StanfordOnline: Computer Science 101

Computer Science 101 (CS101) is a self-paced MOOC developed by the University of Stanford that introduces students to the fundamental concepts of computer science.

Computers may appear to be complex, but they actually operate according to a few fundamental principles. The course deconstructs and visualises those patterns, that are beneficial to anyone who uses computers today.

Participants in the course will have the opportunity to explore and experiment with short phrases of computer code in order to bring the power and limitations of computers to life. There is no need to download or install any additional software, because everything works within a browser. The course covers the basics of computers today, such as what a computer is, what hardware is, what software is, and what the internet is.

This course is self-paced and may be completed by anyone who knows how to use a web browser. There is no prerequisite knowledge of computer science, beyond a basic ability to use a web browser.

What will you learn?

More in details, during this course participants will learn:

• The nature of computers and code, what they can and cannot do
• How computer hardware works: chips, CPU, memory, disk
• Necessary jargon: bits, bytes, megabytes, gigabytes
• How software works: what is a program, what is "running", etc.
• How digital images work and digital media
• Loops and logic of computer code
• Big ideas: abstraction, logic, bugs
• How structured data works
• How the internet works: ip address, routing, ethernet, wi-fi
• Computer security: viruses, trojans, and passwords, oh my!
• Analog vs. digital
• Digital media, images, sounds, video, compression

CS101 uses a variant of Javascript as programming language. The course code to explore the nature of computers, but does not pursue code in the depth of a full programming course.