Vector Databases for RAG: An Introduction
IBM · View on Coursera ↗
Taught by Wojciech 'Victor' Fulmyk, IBM Skills Network Team
Computer ScienceData ScienceInformation Technology
About the course
Gain expertise in using vector databases and improve your data retrieval skills in this hands-on course! During the course, you’ll explore the fundamental principles of similarity search and vector databases, learn how they differ from traditional databases, and discover their importance in recommendation systems and Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) applications. You’ll also dive into key concepts such as vector operations and database architecture to develop a strong grasp of Chroma DB's
The dissent
The most-upvoted critical review (1 vote, 2.0★).
“I would say the course and especially the readings and questions are mainly AI generated. The topics are clearly layed out, but the questions are just randomly associated with those topics and do not contribute to any understanding.”
Coursera's 4.6 comes from 106 ratings. Of those, 2.8% are 1–2★.
Starisk reads the reviews learners voted most helpful, and weights each by the square root of its votes: a review with 80 upvotes counts about five times one with 2. Unvoted reviews are not skipped out of laziness — by this model they carry no evidence that other students endorsed them.
That measures what the most-endorsed reviews say, not “true quality.” The rating distribution above is the whole population, so you can see the sample next to it.
Reviews read on 23 Oct 2026.Read them on Coursera ↗