Okay, here’s a preliminary update. I dropped the R Programming course on Coursera because after a basic introduction to R, the first substantive assignment jumped a couple levels in difficulty. In other words, there was a gap between the instruction and the assignment. This was frustrating. So be aware that you will need a bit of extra time to invest in order to get past this gap, either before or during the course. (I contrast this with the Introduction to Programming with Python course I’m taking on EdX from MIT, which is simply a flawless course, with a smooth and sure conceptual slope.)
Okay, here’s a preliminary update. I dropped the R Programming course on Coursera because after a basic introduction to R, the first substantive assignment jumped a couple levels in difficulty. In other words, there was a gap between the instruction and the assignment. This was frustrating. So be aware that you will need a bit of extra time to invest in order to get past this gap, either before or during the course. (I contrast this with the Introduction to Programming with Python course I’m taking on EdX from MIT, which is simply a flawless course, with a smooth and sure conceptual slope.)