again for everything!

Dr Marco is an enthusiastic, animated, and fun instructor. The course is laid out well and pace is nice. Highly recommended course for everyone who wants to learn more about abstract concepts about computer science.

Very interesting course, is an overview complete and well structured.

I would suggest this course as first start to understand the logic used in appications and how computer works for give us the services.

Your course gave me a lot of knowledge to make me understand the computer and also show me how to deal with the problem with my computer by the logic which you have been guided.

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Good Course for a person who is not in the field of computer science and who wants to get deep knowledge in computer science.Thank You the University of London for that wonderful course.

A great course. Although I have come from a background in website development, I still picked up many useful tips and information about the fundamentals of computers and how they work.

I am really happy that joined this course. The all lessons in this course was perfect and I really thankful of cursera specially from Dr. Marcro Gillies. Thank You!

This course helped me a lot to understand the basics of how computers work. I was very interested in this topic and I am happy the course matched my expectations.

Very well thought out and structured lecture, even though I work in IT, I learnt a few new concepts which will be helpful in day to day work.