RMOTR

After taking the introduction to python course, I'm not sure that the other reviewers took the same course I did. Because of the scheduled course times and promises of adding projects to our github profiles, I assumed this was a well-structured course with clear goals and expectations, but this course felt disorganized and disjointed. The syllabus is a bulleted list with no description of lessons or assignments, no dates. The lectures left me feeling unprepared for the assignments, and the lectures were very short compared to what I expected (often ending quite early). I expected 4 hours of lecture material prepared each week, but at least two of those hours were for working on assigments (as individuals or groups). Working in groups was extremely inconvenient, and I would have preferred about triple the amount of individual assignments during the first 3-4 weeks of the course, and then work on larger projects as a group (or individual, if preferred) during the last couple weeks once we all got used to working with github and the IDE, and comfortable with the overall flow of the course.

There was a distinct lack of awareness or interest in accessibility: transcripts are not provided for the lectures (I asked), and there is a heavy reliance on Google hangouts for voice and video communication. The teacher hopped around a lot when sharing his screen, flipflopping between tabs and windows, which made it very difficult to follow. He was very receptive when I brought it up to him, but the fact that I even had to bring it up (and the fact that providing transcripts is not something they will do) told me a lot. A RMOTR employee in the slack chat also used disabled slurs and did not respond when I messaged them privately.

The slides are provided for the lectures, but they are not super helpful, and they are white text on a blue background, and therefore not easily printable or useful for note-taking.

The course was advertised as a good introduction for anyone who wants to learn Python, and listed Codecademy's Python course as a good starting point and prerequesite. Other than Codecademy, I have very little coding experience, and felt completely unprepared for this course. The instructor and mentors kept saying "it'll all make sense soon" and I kept holding out hoping the next lesson would be "the one" where they tied it all together, but it never happened, and eventually 6 weeks passed.

In hindsight, I wish I'd requested a refund.

Out of desperate frustration around week 4, I searched for ways to supplement this course and to do what I set out to do (learn Python), and i discovered coursera's Intro to Python specialization program. This turned out to be much more appropriate for a beginner, and it actually covered much more material in a much shorter time-- if you've got no programming experience and want a more structured educational experience, you might try that instead of RMOTR.

RMOTR's intro to python course is probably great for people who have much more coding experience than I have, and are just looking to learn a little bit of Python to supplement their current skillsets. It is not for true beginners who are looking to learn Python as a first language.

The online environment needs some work: There's a students section and a learn section for individual assignments and for accessing lectures, and it's not clear which is which without loading them. The RMOTR environment for individual assignments is terrible if you need to higher magnification. Zoom is used for lectures, Hangouts and Cloud9 are expected for group work, Github instruction left a lot to be desired, Slack is used for general course information and off-topic memes or offensive conversations... At one point a google calendar went out, too, but I don't think it was ever updated. I highly suggest that RMOTR change their format so that it's more of an all-in-one experience, or lay out all the links, supplementing materials, expectations, and hardware/software requirements in one central location.

Mentors are available on a fairly regular basis to answer questions, which was helpful, but I wish that the material had been presented in a way that I didn't need so much handholding. With Coursera, all I needed to do was review the course materials a little more before figuring out the problems myself. The material really isn't available through RMOTR-- you really have to ask for help if you get stuck and don't have previous Python experience. The assignments for RMOTR are more about making tests pass, rather than about learning to write code.

I took this course because I heard about it through their new partnership with Women Who Code, and I feel like RMOTR has a lot more growing to do before I'd recommend this course or this company to anyone.

I've got many more comments and suggestions but RMOTR should hire me as a consultant if they want my expertise. :)

***RMOTR has merged with another online education company as of Sep 2019, so the course curriculum may have changed.***

I completed the Python Data Science course summer 2019. Personally I think a lot of self discipline and commitment to apply what you learn on some passion projects are required in order to make this worth while, but the same can be applied to any other online remote bootcamps. That's why it is 1/10 of the cost of an onsite fulltime bootcamp. The first two months were python fundamentals (those were great intro with awesome teachers) and the last month was data science libraries. Towards the last month, the subjects get more challenging with less time to go through in details during the weekly 2 hour (twice) online live sessions. The mentoring session availability was very limited to specific time and day during the week. 

The downside here is that they decided to make the "final project" as optional and promised that we could schedule and/or request for feedback on the final project if students decided to pursue it, but that was not the case. In the end,  they issued certificates without reviewing the project. I assume it is most likely because RMOTR was busy merging with another online education company. I am happy for their success, but I would appreciate more if they actually finish their commitment with students to review final projects as part of the course. It felt very unstructured at the end. 

Did I learn how to write basic Python functions? Yes

Did I learn how to explore and apply basic data science libraries? Yes (a lot of self discipline to learn and google on your own is required here)

Is this a hands-on course? Yes (in the beginning for Python fundamentals, they have test driven examples for you to practice with) and No (towards the end especially when creating your final projects, I felt I was left in the dark)

I am not sure what will happen after the merger as they are changing their learning platform, but I hope they will learn to be more transparent and accountable with their students to follow through the completion of the course. If this becomes purely an online course with self-paced materials, I believe there are other resources at a much cheaper price (ie. Udemy Jose Portilla data science and machine learning course for $13), but otherwise (if it still has live sessions), it is worth exploring. 

I'm very happy I chose RMOTR as a first online introduction to Data Science. 

The main reason is how the course is structured. Most online courses will have you start working on data science libraries right away. This is a mistake in my opinion. 

It is important to understand and know the basics of Python before using these libraries. Otherwise, you're going to miss the fundamentals which will hinder your development if you want to take things further. 

RMOTR starts with 2 months of Python before teaching you data science libraries which I thought was very helpful. 

Something else that is very important: teachers are great and knowledgable. They are always available to answer questions of all types, whether about an exercice you are stuck on, or even career development. 

Joining RMOTR means you are part of a community which helps staying on top of news, interesting articles & projects. You can also post your problem to the community and get help from other students. 

Obvisouly not everything is perfect. Here is what I think they could do better:

 - Sometimes the exercices they give are pretty difficult compared to the material we learned in class. I would have loved it if there were hints in some of the exercices to help solve the problem. 

 - During Christmas holidays, it wasn't 100% clear what the schedule was. The agenda switched a bit during that period, and communication could have been better. 

Overall, I recommend this program if you are looking to get into data science, and especially if you prefer taking an option where you have an actual class and community with a teacher going over the material. This is what I was looking for in contrast with the self paced options. I wanted to have classes every week to stay motivated.

Not even at my University level did I meet any instructors who were as engaging and commited as those who guided me through the program at RMOTR. Amazing value for price.

From the instructors, at every level, I found the most understanding patience of the learning process. This level of understanding is also reflected through RMOTR's UX, the website navigates through the curriculm, which I found to give a great in-depth lesson into Python, Django and Data Science(using Python). 

This program does run quite a commitment, though there is a bit more freedom than in-person bootcamps. What I loved most about the program was that the classes were recorded and posted to review within hours, this was phenomenal with revisiting and graping a better hold to lessons.

The final project is a fun and intense dash of work. Working collaboratively(if you so chose to work in a group) is a great lesson in taking refining project scopes, identifying goals, working toward these goals, adjusting, and presenting. 

I would highly reccomend RMOTR to any individual who is interested in learning Python and interested in either Django and/or Data Science. It was absoluetely a blast learning and feeling the trenches of a lesson and emerging with a better understanding. Much like a good workout, it's going to work you to a better inidividual. 

<3

I attended the Intro to Python rmotr's course in November, and had a great experience. I loved the way how lectures were organised, with a clear path to go from point A to B, know what to do and when to do it.
I guess that's one of the hardest part of learning. Knowing how to avoid wasting time reading or looking for resources that are not good enough.
Mentors were also really helpful and kind.
I had a few issues with the class time, and I couldn't attend to a few of them. I hope they could support more timezones for people out of US.

I loved the fact that I could do this at home, otherwise I wouldn't have been able to graduate from any other school because I work everyday and arrive home late at night.

I don't have much to say about RMOTR, it's just a good place to learn Python, period.
There was a stumble the first day with software related issues, but everything else was great. 

Sadly they don't offer much variety in terms of technology. All courses are about Python and related stuff. I will keep an eye to their website, hopping they are more courses soon.