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Learner Reviews & Feedback for Using Python to Access Web Data by University of Michigan

4.8
stars
43,904 ratings

About the Course

This course will show how one can treat the Internet as a source of data. We will scrape, parse, and read web data as well as access data using web APIs. We will work with HTML, XML, and JSON data formats in Python. This course will cover Chapters 11-13 of the textbook “Python for Everybody”. To succeed in this course, you should be familiar with the material covered in Chapters 1-10 of the textbook and the first two courses in this specialization. These topics include variables and expressions, conditional execution (loops, branching, and try/except), functions, Python data structures (strings, lists, dictionaries, and tuples), and manipulating files. This course covers Python 3....
Highlights
High quality content

(256 Reviews)

Practical assignments

(217 Reviews)

Top reviews

SM

Jun 18, 2020

This course was really interesting and did a good job introducing complicated topics in usefully simplified form. It was a pleasure to listen to the instructor and I got everything I wanted out of it.

ML

Jun 16, 2017

Excellent course with in depth explanations. It is well structured. It learn to access Web Data from very basics to optimum level. It help me to understand details of using Python to Access Web Data.

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6426 - 6450 of 7,921 Reviews for Using Python to Access Web Data

By ABHAY R K

Jul 18, 2023

would love to have practice examples other than just the assignments if possible. That way we get the confidence to write the code without having to refer to the code shared. Additionally, it would be nice if an editor with intellisense is recommended. This otherwise feels like writing in notepad for C Programming language where you had to know each and every library detail and syntax was unforgiving.

By Jehan F K

Aug 22, 2021

Compared to the rest of the courses, I felt this one was the hardest, that I was somewhat booted into the deep end and had to figure out how to make things work on my own as compared to the others where what to do and what was being taught was very obvious, nonetheless it's still good

It would be much better if you could go into greater depth and explain more about using Python to access the web

By Haoming L

Dec 9, 2019

Pretty challenging course and it is really a harsh but precious experience to understand the key concepts, what the relationship between different syntaxs and the server is, and deal with the assignments. The only problem is that the gap between this course and the previous course is so large that I was even confused by huge amount of new terms and programs and did not know what to do at first.

By Pradhuman S

Mar 18, 2020

We were provided with codes after week 5 in which we had to make changes. It made the assignment easy. I would have loved the course if the parts of code which were provided in last were explained properly instead of giving just a brief idea. For others who are opting this course i would advice them to search the net for the parts which were not explained in the video for better understanding

By Ana L d M R

Feb 19, 2019

I love the short lecture videos, as well as the worked exercises one. They are very insightful. I also find it interesting that the professor takes time to explain other concepts like the HTTP protocol, xml, json and APIs. I just got a little frustrated about the amount of times we are just asked to copy and paste some sample code without understanding how it works (e.g. ssl, api keys).

By Roberto Z

Jan 20, 2016

This is a simple, practical course that will teach the basics of how to access web resources with python programs.

The goal is not teaching you how to write nice programs, but just enable you to write something working to pull interesting data out of existing data sources like files and web services providing text, XML and JSON data.

The videos also feature some interesting background.

By Jerry T

Feb 7, 2023

Lots of ambiguity at some points. Very helpful info though. Some of the discussion forum questions could have been answered in more helpful tone. I didn't write anything but read thru to get tips on assignments.

Moderator needs to understand people are taking this course after 8 hours of work, spending time with family and stopping and going. The retention and pick up is a challenge.

By Miloš T

Jan 11, 2016

Very good course for beginners. I liked the lectures, they were engaging and bonus videos are nice addition. Exercises were maybe too easy, but still for a beginners course just right. The only problem is there is less practical work than it should be, adding more exercises would be nice, and adding more difficult ones would help better grasp the material. That's why only 4 stars.

By Syed M F J

Jun 18, 2017

I was looking for a web scrapping kick off in python and come across this one of its own kind course. It is really a very good course not only focusing on practical and applied side but also giving a good start/refresher of internet technology, making a good good background. Interviews of relevant major break throughers are also on spot. A highly recommended course for starters.

By Julian M

Dec 5, 2016

This course was very well set up, and easy for a person with a reasonable knowledge of Python basics to understand.

I would have appreciated a little more in-depth assignments, or perhaps two-stage assignments that delved a little more deeply into JSON and XML use, to expand upon the concepts learned in the first.

Overall a fantastic intro to interacting with web data with Python.

By Mohaimenul I

Jun 16, 2023

As usual, I love Dr. Chuck's courses. But this course felt a lot harder to understand for me. Personally, I still couldn't get a grasp of those URLLIB, JSON-type things properly. It's maybe my fault, but still I couldn't understand properly when to import what. This would be a lot more helpful if I could understand some complex principles about importing these and some headings.

By Shivkumar U

Mar 9, 2017

An excellent course, Dr. Chuck manages to put various things with ease. Material as well as teaching is excellent. However, I found the necessity of having more programming exercises with more difficulty than what course presently offers. More exercises with higher difficulty are needed to emphasize the material we have learnt. Apart from that, this is an excellent course.

By Philipp D

Feb 18, 2020

I liked the course, but somewhat less than the first two from this specialization and I was undecided for a while whether to give 3 or 4 stars. I would have appreciated more background on urllib, API, or ssl, at least in the (admittedly free) text book. I also think that the part on the Service Oriented Approach in its current form is too condensed to be really helpful.

By Xinlun Z

Sep 13, 2019

This course may be hard for laymen who only know a little about Internet. I will recommend people who has a hard time initially to watch some intro video about Internet on YouTube and then come back. Anyway, if you see this informative course through to the very end, you're gonna have a strong understanding about the regular expression, Internet, HTML, XML JSON and API.

By Leonas M

Jan 23, 2016

Loved it, it was hard, but i completed. Course needs some updates, there are few mistakes that took me longer time to complete tasks. And i liked the videos when it was Dr Chuck and desktop video in same video, it was more easy to keep along. Now it is harder when you concentrate on the code and then suddenly you lose your concentration when you see Dr. in full screen.

By Abdur R

Feb 7, 2016

I found it to be a very useful class on important topics in web analytics. The homework assignments are not very difficult and encourage learning instead of grade-seeking. Plus, Dr. Chuck is an engaging instructor!

P.s. I gave it 4 starts because the assignments were a bit too easy at times. My feedback is to include advanced but optional assignments in future sessions.

By Sebastián G P

Feb 26, 2019

A very good course explaining the fundamentals of data analysis using python. The course is a little dense, and goes a little to fast if you are a beginner, but it will let you explore the most important elements for accessign web data. The teacher is one of the bests that I have seen in Coursera, and the bonus materials are incredible.

The previous courses are a must.

By Joseph D

Aug 6, 2021

This course was very informative and detailed in explaining how to interact with API enpoints. I would like to have had more exercises to work on, and the lectures seemed to be much higher level than the homework and graded assignments. However, I still feel like I learned a lot and it was a great introduction on how to use python to interact with API's and websites.

By Benjamin W

Dec 2, 2015

Dr Chuck - a computing professor with a sense of humour - won me over in the end. This doesn't ask too much. It's clearly set out and you get to have a little go at programming at the end of each session. This course highlights how easy Python is more than anything and that's a good thing. Good coding language for beginners. Good course for beginners or novices.

By Alan W

Nov 29, 2015

Great course and even though the topic was more interesting then the previous 3 courses (interesting as in fun) I didn't like the new format where Dr. Chuck wasn't in a picture-in-picture frame so that we could always see the slides and him at the same time. Many times the slides would cut out to him and it was very distracting as I'd have to pause and go back.

By Vijay P R

Jan 15, 2017

The lectures are well explained. But the programming exercises are too basic . Expected the programming assignments to be more challenging . Good course but each week could be completed by 2-3 hours . And the 6 week course can be completed within 1 week by casual work . But its a good introduction to access web data using python . Recommended for beginners .

By David T

Mar 22, 2016

I did the whole course over about 1 day. I was already familiar with Perl, Regex, HTTP, XML, JASON and web scraping, but totally unfamiliar with Python. Fortunately it did not rely on having done earlier Python programming basic parts too much. Will I do the other parts of Python for everyone? No, I think I would rather work and learn on my own problems.

By Sophia M

Aug 11, 2020

This course felt a lot harder to understand than the previous Python Data Structures course, probably because there is a lot more specialist vocabulary and terminology relating to the world wide web and data transmission which students are unfamiliar with. The concepts are sort of confusing but the instructor's explanation was relatively helpful.

By Sean H

Jun 16, 2020

This class helps you write programs that talk to the world. It's a good introduction to how the Internet works and how data is shared and processed.

The instructor is helpful, but I advise taking good notes and taking the time to re-read previous chapters of the textbook to understand the techniques you need to use to complete the assignments.

By Anshul k

May 8, 2020

Firstly loads of thanks and regards for making such a wonderful course. The course content and quality is undoubtedly very good but specifically for me i felt i didn't understood the that last API part that very efficiently as i did the whole course so i request you please update that part i.e. week 6 and have us get it through more clearly.