Don't attempt this course without some prior knowledge of Powershell and Linux command line. I recommend "The Linux Command Line, A Complete Introduction" by Willaim Shotts (No Starch Press) , the first 100 pages, and "Learn Windows Powershell in a Month of Lunches", 3rd edition, by Don Jones and Jeffery Hicks, Manning Publishers, (especially the chapters on Help and commands). I know that these books are expensive, but they are well worth their expense. Without these books I would never have completed the course.

The initial lectues are too fast paced and with too much material to be learned effectively. The course should be expanded into a 8 or 12 week course. Also, more emphasis on explaining what the various command do would be helpful. And this is important! A dictionary of the commands used in the lectures for each week and how the commands work would help the student .

The Qwiklabs are a work in progress. For example, on my last successful attempt to comlete the final Windows Lab, the screen froze. I decided to end the lab, because I already had enough points to pass the lab.

I enjoyed the course, and I think the information will be definitely very usefull , however , I think this course (and the whole IT support program) will benefit with a.. lot more... pedagogic approach to it . It would be great if is explained before each topic, how this can be used in a real life scenario, why are we learning this specific skill. This will help to spark more interest in the topic and to remembering it a lot better.

During and/or at the end of topics , provide a couple of real life examples of problems that we can apply this skill to and how to do it. also there there is a need for many excersices along the way to practice so we can undestand and remember the information better. for example, just mentioning a command once or twice, its very difficult to remember it and even less to really understand it, mostly when its brand new information (someone who has never use anything similar).

I realize this would make the course a little longer, but it would be TOTALLY WOTH IT . ;) ... just my two cents.

like all the courses i had a lot of trouble just accessing the linux lab with my chromebook. The instructions are incomplete in the labs and led to countless hours spent with help desk staff just trying to enter or setup the lab.....ultimately the solution was very simple but after countless hours, trying six or seven times just trying to get either cloudshell or secureshell up and running to do a simple lab, a helpdesk person gave me a simple bit of information which had i known a month ago could have saved me hours of headaches.

The course was ok but i found the instructor would just breathe past command lines too quickly, moving on before i could really absorb what she was saying. A bit more explanation and a slower pace at times would have been helpful. Also a bit more explanation of the spacing in command lines would have been nice. She often typed commands without explaining why or how to place flags., the need to space everything correctly.

Too many things were glossed over very quickly. There were many topics where there were multiple solutions to an issue and one or two options were given but more were suggested by the instructor saying " there are other ways but we'll talk about them in a later course" only for them never to be brought up again. Very heavy preference was given to explaining topics in Windows PowerShell, and granted most companies do rely on them more than Linux or macOS machines but to spend 90% of the time on Windows and then get the "it works the same way on Linux" and macOS ignored I find dismissive. With more companies switching away from Windows based IT due to higher IT support costs, I find it a bit narrow minded to take this approach. I still do find the course informative and am glad to be apart of the program.

Love the instruction - clear, concise, understandable. Would be helpful for labs to immediately follow the instruction to apply knowledge in practice rather than at the end.

Final assessment 2 issues: Completed Windows lab processes (per clear instructions) but no idea how it was graded and where anything was missed. Linux (I found much easier to use) did not specify what file needed what process update or instruction = no instruction for the specific file provided. Ex. Going back to week 3 lab referred to installing Atom - the assessment lab was not asking for this but updating a file using apt update, apt full-upgrade and where none of the 4 files were specified to be updated. Unclear instruction at the end resulted in good understanding throughout and, unfortunately, 'A' grades being abandoned.

I really had a lot of difficulty with the labs especially the last linux lab in the course. I'm not sure if it's just that I am new to using command line or if they are actually not very instructional, although I have read about others in the forum having trouble with them. All in all even though I was having trouble with them it made me work in the CLI more so maybe it's good? I did end up passing. It however was not an enjoyable experience and made me dislike using linux CLI so I think that should be looked at because I do think the unpleasantness came from the labs and the instructions not from using linux. I get that the last lab was meant for us to figure it out on our own but I think it could use more guidance.

I did really enjoy the course, however I feel like the graded parts at the end of the first 5 Weeks are not so well done given that if one just follows the instruction, they can pass. Though on the other hand I can also see that by allowing one to do these will help build memory for them in the future so to speak. So I am not fully against them, just that I believe they should be practice ones instead of graded ones. Week 6 was done well, and I liked having to learn by either remembering or honestly going through my notes (Some of the more obvious answers evaded me and when I figured it out I just laughed at myself for my own stupidity.)

However helpful and interesting, there are many gaps here and there, but even more worrying is its structure, which in some point things seem to be all over the place, taking you from the obvious to rather complex things without any warning or even getting you off guard, specially if, like myself, you are totally new to many of the modern concepts of computing. The course should, on my humble opinion, keep this in mind, and try to take beginners "by the hand", at least for the most basic and important concepts, so that they get a strong basics foundation from where they can start building on and expand their new knowledge...

While I do like challenges and this course definitely presented one, I felt as though more detailed instructions and/or interactive labs instead of the usual quiz would help people gain a much better understanding. Supplemental readings on the various command lines in PowerShell and Linux can be overwhelming and I know many people struggled with the final tests. I am hopeful that the course administrators will someday utilize the virtual machines more so that you can effectively practice alongside what is being presented to you in the videos. Overall, I'm glad I was able to make it through with persistence!

Good course, very technical; almost a little too technical due to its overall lack of context. It was all quite interesting, but it was difficult finding the jumping off point at course two where the content picked up in course three...there seemed to be some kind of in-between course missing.

Also, the weekly qwiklabs would do better to build off each other while repeating more knowledge over again (i.e. week one = task A; week two = tasks A and B; week three = tasks A, B, and C, etc.) , than just jumping from topic to topic with a large wrap-up of everything at the end.

Best,

John Marshall

I experienced a bug in the Windows-VM-based labs, and no one I contacted in support was able to help me. I ended up accidentally figuring out a solution myself (I had to continuously press the ALT key in order to get my typed text to show up in PowerShell).

I guess that is on-brand for a tech support certification, but it is unsettling to me when I think of how I have already put $500+ into this certification and no one could help me ensure that I hadn't just thrown that money away. It makes me less likely to trust Coursera with a significant investment of funds in the future.

I really wish there were more practice problems using command lines and linux. I had a difficult time grasping those concepts by watching. For those instances I think doing would be more appropriate since in the work environment it'll all be hands on. I think there should be hands on assignments in every module so that when it's time to do the graded assessments the students have a better understanding. Concepts were fine, but having to go through notes and remember how to type out lines was frustrating and made the end of course assessments more difficult.

A pretty nice introductory course to the Linux OS, terminal and Windows PowerShell/other admin utilities!

Nothing is particularly difficult if you have been exposed to basic troubleshooting in either of these systems for some time.

Some of the labs are a little clunky and mostly just review what you just watched the instructor do, rather than explore deeper into the principles. That is to say, they don't really push the boundaries of your knowledge. They are still good learning exercises if you're not the type to usually "follow along" with learning videos.

I learned a lot in this course but it was very hard to see what the instructor was typing into the command line much of the time. Sometimes she read the command aloud and that helped a lot. Other times I had to pause, rewind, pause, and repeat several times to catch the command. This is especially true for Linux. I also found that most of the commands ended up being useless in regards to the tests and final. I ended up just googleling how to do what the tests asked me to do and then using those commands instead because the course ones didn't work.

The instructor was great, the material is important, interesting and good for a beginner. the labs are, well sometimes they absolutely don't work, sometimes they have misleading instructions, sometimes you just have to copy and paste things and don't learn anything because the previous videos never even mentioned the commands you have to use, and they don't explain it either in the lab. my favorite is the last lab, were you have to remember the command from the first course, because if you try what you've learned in this course, it won't work.

I enjoyed this course, an equal amount of time was spent on various topics, but a significant amount of practice will be required to master these skills. I am fortunate to have experience with system and user administration so it was a great refresher course. There were faults with the Qwiklabs exercises during week 3, that support was not able to resolve. Then in week 5 I was referred to week 3 to complete a task so the material was out of date and Coursera was not helpful, they quickly dismissed me to qwiklabs with no sympathy whatsoever.

As a first time to be introduced to Linux I feel that the course was not detailed enough. When I got to the final lab I struggled with the correct syntax and when I tried to revisit the courses what was needed was not clear. It seemed that the lab was asking me to do things that were failing, with the Windows one I was unable to update the software, and I tried many different ways. With the Linux lab I completed all of the 5 requirements and still was only able to get 80% and I am unsure why or what I was doing wrong.

The information in this course is very important. Coursera and Google need to work on the presentation and how Qwick labs are used in this course. Several of the direction items in Qwick labs are incorrect and confusing, and there are very few ways to get good information to complete the labs. Also, much of the presentation could be done in a much more activity-driven way rather than just reading what you are doing on the screen. In week 4, the quick labs have bad directions, and in week 6 have bad directions.

Far too much for a beginner to remember well enough to finish in under one hour. I can't help but wonder if this might be a 'bottleneck' where a lot of students get hopelessly stuck and lost and are forced to give up. I appreciate y'all's efforts, it's just that repetition is the mother of all learning, and these tasks were only touched upon. Even if the course has to be made longer, it's vital to guide beginners through a lot of repetition and practice before expecting them to do a lab such as this. Thank you

A decent intro course, but don't expect to have mastered anything when finished. The course doesn't offer enough challenges and opportunities to practice what it teaches. The week 6 lab was how all the labs should have been. It gives you an opportunity to apply the lessons being taught in an enviroment that doesn't completely spoon feed you everything and allows you to play and experiement. This course could be so much more, but unfortunately decides to appeal to everyone and keep it on easy mode.

5 stars for Cindy and the way she explains the information and 3 stars for the webpage, it is horrible. It would be better to have the video pop out of the page, and the coach logo (bottom right corner) is in the way of the transcript, you need to add a minimize button or hide option for that or keep it to the left with the module information if we need the coach, please redesign the page configuration so that video can be popped out of the webpage. thank you.

This course was particularly lacking in presentation. The slides used in videos were often on word on an otherwise blank white background and were sometimes even single punctuation marks, with no title or supporting text to explain the single word (or punctuation mark). There were several errors in the videos, glitchy labs with poor instruction (lab 6 especially) and at least one test that had contradictory instructions resulting in a wrong answer.

The course is an overview of Operating Systems and has good information. However, many of the labs were ill-constructed and difficult to understand and navigate. Further, some of the tasks in the labs were not covered in the course. I rated the labs and sent feedback on these areas. Prior to beginning one, I read many students' reviews and they had the same to say. I feel the labs need to be reviewed for accuracy of information and instruction.

It was OK. The Windows labs frankly made it a pretty miserable experience. From logging in frustrations to actual frustrations with the way the labs failed constantly. I realize that this is an entry level course but it seemed like most of the meat of the course was in the readings and not covered in the lectures. It really should be labelled Becoming a Basic Problem Solver not a power user. I enjoy these courses but this one, not so much.

Very disorganized structure of course presentation, too much useless information that has nothing to do with lesson/subject. Also, what kind of reputation coursera has when so called "instructor" said: "sorry i just lied to you few seconds ago"?, also there was some misleading instruction in videos, when I was trying to follow them.. it just DIDN'T WORK!!!!! I hope that you will improve explaining the materials better and efficiently.