Fundamentals of Programming (5 cr)

Learning outcomes

The student is able to
- use the fundamental syntax and building blocks of programming languages
- plan, implement and test small-scale programs in accordance with the best practices of programming

Materials

- Material provided by teacher in Canvas
- Helsinki University Python MOOC online course [parts 1-7]
- Online sources
- Own laptop [MacOS, Linux, Windows]

Teaching methods

Students work with programming assignments independently as per online instructions. Students are encouraged to come to tutoring sessions to seek guidance with assignments that they could not complete on their own OR to listen possible lecturing.
Learning videos and links will be offered in Canvas to further advance studying.

Employer connections

N/A

Exam schedules

Students have the opportunity to participate in distance learning classes according to the schedule.

At the end of the course, there is an opportunity to increase the grade earned in class assignments by participating in a voluntary exam.

Class assignments must be completed during the course in order to pass the course. The student must progress in the tasks throughout the semester - the teacher is not responsible for the progress of the students' work. If the student does not ask for help and does not make sufficient progress, he will be given a failing grade.

International connections

N/A

Completion alternatives

Options for completing the course can be agreed upon with the teacher.

All students are entitled to demonstrate their competence. The recognition and accreditation of prior competence is initiated by the students themselves. The competence is recognised and accredited by the teacher responsible for the studies or another person designated to the position. The assessment is carried out according to the same assessment criteria and, as a rule, same grading scale as that adopted for the corresponding study unit or module. The student is entitled to apply for accreditation of prior competence regardless of where, how and when the competence has been acquired. The student may also seek accreditation of competence to be acquired on the job as part of their degree (work-based learning). ... The student is responsible for demonstrating and verifying their competence and for providing sufficient information.

Student workload

The time spent studying depends on the student's study skills, previous experience in programming and logical thinking, and motivation.

Typically, it takes 26.7 hours to earn one credit, so it would take 133.5 hours to earn five credits.

Content scheduling

Introduction to the programming. User input. Variables. Arithmetics in programming. Conditional statements. Loops. String. Functions. About IDE's. Structured data. Formatted printing. Reference types. Reading and writing files. Variable scopes. Error handling. Modules. Randomness. Times and dates. Data processing

Evaluation scale

H-5

Further information

This course is about studying basic structures of a programming language.
No previous programming experience required.
Programming language used in this course is Python.