Severance: “Anyone can learn Python and even be a cab driver, so why not?”

For decades, University of Michigan School of Information clinical professor Charles Severance has had one goal: Make programming easy to learn. 

That’s why he created the Python for Everybody course through online learning platform Coursera. Since its creation, more than three million people across the world have taken his course. 

Most recently, Severance has been traveling the world to participate in talks, meet with students and hold office hours. He was recently featured in The Hindu Business Line to talk about his courses, the books he’s published, his love of working with students and how he is making learning accessible to everyone. 

“There was a demand for learning how to write software and learning how to program that there was no way that traditional universities could just do,” he says. “Programming is not computer science. There are so many jobs in this world where you don’t need a computer science degree, but you need to know how to program. And the Python programming language is a really easy language to learn.” 

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Read “Breaking down barriers: Dr Chuck’s efforts to teach computer languages to the most unlikely people” on The Hindu Business Line. 

Learn more about Charles Severance, his upcoming courses and the books he’s authored by visiting his personal website and his UMSI faculty profile.