Learn the Fundamentals of Programming using Python – Starting August

Course(s) Offered: Software Engineering
Course Level: Training course for beginners
Provider: University of Toronta (via Coursera)
Country to Study in: Online (any country)

Course Description
Do you want to learn how to program? Programmers make the web go round. You wouldn’t be reading this page or have a website like Google or Facebook to surf without the genius of programmers. Here is an opportunity for you to learn how to program, starting from the fundamentals.

The University of Toronto, through Coursera is offering another free online session of the course – "Learn to Program: The Fundamentals", starting August 19th, to teach you the fundamental building blocks of programming and how to write fun and useful programs using Python Language.

An Introductory Video for this course is below (scroll down to the end of this post to watch it).

Eligibility
This course is intended for people who have never seen a computer program. It will give you a better understanding of how computer applications work and teach you how to write your own applications. More importantly, you’ll start to learn computational thinking, which is a fundamental approach to solving real-world problems.



Recommended Background:
This course is intended for people who have never programmed before. Knowledge of grade school mathematics is necessary: you need to be comfortable with simple mathematical equations, including operator precedence. You should also be comfortable working with simple functions, such as f(x) = x + 5.

Eligible groups
Any interested person from ANY country of the world with a Computer and an access to the Internet can apply.

Participating Institutions
The University of Toronto in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; in concert with and through Coursera - a social entrepreneurship company that partners with the top universities in the world to offer courses online for anyone to take, for free.

Fields of study
A course in Software Engineering, a branch of Computer Science.

Course Format:
The class consists of 1 to 2 hours of lecture each week, which are made up of videos that are generally shorter than 10 minutes each. Each video contains integrated quiz questions. There are also weekly standalone exercises that are not part of the video lectures and a (non-optional) final exam.

Course duration
This is a 7 weeks long course. Workload is 6-8 hours/week 

Course benefits
Behind every mouse click and touch-screen tap, there is a computer program that makes things happen.

Computer programming languages share common fundamental concepts, and this course will introduce you to those concepts using the Python programming language. By the end of this course, you will be able to write your own programs to process data from the web and create interactive text-based games.

Method of Application
If you are interested in this course, you will NEED to sign up for it on the official website (link to it is below).

The course will start on August 19th 2013 and you will be notified if you sign up, just before then to remind you when class will begin.

DEADLINES:
The 7 weeks long course is offered at different sessions: 1st session was September 24th 2012, another session starts August 19th 2013. Dates for future sessions can be found on the official website (link to it is below).

PLEASE NOTE:
A computer program is a set of instructions for a computer to follow, just as a recipe is a set of instructions for a chef. Laptops, kitchen appliances, MP3 players, and many other electronic devices all run computer programs. Programs have been written to manipulate sound and video, write poetry, run banking systems, predict the weather, and analyze athletic performance. 

This course is intended for people who have never seen a computer program. It will give you a better understanding of how computer applications work and teach you how to write your own applications.

If you have basic background knowledge of Python and object-oriented programming (OOC) and want to see how the language can be used for web-specific projects, take this course on Web Programming with Python.

Application Deadline: Before 19 August 2013
Open to International students: Yes