Course status. All eight modules are open for review. There are no accounts, no saved progress and no certificate issuing yet: everything you answer stays in your browser tab and is not stored.
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Course Passport
| Item | Entry |
|---|---|
| Course title | Computing Foundations: How Machines Solve Problems |
| Track | University Track, one of four (Foundation, University, Professional and Executive) |
| Intended learner | Undergraduates and early-career graduates, plus any adult reading at that level, who want to understand how computing works before or alongside learning to program. No programming experience is assumed. |
| Length | 8 modules, one per week, about 6 study hours each: about 48 hours in total |
| Format | Interactive visual lessons (animated infographics, tables, graphs). No video lectures or podcasts. |
| Prerequisites | Comfort with arithmetic, reading a table and following written steps. Nothing else. |
| Language and tone | Formal academic English. Every technical term is defined at first use. |
| Assessment | Practice sets 10%, module checkpoints 40%, labs and cases 15%, capstone 35% |
| Pass rule | 70% overall, and the capstone rubric passed separately. Checkpoints unlock the next module at 80%, with unlimited retakes. |
| Credential | Certificate of Completion. It states that it is not an accredited qualification. |
Why this course exists
Many people use computers daily without knowing what a computer actually does. This course explains computation as a discipline: how a problem is stated precisely, how a method is written so that a machine can follow it, how data are represented, and how the cost of a method grows as the input grows. It builds the ideas behind every programming language, so a later course in a language such as Python is easier to learn. See the encyclopedia entries on the computer and the algorithm for short definitions.
Learning outcomes
By the end of the course, a learner can:
- O1. Define a computational problem and write a precise specification of its inputs, outputs and constraints.
- O2. Explain how numbers, text and other data are represented in binary.
- O3. Use logic and conditions to control which steps a method takes.
- O4. Trace, compare and choose between searching and sorting methods.
- O5. Describe how the number of steps in a method grows with the size of its input.
- O6. Design, test and explain an algorithm for a real task, and state what computers cannot do.
Course map
Eight modules build from stating a problem, through data, logic and standard algorithms, to efficiency, structure and the limits of computing, and end with the learner’s own designed and tested algorithm.
| Module | Big idea | Hours | Outcomes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M1. Problems, Algorithms and Precise Instructions | A problem must be stated exactly before a machine can solve it. | 6 | O1, O6 | Open for review |
| M2. Data and Representation: Bits, Binary and Text | All data in a computer are patterns of two symbols. | 6 | O2 | Open for review |
| M3. Logic and Decisions | Conditions decide which steps run. | 6 | O3 | Open for review |
| M4. Searching and Sorting | Different methods solve the same problem at different cost. | 6 | O4 | Open for review |
| M5. Efficiency: How Cost Grows with Input | What matters is how the work grows, not the speed of one machine. | 6 | O5 | Open for review |
| M6. Abstraction, Functions and Structure | Hiding detail makes large systems manageable. | 6 | O3, O6 | Open for review |
| M7. Inside the Machine: Memory, Processors and Operating Systems | Hardware and software layers cooperate to run a method. | 6 | O2, O6 | Open for review |
| M8. Networks, Security and the Limits of Computing | Some tasks are hard, and some cannot be computed at all. | 6 | O5, O6 | Open for review |
Capstone thread (proposed). The capstone is a designed and tested algorithm for a real task of the learner’s choice, specified in Module 1, refined through Modules 2 to 7 and reported with its tests and limits in Module 8.
Limits of this course
The course teaches computing as a field of study. It does not teach a particular programming language, and it does not prepare learners for a specific professional examination. Where a figure or fact is quoted, its source is named on the wrap-up page.
Our standard
Numbers are checked and sources are named by title and publisher. Limits are stated. The course awards no degree and no academic credit. Completing it will earn a Certificate of Completion only, which states plainly that it is not an accredited qualification. Certificates are not issued yet.
More courses: see all Specialty Digest Online Courses or the University Track.