What you'll learn

Course goals

You'll learn:

• How to write simple programs.
• How to do basic business analytics.

We'll use Python, the most popular analytics programming language. Check job listing sites, and you'll see employers want these skills.

You won't learn all the deets of Python.

When there's too much content in one course, you get memorization without building any skills. You quickly forget what you learned.

It's the skills we want. That's what people pay you for. Money is good.

We'll go for some basic skills learned well. It gives you a better return on the money and time you invest in a course.

Being successful

Three things.

Do the exercises

There are a lot of them. Many smaller exercises, rather than a few big ones.

You can see an exercise schedule on the right (if you've logged in). It's a suggested schedule. If you get a few days behind now and then, no big. Fall too far behind, though, and you may never catch up.

Read this textbook-like-thing

It's not a regular dense textbook. It follows ideas from learning research. For example, concepts are chopped up across the lessons, to not put too much load on your brain at any one time.

Oh, and it's free! Free is good.

You'll be tempted to skip to the exercises at the end of the lessons, and not read the text. Don't do that. You'll make things harder for yourself, since the exercises rely on your having read the earlier stuff.

I hear you. I don't like reading boring sh... stuff either.

The textbook won't waste your time. No busy work. It's written for normal people, too, not professors.

BTW, you'll need to read boring stuff at work. Google how to read boring stuff for advice.

Work with others

I'll be available live online. There's a list of times on Moodle. When you get stuck, reach out, and ask for help.

I'll always be at a PC during those scheduled times. If you don't come and say hello, I'll just be watching dog videos or something. Don't be afraid you're interrupting me. That's what those times are for.

You should also talk to other students. Explaining something to another person helps you learn it, too. You can explain it to your dog, a bag of Doritos, even a magic goat only you can see. Seriously, that works, although explaining to another person is best.

Take pride in your work

You'll learn to write code the right way. Programs that do the job, and are easy (and cheap) to change as business changes. Employers love cost control. If you're in a job interview, mention the cost control stuff. They will smile.

Also, it feels good when you write a program that works. Enjoy those triumphs.