Do the programming exercises use Google Colab or some other cloud-based environment? It seems more than just Jupyter with python kernel – there is some link into a files folder for data and the notebooks. Just curious how is all of that setup. I would like to replicate that environment locally on my machine or may be in a similar cloud environment. Thanks.
The Coursera environment for executing the assignments uses Docker Images hosted (I think) on AWS. For each assignment, there is a whole tree of files you need in addition to the notebook file itself. It is possible to set up an environment to run the notebooks locally or you can run them in Colab, but you need all the accompanying files. There’s a topic about how to download all the files on the DLS FAQ Thread.
There are no official instructions for how to install all the software you would need to run locally and it’s not a simple matter. Here’s a thread that will get you started down that road.
Google Colab is also a possibility. It uses Jupyter Notebooks as the fundamental execution environment, but there are some changes you’d need to make because of the way file access works there. You’d have to load the assignment files into your Google Drive and then you have to modify the way file folders and current working directories and all that are managed within the notebook in order to get things properly connected on Colab. There are not any concrete instructions for that here on Discourse, but I have not really looked at the Colab documentation and tutorials. If you have any previous experience on Colab, you would probably have some idea already of how to manage the conversion.
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Thanks Paul, as always.