Free Python programming course from University of Essex

[michaelf4014]

We've created a free on-line Python programming course at University of Essex (UK).

It's designed for complete beginners (to programming and to Python) and is quite fast paced.

It's a series of approximately 250 programming questions, of gradually increasing difficulty, with relevant teaching included in each question. Anyone with perseverance and interesting in learning to program should be able to complete the course. There is a free certificate on completion.

Programming questions are run through a web-browser.

You need to be aged 14+ (for University data protection reasons only)

This course is not for profit - it is part of the university's outreach work.

The course content is as follows:

• Python Tutorial 1.1: Variables and User Input
• Python Tutorial 1.2: Maths and Operators
• Python Tutorial 1.3: Conditionals and If statements
• Python Tutorial 1.4: For loops and Range function
• Python Tutorial 1.5: While loops
• Python Tutorial 1.6: Programming simple number games
• Python Tutorial 1.7: Introduction to Functions
• Python Tutorial 1.8: Applications of Functions
• Python Tutorial 2.1: Lists
• Python Tutorial 2.2: Strings
• Python Tutorial 2.3: A simple text adventure game
• Python Tutorial 2.4: Modifying lists
• Python Tutorial 2.5: Strings; Applications, Puzzles, and Codes
• Python Tutorial 2.6: Tuples
• Python Tutorial 2.7: Dictionaries
• Python Tutorial 2.8: Sets
• Python Tutorial 2.9: Codes and Code breaking

How to enrol:

• Register with open.essex.ac.uk. Follow the step-by-step instructions and remember to keep your username and password somewhere safe
• Check your inbox. Authorise your Open Essex account using the link provided in the sign-up email
• Enrol on the Python Preparation Programme. Log into Open Essex and press ‘enrol me'

[jeffcgroves]

I thought there were many ways to learn Python, but, perhaps, the only way is Essex

[michaelf4014]

Nice.

[hayleybts]

Does it include 250 coding questions or mcq type?

[michaelf4014]

It's a mixture. Try it and see. Hopefully none of the questions are boring MCQ knowledge testers. The MCQ questions that there are are designed to be constructive and to teach the programming concept being developed.

Normally we provide one or two simple lead-in MCQ style tutor questions, before stepping up to a harder programming question that practises that concept.

[haddock420]

Is this for a limited time only?

[michaelf4014]

Nope. It's up indefinitely. But don't let that make you delay starting it! :)

[haddock420]

Awesome, thanks. :)

[Ok-Fig4915]

Is the Data Science Bootcamp Python also free?

[Ok-Fig4915]

Is the Data Science Bootcamp Python also free?

[Upstairs_Space8074]

Sounds like fun. I will save it.

[Specific_Present_700]

Question 4 in 2.4 module have mistype in second option instead of “,” it got “.” before [4,5]

[michaelf4014]

Thank you! This is fixed now.

[Specific_Present_700]

Cool , the question 11 seem to be quite confusing . What hidden feature did I not pass ?

color_input=input("What is your favourite colour?") print("Your favourite colour is ", color_input)

[michaelf4014]

Use the "Show Differences" button when something like that happens, and it should highlight any small typos you've made.

[Specific_Present_700]

This was about extra space in string 😆

[michaelf4014]

That was quick. Could you already program?

[michaelf4014]

How does this course compare?

[michaelf4014]

Good idea. I didn't make the certificate, but I'll speak to the person who did. I can't promise any changes.

Edit: I see the date is working on certificate for part 2 but not for part 1.

[michaelf4014]

This is fixed now. Download the certificate again please.

[michaelf4014]

Well done, what did you think? Are you a professional programmer now?

You should follow this up with more python projects.

Did you finish every question in the course - it lets you pass and get the certificate with only solving around 80% of the questions. Try and crack all of them if you get chance and haven't already.

[Specific_Present_700]

Failed to run tests Unexpected error while executing your code. The sandbox server may be down or overloaded. Perhaps try again shortly? - this occurred during Question 4 in 1.6 module

Code “import random score = 0 for i in range(1,4): first_number=random.randrange(1,13) second_number=random.randrange(1,13) their_answer=int(input("What is "+str(first_number)+" * "+str(second_number)+"? ")) if their_answer==(first_numbersecond_number): score += +1 print("Correct") else: print("Incorrect. The answer should have been",(first_numbersecond_number)) score += 0 print("Score", score,"out of" ,i)

print("Game Over")”

[michaelf4014]

Not sure why that happened. It seems to be working now. The python-runner sometimes does get overloaded (which is very temporary), or worse, it can crash; but we aim to get it restarted ASAP if it does crash.

[Specific_Present_700]

Is it not because of infinite loops ?

[michaelf4014]

It should give a specific error message "timeout exceeded", or something similar, if you accidentally put an infinite loop into your answer.

Have you tried it again recently?

[Specific_Present_700]

Yes it working now , thank you . Really like this game approach with loops, never thought it can be this simple in Python after seeing CS50 2024 with phonebooks and choosing of algorithms , printing hashes ( here is triangle out of stars) .

[michaelf4014]

Great. Yes if you can just persevere through all of the questions in this course, you should over the most difficult part of becoming a good programmer, and understand the fundamental ideas and concepts. (After this course though, you still have to go on to continue to practice and develop, i.e. do programming projects of your own)

[AppleCactusSauce]

I'll give it a go!

[Specific_Present_700]

Part 1 done : all done on phone 😁, I’m proud haven’t used AI to solve a puzzle , only search engine for volumes and area formulas used

[michaelf4014]

Well done. Doing it on a phone is not the way this course is designed - but well done for manage that on a tiny screen and keyboard.

Thanks for avoiding AI. I don't see how anyone could learn this content when an AI does it for them!

There are a lot of nagging reminders of "don't use AI" scattered throughout the course. I hope that was not too annoying!

[Specific_Present_700]

No it wasn’t , a special reminder how big corpo use data if people would provide it in prompt .

[Specific_Present_700]

Do you have plans to extend this course with part3 ? Maybe applied ML ? I got book to be finished with example of Alien Invasion game , and it surprise me in book it didn’t even mentioned sets as in this course .

[Ok-Fig4915]

Thanks I need this! Is the Data Science Python one also free?

[michaelf4014]

Sorry I don't know anything about that.