As other reviewers have noted, this course is NOT for beginning programmers! (Unless maybe you are a mathematical genius with total recall.)

I have a little background in programming, HTML and CSS, but I found this course to be an absolute nightmare. It would be interesting to find out if any of the rave reviews came from real beginners.

Most of the problems have already been noted by other reviews, so I will only mention a few that I did not see mentioned.

The course requirements should include hardware and software essentials. In particular, the student has no choice but to use Android Studio. If their system is not running a 64bit OS at 2.4 GHz with at least 8 GB of RAM, it can literally take DAYS for Studio to complete the build so that the student can do anything with assignment code.

There is a desperate need for a glossary. The course dives in with more acronyms than the military, and assumes the attmpting learner already has a handle on APIs, SDKs, etc., not to mention many other technical terms (interfaces, ...). If I asked the average programmer to evaluate the MT based on comparisons with the Complutensian Polyglot and Codex Alexandricus, the effect would probably be about the same.

Another glaring omission for beginners is a battery of exercises for each concept/skill.

As for "We've organized all these topics into units that represent roughly 4-6 hours of work each," that is absurd! If you multiplied that by 10, it would still be a stretch.

I have no doubt about the programming and technical competence of the instructors (though there are some errors in a number of the instructions). And I'm sure they are very nice people who really want others to learn. The root problem seems to be what professional communicators call "The Curse of Knowledge" -- a syndrome in which a person is so familiar with their subject that they cannot begin to imagine what it is like for someone who is not.

My recommendation to a beginner is to look somewhere else. Take a good introductory course in Java before diving into the vastly more complex world of the Android environment. I am not qualified to evaluate the course from the perspective of an experienced programmer, but I have noted that they are frustrated by clutter caused by token attempts to make this a beginner course.

My recommendation to the faculty is to completely re-engineer this whole specialization. They should have a separate set of courses truly designed for beginners, and they should get help from qualified instructional designers who specialize in online adult education. (Might not be a bad idea to get the VU English department to review the lecture text as well.)

My recommendation to anyone is to never believe anything Coursera tells you about a course. Audit the course BEFORE you pay any money! This is especially important if the course has not actually started. This course started two months late, and I could not get a refund before the course even got under way!

After taking nearly 6 months to wade through a little over half the course requirements, I decided to look at the rest of the assignments and project. This removed all doubt that to continue was a hopeless waste of time. So, I decided to end the nightmare, and I'm glad it's over!

If you do not already know java (or at least have some experience with it) I would NOT recommend this class. They say all you need to have is very basic computer knowledge (sending emails, opening a browser), but the lectures are taught using acronyms and terms that are not at the beginner level. Even the basic concepts are explained using advanced terms or examples that contain code far beyond a beginners level.

They also do not really spend any time going over the programming basics. They discuss them a bit, but they never really give you a bigger picture or really how all the concepts you've learned fit together. There is no real consistency throughout the course, it just seems like they are throwing random concepts at you and hoping you understand. Then they throw you an assignment that requires you to do rather complicated coding (for a true beginner) without any other form of practice before hand.

The assignments are also a bit of a mess. All you are really doing is 'filling in the blank'. They give you all this code that has already been written without actually tell you how do to that yourself or what a vast majority of it does and you have to fill in code in a couple places to make it work. But since everything else is written, you can not run the code as you write it to check your work. It will fail because the code is looking for things you haven't written yet. You must write the entire assignment before you can see if the first line of code you wrote works. I find this to be a very poor teaching method. You should be able to check your work as you go, or experiment with different ways of writing things. Instead you are forced to write exactly what they expect.

The course is awesome not just for getting some bases for mobile developing but for programming and knowing more about the language, coding, etc...

I have a bachelor in Computer Engineering and i got "dissapointed" that i take year in my course for knowing things that were worked out in this course and learned in hours. It probably was easier to retain the information because i already knew some of it but still was awesome to see that the course prepared well people about all a programmer needs to know to give the first steps.

Amazing instructors and amazing explaination and also discussion forms also helped me in debugging and also some tricks like x*1.10 to get x+10% also blew my mind.I really loved this course and These instructors really are good at their work.So, Be sure to try this course if you got time.

Assignments separates business logic from Android code. Allows users to practice Object Oriented programming and general Java programming. The course has a wealth of knowledge for beginner programmers. I definitely recommend this course as a good Intro to Java course.

Was awesome do this course, very complete approach about java utilization for mobile applications.

The instructors have a very impressive knowledge that surprised me.

Nice course. But I have already learned Java, it might be simple for me at the beginning. But some detail are great for me to deepen my knowledge.

This course is quite beneficial for beginners. Highly recommended for those who want a kick start towards android app development

Well structured, very easy to follow, detailed concept broken into chunks, enough assignment to boost experience. I loved it.

This is a best course ever, everything explained in detail and concepts were clear, course outline was clear and amazing

It was very helpful to me. I really enjoyed learning with Coursera. I also thank Vanderbilt University. Love You All.

this course is very good and used for me in industry to get very good job.it is give me very great opportunity.

This course of java for android was really awesome, solving it gave me a chance to learn android studio.

After study this course am learning my types of topics for developing android application..

So thank you

It is a good course to learn about java , oops concepts , android studio and Java collection framework.

This course is very useful to me at the time when I am about to start my career in Android Development.

I highly recommend this course for students who need basic understanding about java and android studio

Great course to start android app development. will also take further course in this specialization.

Great course for beginners to learn and intermediates to clarify and strengthen their grip over java

This course is fantastic! Everything is well explained, assignments are fun to engage in. Thank you.

Excellent course. One of the best materials needed to start with android development hands down!!!

Really very helpful course and it gives a lot of information on android to be a professional coder.

i was able to learn a lot and the style of teaching made the whole new concept easy for a beginner.

It was real awesome . I think this was real a great choice for me to choose this course . Love you

A great course to know some Java features like class, interface, polymorphism, overload, overwrite