Course overview

Welcome to An Introduction to Programming using Python! It’s great to have you here. As discussed in the welcome video, software runs the world. Computer science is an exciting subject and has an enormous impact on our society, as you will see through this course.

Computer science relates to challenging problems and industries and offers elegant solutions that improve our quality of life. You can find computer science applications in biology, mathematics, engineering, robotics, linguistics, physics, statistics and many more. Computer programs offer reliable ways to do things. Among other things, software can drive our cars, autopilot a plane, stream this course to you, make robots move intelligently, help with solving challenging biological problems, and help us make accurate predictions about the weather and the economy.

In this course the aim is to:

• provide a brief overview of what programming is
• introduce some basic programming concepts
• introduce some basic Python syntax (variables, functions, if statements, loops)
• provide a platform to program a simulated toy robot to move in space.

We aim to teach you what is needed to program the robot by the end of the course. The course should provide you with a good taste of what programming is and help you realise how interesting and rewarding it is to create programs. At the end of the course we provide suggestions of what to look for next and how you could go about improving your understanding about Python, and programming in general.

Course structure and assessment

• The course is not facilitated, but is designed to support peer learning through online discussions. 
• The course is designed to last for two weeks but you can take longer to complete it.
• Each week is divided up into activities.
• There are a series of quizzes, exercises and discussions for you to do throughout each activity.
• There is a graded assignment at the end of the course. You can take this assignment as many times as you like to get your Certificate of Achievement. The pass mark is 70%.

This course is part of the Click Start collection of short courses provided by the University of Leeds. Click Start is a nationwide training programme developed by the Institute of Coding (IoC), supported by a consortium of industry leaders, educators, and outreach providers, and funded by Nominet. Click Start aims to diversify the tech industry and address the UK’s digital skills gap.

Learning outcomes

• Describe what computer programming is
• Describe what an algorithm is
• Describe what variables are
• Describe what logic operators are and explain the AND, OR and NOT operators
• Reflect on the use of different primitive data types in Python
• Create and run a simple “hello world” Python program
• Create a simple program in Python that can accept input from a user and display output to a user.

What do you need to do next?

We only ask that you maintain your enthusiasm and work your way through all of the materials provided (video, reading, exercises, investigations, discussions). You will build your understanding gradually, and it will take a little bit of time before you will be able to program the robot.

You will need to learn new things, so please follow the course carefully, even when things are still theoretical; it will all contribute to your programming and Python skills.