Learner Reviews & Feedback for Operating Systems and You: Becoming a Power User by Google

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It was a good course. I love it especially because it covers linux for beginners like myself. Cindy as an instructor was quite good. However, it kinda felt like she never actually taught in a live classroom environment as a real teacher before. The reason I say this is because the way she explained stuff didn't seem like she was aware there were actually students who were listening to the lecture.

For people who had some sort of experience with real live classroom teaching would be aware about their articulation, delivery, and points that need to be made clear to students. The instructor always talked really fast (mind you there are many non native English speakers joining this program too, I am one of them).

Every time she typed something she would just type type type enter! It was at times so fast I couldn't even have the time to pause it (or have real difficulty to time it right to pause). I paused a lot of the instruction when it comes to the Linux materials. Because I never tried Linux before and I am so interested I want to try it along while following the video.

Another thing that's bothering me was why would they put the information about VirtualBox at the last week of the course?? I was already using the VirtualBox to practice all the Linux materials as I go through the course. I didn't even expect that they would actually give the info about the VirtualBox. I mean why? Why would you tell us that on the last week? Don't you think it is an absolute beneficial to the learners if they knew that from the start? So that they could install the virtual machine and have Linux (or windows) on their computer? That way they could practice it first hand along with the course. I literally almost shouted "WHAT?" when I got to the part where they were telling us about VirtualBox.

So my humble suggestion to anyone taking this course do yourself a favor and install VirtualBox on your computer so you could install Linux and learn by actually practicing it along the course. You can look videos on how to install it on Youtube. I watched a video on Benjamin's Tech channel called How to Install Ubuntu 20.04 on a Mac using VirtualBox (2020 Version). It really helped me tremendously understanding Linux because I got to do it along the course following all the instructions.

The last thing I want to mention is prepare yourself to be frustrated with qwiklabs. To be honest the majority of the time I had almost no trouble working with it. But, as other people wrote and complaining it does give you a headache sometimes. My only real problem with qwiklabs came at the final assignments. It didn't record my score correctly (I screenshot every steps and results). But anyhow I still passed and didn't want to bother more by contacting the customer support.

However, overall this is a really good course and I had a great time doing it.

As for the the instruction or the delivery of the course it definitely needs an improvement. It is not however the instructors fault. Cindy as I said as an instructor gave her best and was pretty good throughout the course. I would like to suggest to Google to make all the instructors to actually teach as a real teacher in a real classroom before making them the instructors on these courses. The experience of that would be really significant because they would actually be a teacher and not just an "instructor".

I always think that a "teacher" just sounds more human than an "instructor".

All and all, thank you Cindy and Google for making this course. It allows me to start learning about Linux and CLI in general in a "light version" kind of way. I guess see you in the next course.

Due to the quality of the previous networking course, I came into this course not having faith in the quality of videos.

This course turned out to be much better!

However, I pre-emptively decided to learn this course in a different manner, focusing less on watching the videos and more on practicing the commands. Here are some tips before you start the course yourself:

1.Download virtual box and install a Linux distribution as a virtual machine so you can practice along from the beginning of the course!

2. If you are not confident in the lectures then maybe consider a more practical approach. When you start a new week, note down all the topics which will be covered. From this you can start by finding the relevant commands you need to learn and can then start to practice. If you need help then you can supplement with the course lectures or external youtube videos.

3. Make sure you learn week 1's material well, make sure you can navigate and work with files and directories for both Linux and PowerShell.

4. If you are a practical learner consider using the labs to learn. What i did from week 2 onwards was to just do the labs straight away. All these labs contain detailed instructions and helped me learn by practicing. (NOTE - Week 6s lab removes the instructions to test you - managed to complete this anyway -so can you!

5. Once you have passed the labs (which are the main assessments), you can now go over the material again in PowerShell and your Linux virtual machine or even do the qwiklabs again, consolidating what you have learnt in a more practical and time efficient manner.

Overall, this course (the lecturers) seem to be better than the previous one, a strong point being the actual syllabus.

The course did a good job of building on the material. I was following along on a Linux machine and there are certain things Cindy would do off screen that i was not able to follow and had to do online research. For example, when it comes to mounting the USB drive, she creates a mount point off screen. Luckily I am good at googling things. I don't mind doing that but may hurt those who to do not come from a computer background or have had minimal exposure to computers up to the point of taking the course. I would suggest giving students access to virtual instance of Linux as we do for the assessments. This will be good for those who do not have the resources or the financial wherewithal to obtain them. I would also suggest maybe taking 2 minutes for a refresh on installing and uninstalling during this course as it was months ago we went through the first course.

For the Overall Program

I would suggest adding more assessment similar to the graded assessments during the modules. Not everyone will use Linux everyday and by the time they get to the final assessment, they will have forgotten. Nothing is more effective at retention than repetition.

I love the courses and I'm learning a lot. I do very well on the practical exams but the labs seem to be a problem. not that I can't do the work but the external tool that was used QWIK LABS caused me so much grief and headaches. the interface alway kicked me out of the lab or I would get stuck in a terminal and couldn't exit. for example the last two exams for this course I was almost done with the windows portion and I get stuck terminal and couldn't do anything causing me not to do the last question in the lab. which gave me a 80. I would have got a 100 just because of the qwik lab issues

second the linux lab had same issue gave up the first day could only do half the lab. went back redid the lab and got 100 percent after reloading the lab several times. I strive on doing well and exceeding expectations of my peers but the labs caused me to be frustrated at the way there utilized. I use a Mac computer and it was very difficult to navigate between the labs windows and back to my browser to follow the instructions.

Pros: I gained a lot of information about various operating system subjects such as using windows powershell, linux commands, and advanced file management. I have a greater understanding how operating systems perform tasks. I know how to read system logs, format hard drives and even more. Discussion prompts are fun. One is definitely going to learn something new from taking the course.

Cons: While I did enjoy the course the instructors should have of a professional appearance. The last two labs of week of 6 don't have clear instructions so I recommend using the forums for help if needed. Also I don't agree with some of career advice which is basically you don't need a degree to work in tech just many many many years of specialized experience, a lucky opportunity and a mentor. That sounds like those who are privileged socially are going to land the best tech support jobs.

Overall: I'm glad I took the course. My technical skills have increased which will help me grow as tech writer.

The labs were very difficult. However, it forced me to work on my troubleshooting skills using Event Viewer and Logs. Thank you for being mean. I was mad at first. But sometimes you have to push people in order to get them to progress. Because of the level of CLI involved, I think there should have been more hands on throughout the weekly lessons. And also when you do the labs it took 10-15 minutes for the programs to load up and that took away from the actual lab time. There wasn't enough time for a person to finish the labs. You had to take them over and over to get thru them. That was exhausting and annoying. Perhaps for other people, there should be 1.5 hours of time. This will allow time for the 'gathering of information' time and the complete hour to be used for the lab. That's the only reason I gave this course 4 stars instead of 5. All in all, it was a good course. Thank YOU!!!!! ^__^

I think the course was great. I could sit all day and soak up the info, however, I do feel like there should be more labs or some sort of role play interactive game for more hands on learning. Even taking real IT recorded phone calls from customers and turning them into some sort of additional training program for a more hands on approach. Personally, I learn better from actually doing the work than just reading and watching videos. One more note; on the last Linux lab, it is asking for us to refer to week 3 and "update an out of date software"....but I could not find anywhere in this course about updating software. Come to find out that installing the software was the answer, so that was very confusing and time consuming. Are installing and updating the same thing??? i don't think so, but please correct me if I am wrong.

I was going to give this a 3 out of 5 originally but It did have a lot new information that an IT support will need at some point. I did however feel the person presenting the course sounded robotic at times, it felt like she was just following along the prompt to much therefore made the course boring. Since I was new the command lines, PowerShell and Linux I did feel lost many times. I would like to see more real world examples. I also did not like seeing the same person for 99% of the course, which made this a little lame. It could use a mix of people more often. Again it's going to be rare to apply all this new information. I know I will forget how to some of these commands sense they are not used daily. I need to find a way to remember this stuff in the future, good thing I took a lot of notes.

The course was globally good: the videos were always interesting and the topic was well explained. There was a lot to learn/remember (the commands in both Linux and Windows) so I recommend writing it down! The only thing that doesn't give this course a five out of five ratings is the labs... The time for the last labs was too short and the instructions were not very clear. I know that it was done that way so the learner can work autonomously but I was permanently not sure of what I was doing or why I was obtaining points. It misses, for example, something that shows the learners' progress. I saw that a lot of other learners thought the same thing as me so I think that it needs some improvement in this part. Overall, it was a good course and I recommend to take part in this course :)

I want to give this 5 stars so much but I feel like it fell short on a few things. Firstly the linux labs with there pkk files were not well introduced so the first lab was a struggle to get into. Also all the other linux labs seemed to have there own quarks such as having to deviate from the parameters laid out. Which if done on purpose brilliant! If not then just a head ache. But the final labs were amazing and just made me wish all the labs had been like that. Because those were the best simulation of on the job work. The instructor was lovely. And the course material was great. Just need a little polish on the labs and an increase in difficulty and it would be exquisite.

Qwiklab assignments are quite slow to recognize actions taken in the VMs (a couple of minutes), which is understandable. Sometimes, however, I would get 50/50 on a lab and then end the lab. I go back and it doesn't show up as completed (or even attempted). Wait a couple of days for the system to work. Nope still not there. Support was able to help quickly and resolve the problem after providing screenshots of the completed lab, but one lab I had to redo because I forgot to take a screenshot at the end of it. I have no idea where the grade gets lost between the Google Cloud Platform/Qwiklabs and the main Coursera system but it happened multiple times for me. :/

This was good. I enjoyed course #2 much more than the other two so far. Many of the references that are given as "Supplemental Reading" in this course are quite boring considering the vast amount of stuff one could learn. Many topics in those sections are simply useless: I don't care about flags and options available for a command, that's what the built-in help command is for. Otherwise, you can quickly Google your way around. You won't be a power user after taking this course, but some notions are very useful and well presented, such as users and groups permissions, process management and troubleshooting with the help of system logs.

Parecerá extraño lo que diré pero ha sido el tema que más me ha gustado y disfruté mis logros; pero a la vez, me ha hecho sentir frustración, impotencia, y en ocasiones, ganas de dejarlo. Me sentía como una pelota de tennis donde Venus Linux y Serena Windows me agarraban a raquetazos tirándome de un lugar a otro o Messy Linux y Ronaldo Windows me daban a patadas y me mandaban de un campo a otro. Era como si estuviera haciendo dos cursos en uno. Pero uds. y los del Qwiklab no dejaban que me diera por vencida. Así que, GRACIAS A UDS. lo terminé.

Realmente preferiría ambos temas impartidos aparte con muchos Lab.

Excelente material, lo único que se batalla es en las pruebas pues en mi caso el teclado en Windows no encontraba caracteres que se usan en el curso, use teclado en pantalla, y o buscar comandos en el navegador y pegarlos y la ultima practica en Linux esta mal optimizado el área de trabajo una quinta parte de lado izquierdo contra otras 4 partes derecho de la información ojala revisen esos detalles habrá personas que batallaran mucho mas que yo; Nota yo uso opera y la experiencia en las otras practicas si fue buena, pero como los últimos laboratorios me mostraban fallas cambie a Chrome y fue peor saludos

Excellent material. Excellent content. The only reason I did not give this 5 stars was due to QwikLabs which are an astronomical waste of time. I finally found the problem. I did not need a workaround; the chat people are very friendly and entirely not helpful. Sadly, the problem is a simple one and lies directly with QwikLab and connecting to the Secure Shell. No one at Coursera and no one at QwikLab seems to care. The student is left on their own to try to figure it out on their own. After an astronomical 40 hours, I realized QwikLab's error. Otherwise I would give the course 5 stars.

I learned a bunch of new material in this course! I am especially happy with the labs at the end. Finally, a challenging lab. I actually had to use my head and my notes. I find the walk through labs interesting and helpful, but not nearly as much as having to try and figure things out based on what I was taught. My only gripes are the instruction seems to breeze past or gloss over certain details while going through things and there is an awful lot of "suggested reading" of things that probably should be covered. I hope to see more on those things, as promised in the videos, in the next courses.

Much of this course I already knew, though I did learn a few new tricks along the way. However the final was a bit aggravating, as it expects you to do everything in perfect order without any instructions or actual end goals, the only way to find out your actual goals, is to revert to previous labs for a turn by turn instruction and completion, which is time consuming and stressful. If they simply included/refreshed us on what specific goals were needed (i.e. delete the corrupt file, grant write access to all users for super_secret_file) it would be tremendously helpful.

Check those last two labs(Windows and Linux Logs) for grading errors. I completed all of the assigned tasks, but only received a score of 80% for each lab. I completed both of the final labs a second time, and still only received an 80% score. All of the tasks to be completed in these labs are simple, and I know that I completed everything correctly, as I've been an IT Support Manager for 5 years now, and a Support Specialist for 10 years prior, and have performed all of the tasks in these labs about 300 times. Something is wrong with the Qwiklab grading system...

I enjoyed the class and found that it covered a ton of information (thank the gods for OneNote). My only issue is that is seemed like Linux was often sort of tacked on to the program. We would spend 7 minutes of more going over how to do something in Windows and then Linux would barely get 2.

Now, I realize that some of this is because WIN is so common out there and because Linux can simply be easier to use once you understand some commands, but, if I wanted to learn Linux by studying web sites and trying to work it out, I would have done that.

I wish more examples (even if a quick in passing example) as to how some of this stuff will be used, or is important. Having never worked with a virtual machine I still don't know why that would necessarily come in handy when I think about my experience in Corporate America. Overall a lot of really good information but I wish more of the Linux labs were like the last one. I struggle the most with CLI and Bash. Having the chance to use my brain and being guided a bit better to figuring out some of these commands would have been nice.

Finally, they start to deliver on some of the "we'll talk about that in a later video" that were given out like candy back in Course 1. Not too sure why they chose to use powershell for the windows command-line classes. Surely, it'd be easier to just teach linux and say 'also, most of these commands work in windows powershell'. Also, several of the videos could be combined together. combine creating directories, and files, with deleting and renaming directories and files. Only benefit to breaking them up is a touch of suspense.

This course was amazing! So many useful tools in Windows and Linux to troubleshoot problems! Highly recommend taking this course to become a power user.

My only problem, is that I don't own a Windows PC so hands on practice was challenging. If you want the most out of this course, I would STRONGLY suggest to use a Window 10 machine. That way to can play around with the many tools provided for you in this course. Oh! and downloading Linux too! I've been using a Mac to take the course, but I just don't get enough hands on :(

Really good course. Using the Virtual Machines for the graded tasks allowed for handson experience especially the last part leading to the conclusion as it pushes you to remember all what had been taught from the preceding modules. Simply fantastic! I find it really good working with the both the CLI and Bash commands on my computers alongside the Instructor. The only part that was really difficult working with was the VMs for windows in the external tool. Overall, it was a very good learning experience for me.

I would have loved to have given 5 stars but the instructor needs to improve her delivery. There were too many times she should type something in a command line without speaking and then hit enter before I could see what she typed.

I also wished that I had the files on my system that she was playing with in the CL so I could play along with her. (I am pretty sure that I am not the only person who needs to learn this way)

It also would have been nice to been give cheat sheets in a handout for the CL commands.