DIGC 2000: Coding Foundations for Digital Strategies

Code can seem intimidating, especially when it creates a barrier for customizing and completing important digital projects. In DIGC 2000, students develop a basic understanding of program code and structures that are common across all programming languages. This will enable students to build skills for communication among colleagues whose roles include working with code across skill levels and responsibilities.

This course invites students to analyze some of the possibilities and uses of computer programs, while exploring strategies for engaging with digital development tools. It will introduce students to the Scientific Python Development Environment (Spyder), an open-source cross-platform Integrated Development Environment (IDE) used by computer programmers around the world. We tackle questions that encourage us to think critically about the programming decisions we make and about what effect these decisions may have on the work of our colleagues and customers who may have to maintain the code in the future. We also explore the opportunities and issues that advances in computer coding applications present in our increasingly digital culture.

This course includes a required pre-course module in Canvas that opens a month before the course begins and is designed to walk students through downloading, installing, and using the Anaconda distribution of Python and the Spyder IDE.