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University of Michigan

Internet History, Technology, and Security

The impact of technology and networks on our lives, culture, and society continues to increase. The very fact that you can take this course from anywhere in the world requires a technological infrastructure that was designed, engineered, and built over the past sixty years. To function in an information-centric world, we need to understand the workings of network technology. This course will open up the Internet and show you how it was created, who created it and how it works. Along the way we will meet many of the innovators who developed the Internet and Web technologies that we use today. What You Will Learn: After this course you will not take the Internet and Web for granted. You will be better informed about important technological issues currently facing society. You will realize that the Internet and Web are spaces for innovation and you will get a better understanding of how you might fit into that innovation. If you get excited about the material in this course, it is a great lead-in to taking a course in Web design, Web development, programming, or even network administration. At a minimum, you will be a much wiser network citizen.

Status: Network Architecture
Status: Web Servers
BeginnerCourse15 hours

Featured reviews

JM

5.0Reviewed Jun 15, 2016

Dr. Chuck is the best!! The interviews with the Grandfathers and Innovators of the Internet are AWESOME! I highly recommend this class to everyone, you will definitely enjoy it tremendously.

GR

5.0Reviewed Mar 8, 2021

The course is a very good startup course for those interested in the ins and outs of the Internet. The instructor (Dr. Chuck) is very good in teaching the course and very knowledgeable.

AA

4.0Reviewed Aug 10, 2017

Great classes. Very easy for everybody looking to have a first contact with the subject: although a bit more in-depth explanations about the technology part would have been great.

NT

4.0Reviewed Jul 10, 2020

It's good start for anyone who wants to know how it all came to be and how things are getting done now. It's a fun, interesting, educative and most of all, relaxing course.

U

5.0Reviewed Jul 20, 2020

Thank you for making me a part of such an awesome course. My special thanks to Dr. Chuck who made his lectures very interesting and fun. Would love to do more courses under him.

HH

5.0Reviewed Aug 18, 2015

Covers an broad, yet manageable scope of computer, network and Internet history followed by an short, understandable taste of the complex scope of cyber security and cryptography.

JH

5.0Reviewed Jan 2, 2020

The course is not just taught with enthusiasm, but many of the key events are described by people who were directly involved. The course should have something new for almost anyone.

HB

5.0Reviewed Mar 16, 2018

Dr Chuck is awesome as always, I really learned a lot about the internet's history. Dr Chuck's passion for life and teaching really comes across in his lessons. -- Thank you sir.

IC

4.0Reviewed Aug 14, 2015

This is a very good course for those who know very little about the internet or computers and is a fantastic stepping-stone for doing other computer science course latter

SI

5.0Reviewed Apr 26, 2019

Great Instructor! I have learnt alot from this course as well as the instructor. I am thankful to coursera for providing me this opportunity to learn from an instructor like Dr. Charles Severance.

TR

5.0Reviewed Aug 12, 2020

This course was awesome. A combination of the history, sociology and practical architectural / implementation elements of modern digital and internet technology. I enjoyed it thoroughly. Thanks Chuck!

SS

5.0Reviewed Nov 12, 2016

Very interesting course. The instructor is really helpful and knowledgeable person. Someone interested in internet should take this course. It's awesome and fun to learn.Best of luck!!!

All reviews

Showing: 20 of 713

Jeffrey Jose
5.0
Reviewed Oct 24, 2015
Stacy Bird
5.0
Reviewed Jan 8, 2016
Syed Azeem Inam
5.0
Reviewed Apr 26, 2019
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5.0
Reviewed Jun 5, 2019
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5.0
Reviewed Jun 15, 2016
Diogo Azevedo Pereira Dantas
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Reviewed Apr 7, 2019
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Reviewed May 23, 2019
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Reviewed Aug 20, 2019
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5.0
Reviewed Nov 1, 2019