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Back to Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners

Learner Reviews & Feedback for Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners by University of California San Diego

4.2
stars
1,485 ratings

About the Course

Are you interested in learning how to program (in Python) within a scientific setting? This course will cover algorithms for solving various biological problems along with a handful of programming challenges helping you implement these algorithms in Python. It offers a gently-paced introduction to our Bioinformatics Specialization (https://www.coursera.org/specializations/bioinformatics), preparing learners to take the first course in the Specialization, "Finding Hidden Messages in DNA" (https://www.coursera.org/learn/dna-analysis). Each of the four weeks in the course will consist of two required components. First, an interactive textbook provides Python programming challenges that arise from real biological problems. If you haven't programmed in Python before, not to worry! We provide "Just-in-Time" exercises from the Codecademy Python track (https://www.codecademy.com/learn/python). And each page in our interactive textbook has its own discussion forum, where you can interact with other learners. Second, each week will culminate in a summary quiz. Lecture videos are also provided that accompany the material, but these videos are optional....

Top reviews

HD

Apr 17, 2016

I give this course 5 star because I did Bioinformatics I and I totally enjoy it.

This is where programming can be fun, and practical, and you'll learn some basic biology too.

What's not to love?

HL

Aug 15, 2017

I learned a lot from this difficult and time-consuming course! It covers biological concepts using Python. It made learning Python more interesting for me, since I have always loved biology.

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226 - 250 of 445 Reviews for Biology Meets Programming: Bioinformatics for Beginners

By Simon C

•

Jan 5, 2019

I came to this course with a decent computer science background (some undergrad courses) and basically no biology knowledge (grade 10 general science twenty-some years ago). I found this course to be really easy and pretty fun. I'm still quite confused about the biology concepts, but that didn't make it hard to write the code or implement the algorithms. I'm definitely continuing with the following courses. I only watched the first of the videos. It was ok, but I found the interactive text easier better. The only reason I'd watch the videos is to learn the pronunciation of the biology terms, but the prof has a really heavy accent.

By David M

•

Jun 17, 2023

This course is both great and a little frustrating.

It's great in that its interactivity gives you a chance to explore the algorithms, and guides you through the development of the algorithms.

It's frustrating in that sometimes the descriptions of the algorithm inputs are ambiguous or (occasionally) misleading. Fortunately, the student discussion is readily available to help you disambiguate the instructions.

Occasionally there are subtleties that go unmentioned.

The programming environment is functional, and, more important, the inputs to programs are available to let you debug the programs in your own environment.

By Aditya P

•

May 10, 2019

There was some really interesting information covered in this course. However, the programming assignments and explanations seemed unpolished, there were lots of typos or explanations that were simply unclear and confusing, and the randomized algorithm section made it unclear whether I was getting the coding exercises wrong due to a mistake in my coding or whether it was due to the random nature of the algorithm. Having us use a random seed for these algorithms would have cleared things up. Overall, OK introduction to the specialization, but I'm hoping the courses in the specialization will be better prepared.

By jared n m

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Apr 16, 2020

The course is organized well. The lectures are fantastic. One improvement seriously needed is the grading system. One quiz question asked to normalize probabilities, but it does not specify to what decimal accuracy that we should give the answer. First I gave the answer without rounding. I got "Wrong". Next time I rounded it to two decimal places and I was marked "Right". Why is two decimal places good and the other bad? At least state it in the question please! Such a great course, but suck silly weaknesses makes it look bad, so I hope you take this seriously and correct. Thanks

By Dominik F

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Feb 12, 2022

Initially the course is quite nice and easy to understand, but chapter 4.... Suddenly the pace picks up and you often feel a bit tricked at the examples Especially when the "trial" example is easy and the later test change the input type or require a different access method for an array. From the informatics side, that's a completely unfair way of testing. You can't debug, but the code fails with a strange exception. The forum is "helpful" but usually you see the solution as soon as you open it :( Other than the last chapter, the course was very good though.

By Irina U

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Mar 14, 2019

it was challenging, but interesting with very exciting code challenges! however, i really wish the theory was explained in a more visual manner. i believe that would increase the understanding of the concepts described there, because as for me, i don't yet feel confident with the theoretical basics of the course. though i got much more confident with python programming - practical part was much easier for me.

anyway, i'm VERY GRATEFUL to the creators of the course for providing me with this awesome opportunity to familiarize myself with Bioinformatics.

By Ramesh S

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Jun 4, 2017

Very interesting introduction to two topics at once- genomics and Python programming, resulting in a perfect storm for me! But I thoroughly enjoyed the way the concepts were presented, explained, and then examined in some detail. Perhaps the course stopped too early- just when I was able to build up some momentum. That said, some of the details (especially in the programming exercises) were of uneven difficulty: cleaning up the examples and smoothing the exercises would go a long way to make this course even better.

By ShNayak

•

Jan 16, 2017

The stepik interactive text was just amazing !! I think it is a great way to teach. Integrating with Code Academy to learn Python was really helpful. I spent quite a bit of time on a few challenges. However, arriving at the solution was very rewarding. As a biologist, it is a good start for first time exposure to bioinformatics and algorithms. There were some concepts I had to read multiple times to understand. Some detailed explanations by earlier students were helpful in a few cases.

By Rachel B

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Oct 13, 2018

A heavy emphasis on Python using codeacademy's python course. I have been trying to learn python anyway so it complements what I was already doing. I like the integration of biology and tech used. Because I do not know python yet, this is a lot more time and work than other courses I have taken through coursera. I am working through the free version but might restart the paid course to earn the certificate when I am done with the other paid certificate I am working on.

By Mukund P

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Aug 4, 2019

The programming sections of the course are not great. The lack of conventions being followed makes programming become quickly confusing. More mnemonic naming would have prevented hours of going back and forth to check which code snippet exactly is being referenced. The course structure is good and delivers on its title of Bioinformatics for beginners. It is more structured like a case study on how you can use computer science to solve problems of biology.

By bmysona

•

Dec 31, 2022

Good course for trying out some Python programming related to Dna code searches. If you are new to Python, definitely do the complete python training before starting the course. Most exercises have sufficient guidance in the text/lesson combined with hints in the discussion forums. I liked it enough that I am going to try the bioinformatics specialization. This course does not teach how to interface python with other online bioinformatics programs/tools.

By Xavier L G

•

Oct 7, 2016

The course content is highly challenging and that's great for a sense of accomplishment. The biological problems motivates the biologist to go through the abstract mathematical concepts(but I have to admit there is a threshold where the biologist can not get it well anymore(greedy motifs, gibbs ...) and I wonder if he does really need it to be practical with day to day problems with chip array seq selex...)

be ready you will struggle hard here

By David K

•

Mar 1, 2017

This has been a very helpful course, showing me how to program in a fun way because every coding challenge is linked to a biological question. I think the pace of the course was good, without any prior experience in coding I've had a few moments where I was stuck. But thankfully with some patience and helpful replies from the teaching assistant of the course to my questions in the discussion, it was possible to get past those coding problems.

By Wesley R

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Sep 29, 2020

I have some programming background (in R) so I was able to understand much of the code but I definitely would have been lost had I not had any programming experience. And indeed, in the third-party lesson host, many people were commenting on how they were lost. I was able to learn python at a basic level through this course. Definitely not for beginners, however.

By Thiago J

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Jan 19, 2021

The platform makes it difficult to retrieve code from previous lessons (i.e. navigating through lessons in Stepik is tedious and cumbersome). Some of the lessons are not explained very clearly.

However, the course is challenging enough to force you to think and implement solutions. I recommend this for any biologists willing to learn bioinformatics concepts.

By Alan M H

•

Mar 5, 2021

I believe the course is kinda too hard for beginners. I had to go through a lot of stress at some points. Perhaps stressing a little bit more on some of the more complex syntaxes would help a lot. That said, I really enjoyed the course and really felt like I learned a lot! I am so grateful for the opportunity of finally getting into bioinformatics.

By Miz D

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Jun 28, 2022

Very good course that provides a taste on what bioinformatics algorithms look like.

If you are not familiar with Python this will be too difficult for you. Practice python for at least 2 weeks before jumping here.

Explanation for contents in topic 4 can be improved.

Overall it is a great, highly interactive and intellectually challenging course!

By Michael H

•

Jan 12, 2021

There where some annoying problems when taking the quizzes. For example .1 was wrong, but 0.1 was correct. Other than that it was pretty good. I already have a degree in computers so the algorithms weren't too hard, but they could be difficult for someone who has never programmed. I only wish subsequent classes were also free.

By Mirac E

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Jul 14, 2021

In my opinion this course provided quite an improvement to my Python programming and problem solving skills. Reason I cut off 1 star from my rating was : in some steps I couldn't understand the instructions so I didn't know what to do. In future revisions you can give more examples or schemas to explain the concepts better.

By Ramis R

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Jul 9, 2020

Pretty solid course for a beginner. I think the methods used here were nicely game-ified so it was fun and the course material was challenging. However, as in most programming or higher-level courses, the user is rewarded highly for doing their own research outside to apply to the situations required in the course material.

By laura p

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Jul 23, 2020

This course is difficult for beginners, who have never take a programming course before. It took me a lot of time (days) to figure out most of the codes in this course. Although i couldn`t fully understand all the topics, i finished this course having a general idea of the basics in Python and what i need to learn next.

By Jeffrey L P

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Aug 30, 2016

Not a bad course, but it is a python programming class. There are some steeper steps at times if you are not used to python. Support can seem distant if you hit one of these steeper steps. It's best to have a coding attitude and not a "I want to read about biology and genetics" attitude to approach this class.

By Abraham B S

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May 7, 2020

Although it is said that you will learn programming from scratch, people with no experience might find this course difficult, specially Weeks 3 and 4. I encourage newly programmers to not give up, there is light at the end of the tunnel and you can find useful information in the comments.

By Carlos A E S

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Jan 8, 2020

Very good course to get an introduction to bioinformatics. I would also recommend taking an R language oriented course. On the other hand, this course would benefit from an update in its feedback system so that students are more likely to finish and avoid getting stuck at certain points.

By Kie V I S

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Jul 2, 2017

Overall it was a good experience. I had so much fun learning the connection between molecular biology and programming. The programming assignment was okay but the theory of molecular biology was still out of reach for me. We had to use a third party application (stepik), which is good.