This course is designed to teach you the basic skills required to write programs using the REXX language in z/OS. The course covers the TSO extensions to REXX and interaction with other environments such as the MVS console, running REXX in batch jobs, and compiling REXX.
A total of 11 hands-on labs on an IBM Z server (via remote Skytap access) are part of this course. On successful completion of the course, learners can earn theor badge. Details here- https://www.credly.com/org/ibm/badge/ibm-z-os-rexx-programming
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I participate in many courses here. This one was comprehensive. Some problems I could mention are, - The VM environment that is provided for exercises expires in 2 weeks, all progress and configurations will be lost and there is no way to ship them to the new VM. - Sometimes the constructor explained an interesting concept in a minute without any other clues, usages, or exercises. - The sequence of exercises is not matched with lessons chapters.
Recommended for all mainframe developers
The course material and lectures are clear and well paced. The excersizes are well designed and extremely helpful in gaining an understanding of the material. They are flagged as optional but going through them is definitely the best way to learn the material.
I would have given this course five stars except:
It's hard to find the instructions for gaining access to the lab for the excersizes. Links to the Excersize Guide and signon instructions for the lab should either be made more prominent on the course website or should be mailed to the student directly.
Also, the excersizes become out of step with the lessons starting around week 5 of the course. The excersize link for a given week at that point is for material covered in the next week's course. Even worse, the test given in week 10 is for material that isn't covered until week 11.
In general, the course material was well presented and well learned.
Towards the end of the course, the labs and the end of topic quizzes slipped out of sync with the actual material being presented in the topic. This was confusing and seems to be needless.
The access to the mainframe environment for completing assignments worked very well and I found it pleasing that I didn't have to fight to make that access work. It was just there and that was appreciated.
Pretty good course. There are some issues, however: Exercises are issued where training has yet to be provided, quizzes have questions referencing items that have yet to be taught (SYSREXX not taught until Week 11, quiz in Week 10 references SYSREXX)
This was good supplemental education on REXX for the mainframe. There were a few spots where I feel they could have done explain concepts in more detail for individuals new to the mainframe, but overall, I recommend this.
Nice course, nice programming language
The class is 11 weeks. You are given 2 weeks to complete the labs. Is this intentional or just carelessness on Coursera's part?