CS101 is a self-paced course that teaches the essential ideas of Computer Science for a zero-prior-experience audience. Computers can appear very complicated, but in reality, computers work within just a few, simple patterns. CS101 demystifies and brings those patterns to life, which is useful for anyone using computers today.

In CS101, participants play and experiment with short bits of "computer code" to bring to life to the power and limitations of computers. Everything works within the browser, so there is no extra software to download or install. CS101 also provides a general background on computers today: what is a computer, what is hardware, what is software, what is the internet. Anyone who has the ability to use a web browser may be successful in this course. No previous computer science experience is required.

Institution: StanfordOnline

Subject: Computer Science

Level: Introductory

Prerequisites:

Zero computer experience is assumed beyond a basic ability to use a web browser.

Language: English

Video Transcript: English

Associated skills: Computer Science, Experimentation, Web Browsers

What you'll 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"

How digital images work

Computer code: loops and logic

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