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 programming languages and repositories that can help with communication among colleagues whose roles include collaborating and working with code—across skill levels. This course invites students to analyze some of the possibilities and limitations of repositories, like GitHub, while exploring strategies for engaging with digital development tools, like Python. We tackle questions that encourage us to think critically about the coding decisions we make and about what effect these decisions can have on people's everyday lives. We also have opportunities to try creative solutions for activities and simulations that speak to real-world challenges. 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. 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. The course concludes with a project that invites students to work with code to make something that might serve them and others in future digital environments.