Computer Science 101
Stanford University via Stanford OpenEdx
- Provider Stanford OpenEdx
- Cost Free Online Course
- Session Self Paced
- Language English
- Certificate Certificate Available
- Effort 4 hours a week
- Duration 6 weeks long
- Learn more about MOOCs
Taken this course? Share your experience with other students. Write review

Class Central Custom Lists
Build and share your own catalog of courses with Class Central's custom lists.
Overview
CS101 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, students 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. No previous experience is required other than the ability to use a web browser.
Syllabus
- 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
Taught by
Tags
Reviews for Stanford OpenEdx's Computer Science 101 Based on 17 reviews
- 5 stars 47%
- 4 stars 18%
- 3 stars 29%
- 2 star 0%
- 1 star 6%
Did you take this course? Share your experience with other students.
Write a review- 1
this review helpful
this review helpful
- 1