Some University students have asked myself that is good to take some extra courses to learn programming. That is good to take some courses. But that is more important to get your hands dirty. I suggested them to buy some books and look into their example codes. Then they can download some opensource projects and try to understand their codes. If they think they learn enough, they can start their own opensource project to build somethings.
Moreover, I keep to suggest them that they need to be keen for search work experience positions. The industry experience is very very valuable.
Programming is very important to practice.