First Impression

In this blog post I will discuss my first impression of the online course ‘An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python’ and my experience the first two weeks in the course.

In week one I became familiar with the course site and learned about CodeSkulptor (website where we write and implement Python code), comments, print, arithmetic operators, operator precedence, variables, and how to submit, save, and export code in CodeSkulptor. I have included a sample of some of my notes for week one at the end of this post.

While optional, I completed the mini-project for week one titled “We want a shrubbery! …”. This project involved creating a program in CodeSkulptor that prints out the phrase “We want… a shrubbery!”. My primary motivation for completing the project was to become comfortable with the logistics of the submission and peer assessment process.

In week two I learned about functions, visualizing functions, additional operations (modular arithmetic, data conversion, and comparison), Python modules, logic, and conditionals. I have included a sample of some of my notes for week two below.

The mini-project for week two was titled “Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock” and involved the creation of a program that displayed five player choices (i.e. rock, paper, scissors, lizard, and Spock) with five randomly selected ‘computer’ choices, computed a winner, and displayed this winner to the user. This involved the creation of functions to convert choices into numbers and vice versa for computing a winner and displaying selections. Computing a winner and displaying selections took place in a different function that made use of random.randrange() to determine random computer choices and if/elif/else statements to determine the winner.

The rules of Rock-paper-scissors-lizard-Spock are:

• Scissors cuts paper
• Paper covers rock
• Rock crushes lizard
• Lizard poisons Spock
• Spock smashes scissors
• Scissors decapitates lizard
• Lizard eats paper
• Paper disproves Spock
• Spock vaporizes rock
• Rock crushes scissors

While it is too early to fully evaluate this course and the accompanying learning process, I believe this course has so far been effectively set-up and delivered to suggest those taking it will have an effective and enjoyable experience learning Python. Some observations that contributed to this assertion include:

• Every week is similar in structure to every other. 

                    - This makes it easy to fit the course into one’s schedule. 
                    - Familiarity breeds habit. 

• Professors make great use of humour. 
• Content is delivered in multiple videos about 10 minutes long each week. 

                    - This makes content easy to digest and reduces the likelihood one’s attention will drift. 

• Multiple professors deliver and present content. 
  

                    - Variety of personalities helps keep content delivery appealing to students with similarly differing personalities.

• Individual videos are spaced out with stops and questions throughout. 
  

                    - Ensures digestibility of content and reduces the likelihood one’s attention will drift.

• Weekly quizzes and mini-projects. 
  

                    - Provides multiple methods of learning content and supports different learning styles.

• Weekly evaluation of classmates’ mini-projects. 
  

                    - Marking mini-projects is a great way to review course content and learn from one’s own mistakes as well as the                       mistakes of others.
                    - Marking mini-projects reduces the workload of professors. This seems especially beneficial as this course is                             provided free.
                    - Marking the work of others fosters those connections between students that may be less prevalent in online                             courses.

• The availability of class forums and study groups for those who favour a more social learning strategy. 
  
• Focus on fun programming (e.g. games) to ease introduction to Python programming. 
  
• The course is presented with usability in mind and enables students to alter due date times to reflect different time zones. 
  

                    - This helps reduce stress and increases the accessibility of the course to students around the world.

Overall I have had a very positive experience the first two weeks of class and my impression of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses) has definitely been improved as a result. If this course is a good representative of MOOCs, then I think MOOCs stand a good chance of altering postsecondary learning and easing the process of lifelong learning for the better.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions please share them below. 

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Week 1 Note Sample

Arithmetic Operators

+            plus            addition

-            minus            subtraction

*            times            multiplication

/            divided by            division

**           power            exponentiation

Operator precedence – “please excuse my dear aunt sallie” = (), **, *, /, +, -

Always manually group using parentheses when in doubt.

Variables = Placeholders for important values.

• Used to avoid recomputing values and to give values names that help readers understand code. 
  
• Valid variable names consist of letters, numbers, and underscore (_). 
  
• Starts with letter or underscore.
  
• Case sensitive (i.e. capitalization matters). 
  

Assign to variable name using single equal sign (=).

• Remember that double equals (==) is used to test equality. 

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Week 2 Note Sample

Functions

Function = Piece of code that you define that you can execute later. You only execute the code inside a function when you call a function. You can call a function more than once.

Basic Function Form

Def function(variable(s)):

            equation

            return output

Note: Inside a function you can call another function.

Visualizing Functions using Viz Mode in CodeSkulptor

Viz mode records a trace (sequence of statements) of the execution of your program.

When a particular statement is highlighted in this trace using the navigation buttons the contents of the console (upper right) and the state diagram (lower right) corresponds to the state of your program prior to execution of the highlighted statement.

Modules

Python Modules = Extra functions implemented outside basic Python.

import simplegui

# Access to drawing operations for interactive applications.

import math

# Access to standard math functions, e.g. trig

import random

# Functions to generate random numbers.

Randomly Select Element in Range: random.randrange()

In Python the statement ‘import’ is used to load a module.

More Operations

Remainder – Modular Arithmetic

a % b

% computes the remainder of one number with respect to another.

Note: The % operator has a higher precedence than the + operator.

Operator ‘str’ converts something into a string.

Logic and Comparisons

Boolean Logic = Logic where all values can either be true or false. No grey area.

Not X = Value is opposite of X.

And = If both values are True, then together they are True. If any value is False, then together they are False.

Or = If both values are False, then together they are False. If any value is True, then together they are True.

Comparison Operators

> = Greater Than

< = Less Than

>= = Greater Than or Equal To

<= = Less Than or Equal To

== = Equal To

!= = Not Equal To

Allows you to take two values, compare them to each other, and generate a Boolean.

Conditionals

if x:

            code here

The above functions such that if x is true, then the following indented code will be implemented.

if x:

else:

If the predicate x is true, then indented code after ‘if x:’ will be executed and if it is not true, then the indented code after ‘else:’ will be executed.

elif y: 

Means else if: If ‘if’ was false, but ‘elif:’ is true, then indented code after ‘elif:’ will be executed.