Course Location: Real Time Online Class
Course Dates: Jul 7^th to Sep 8^th, 2021
Course Hours: Wednesday 6:00pm to 9:00pm (Pacific Time)

Course

Course Description:

This course provides a rapid and practical introduction to computer programming and application development. This course is for students with little or no programming experience. It is an ideal starter course for people who are relatively new to working in IT or people who would benefit from a refresher course before venturing onto further study. Students can expect to learn basic computer programming concepts and skills with an emphasis on preparing for in-depth study in one or more of the PCE certificate programs. This course explores the logical part (how to think like a programmer) as well as explains the technical part (how to speak “Computer”).

Information about this course on the UW CC website: https://www.pce.uw.edu/courses/foundations-of-programming-python

Course Learning Objectives:

Upon completion of this course, students can expect to:

• Demonstrate basic computer programming concepts
• Explain the software design process, including consideration of some common design trade-offs
• Program in a modern, dynamically typed programming language
• Create non-trivial programs in Python
• Define similarities and differences between commonly used programming languages

Course Format:

Group format: Start and finish your course with the same group of students, with frequent opportunities to interact with your instructors and classmates along the way. This course is 100 percent online, with set due dates for assignments and online classroom meetings. Learn More

Assignments: Course assignments help you learn through reading, watching demonstrations, performing programming in Python, and reflecting on what you learned through writing. You are strongly encouraged to continue your learning by experimentation.

Requirement: Students must be able to research, perform, and communicate about its subject, the foundations of programming using Python to pass this course.

Time commitment: Each week takes between 6-12 hours of your time, so plan accordingly!

Course Materials:

The course materials are available on the Canvas course website. Here you can find the modules and assignments necessary to complete this course. You can also find the course discussion forums on this site.

Additionally, you will be guided to videos on youtube and external webpages.

Course - Textbook:

The required textbook for this course is Python Programming for the Absolute Beginner, Third Edition, By Michael Dawson ISBN-10: 1435455002

Tip: We cover most of the first 8 chapters, so if you want to prepare ahead of time, reading it now is a great way to do that.

Course - Technical Requirements:

Access to a computer on which software can be installed (Installation happens in course, no preparation prior to start date necessary). This course can be completed with windows based, MacOS based or Linux based computers. Processor and memory requirements are low.

You will need a moderately fast internet connection to access all the video content and partake in the video conferencing classroom meetings.

Course Topics:

• Module 01: Computers, Programming & Python
• Module 02: Types, Variables, Assignments & Simple I/O
• Module 03: Operators, Expressions & If Statements
• Module 04: String Methods, Sequences & Loops
• Module 05: Tuples, Lists & Dictionaries
• Module 06: Functions & Modules
• Module 07: Files & Exceptions
• Module 08: Software Objects
• Module 09: Object Oriented Programming

Throughout the course interspersed, different programming concepts, coding philosophies and industry standards will be covered. We will also introduce git (using github).

Course Assignments:

• Assignment 00: Install Python and post an introduction on the course website
• Assignment 01: Create simple script files for basic automation
• Assignment 02: Create a script using built-in function and operators
• Assignment 03: Create a script using conditionals, loops, and files
• Assignment 04: Create a script using tuples and text files
• Assignment 05: Create a script using list, dictionaries, and text files
• Assignment 06: Create a script using create custom functions
• Assignment 07: Create a script using exception handling, advanced file processing, and classes
• Assignment 08: Create a script using object-oriented programming techniques
• Assignment 09: Create an application using advanced classes and code modules

Course Grades / Successful completion of Course:

This course is graded as pass / fail. Throughout the course, assignments will be graded on a points scale. Overall, 10 x 100 points for a total of 1000 points can be achieved. For successful completion (pass grade), 800 or more points must be achieved. Additionally, for this online course, an attendance on 60% of the class sessions is required. The class sessions will be recorded and made available for the class only (not the publicly).

 

Course Instruction Team:

Instructor:

  Name: Dirk Biesinger (he, him, his)

  eMail: dbiesi@uw.edu 

  Office Hours: as required.

Dirk is a Sr. Data Scientist Consultant by day and ML enthusiast in the evening. He organizes the Greater Seattle Kaggle meet-up once a week. Dirk moved to the Seattle area in 2017 and previously lived and worked in Canada (BC and AB) and Germany. He holds a Bachelor’s in Business Information Systems as well as an Associate Degree as Industrial Mechanical Technician. He worked in diverse industries: technology, aerospace, oil and gas, food, banking, manufacturing.

Dirk’s multinational, multicultural and diverse industry experience afford him quick grasping of the overall situation while identifying of relevant and distracting elements.

Previous Experience at UW:
IT FDN 100/110 Instructor: Su 2021, Wi 2021, Su 2020, Au 2019
IT FDN 100/110 TA: Au 2018, Su 2018
PY 210: Au 2018 (TA)
PY 220: Wi 2018 (TA)
PY 230: Sp 2019 (TA), Au 2019 (Instructor)
DS 410: Sp 2019 (Instructor)
DS 410: Course Developer

Instructor Assistant:

  Name: Laura Denney

  eMail: ldenney@uw.edu

Laura is a recent graduate of the UWPCE Python Programming Certificate as well as the IT Foundations Certificate. She did her undergraduate degree in Psychology and French at the University of Washington (2011) and completed a graduate-entry Masters Program in Nursing from the University of Sydney in 2016. Laura is currently continuing her career journey as the IT Coordinator for an Internet/Cable Provider in the Seattle Area. In her free time Laura tries to stay active with hiking, swimming, running, and indoor rock-climbing; sometimes with an accompanying audio-book for that extra-multitask level up.

Experience at UWPCE
IT FDN 130: Fa 2017 (Student)
IT FDN 100: Wi 2018 (Student)
IT FDN 120: Sp 2018 (Student)
Py 210: Fa 2018 (Student)
Py 220: Wi 2019 (Student)
Py 230: Fa 2020 (Student)

Student:

Canvas Learning Management System:

This course used the Canvas learning management system. If you have not used it yet, I recommend you review the online training for using Canvas at this link: https://canvas.uw.edu/courses/889687 (external site)

UW PCE Attendance Policy

For online classes, 60% attendance to the class sessions is required.

Student Assessments:

Students will receive comments and feedback on the assignments they submit. This feedback can be in text form or it might be recorded video.

Grading and Feedback:

For the grading, a reference document will be used by the instructional team. This is to ensure fair and equal grading for every student. This reference document will NOT be made available to students. The feedback given to students will also be based on this reference document. Students will receive feedback that guides to the areas that require attention / improvement. This feedback will be provided in a timely fashion. This means it might take a couple days after the submission due date.

Grading Rubric

Most students can expect grades between 80% to 90%. Achieving 95% to 100% requires extra effort and submitting excellent work.

In general terms, 90% or more requires excellent work that demonstrates a solid and firm understanding of the principles and concepts, correct organization of the submission throughout, fully correct and functional code and college level or better presentation of the materials.

80% to 90% is good work that demonstrates adequate understanding of the principles and concepts, has a mostly correct organized submission, has mostly correct and functional code and mostly coherent presentation of the materials.

70% to 80% is fair work that shows gaps in the understanding of the principles and concepts, somewhat correct organized submission, somewhat correct and functional code and a somewhat coherent presentation of the materials.

Less than 70% is poor work, that shows little effort or understanding of the principles and concepts, mostly unorganized or incorrectly organized submission, mostly incorrect and non-functional code and mostly incoherent presentation of the materials.

Late Policy

Assignments must be turned in on time to get the maximum points. A penalty of 5 points per day is deducted from the score when an assignment is turned in late. This late policy will be enforced for assignment 03 and later.

Student Participation:

Students are acknowledged as participating in the class if they have logged into Canvas, accessed the module materials, posted comments and questions, helped answer these comments and questions, and submitted completed assignments (Canvas tracks this information).

Student Code Policy:

The University of Washington's Student Conduct Code applies to all students, including students enrolled in UW Professional & Continuing Education courses. Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic responsibility. Plagiarism and other kinds of academic misconduct are considered serious offenses at the UW. Plagiarism is using someone else’s words or ideas without proper citation. It can range from failure to credit a single sentence or paragraph to passing off an entire article, speech or another student’s paper as one’s own. Instances of academic dishonesty for noncredit courses are handled by the University of Washington Professional & Continuing Education Committee on Academic Conduct. If evidence of academic misconduct is established, the student will be given a failing grade for the course and any request for a refund of course or other fees will be denied.

General Discussion Forum:

Students can use the discussion forums to communicate with each other between course sessions/module. You may post questions or comments about the course, including but not limited to questions about textbooks, course materials, learning objectives, or other course content.

Feel free to respond to the comments of your fellow students. For guidelines about effective posting on discussion forums, please see our Netiquette page .

UW PCE learning Environment

Policies and Values:

To support an academic environment of rigorous discussion and open expression of personal thoughts and feelings, we, as members of the academic community, must be committed to the inviolate right of privacy of our students and instructors. As a result, we must forego sharing personally identifiable information about any member of our community including information about the ideas they express, their families, life styles and their political and social affiliations. If you have any questions regarding whether a disclosure you wish to make regarding anyone in this course or in the course community violates that person's privacy interests, please feel free to ask the instructor for guidance.

Accommodation:

The Disability Services Office strives to help make the UW community more accessible for all. If you are a nondegree student seeking accommodation for a permanent or temporary disability, contact the office for more information and assistance. You can reach Disability Services at 206-543-6450 or dso@uw.edu.

State law requires colleges to reasonably accommodate students who, due to the observance of religious holidays, expect to be absent or endure significant hardship during certain days of the course. This includes rescheduling exams and permitting absences. If you need this type of accommodation, please discuss with your instructor within the first two weeks of class.

Mental Health Resources:

UW SafeCampus: www.washington.edu/safecampus |206-685-7233 | safecampus@uw.edu

Available 24/7.  Staff will assist students in distress or in need of resources on health, wellness, self-care, and suicide and violence prevention.

 

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This course is offered through or in partnership with UW Continuum College.
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