The University of Michigan is offering a variety of free online courses for programmers and computer science learners. All these University of Michigan courses are available for free on the edX platform.
The University of Michigan is offering a variety of free online courses for programmers and computer science learners. While the courses can be audited for free, learners can choose to receive verified certificates for a reasonable fee. All of these courses are available on the edX learning platform and registrations for these are open.
Ever since the pandemic has spread its wings, the demand for online skilling courses has increased. Programming being one of the most sought-after skills has gained a lot of attraction from learners and top universities like Harvard, MIT, Stanford, and IITs have started offering a variety of free online courses for programming enthusiasts. This not only benefits the learners but universities are also now able to reach a wider range of students. Well, these courses offered by the University of Michigan are no exception. Check out the details of these courses below –
1. Programming for Everybody (Getting Started with Python)
A “no prerequisite” introduction to Python Programming, this course covers the basics of how one constructs a program from a series of simple instructions in Python. You will learn about variables, conditional execution, repeated execution, and how we use functions. Anyone with moderate computer experience should be able to master the materials in this preparatory course. The course covers Python 3.
What you’ll learn
- What is a program?
- Using variables in programs
- Conditional execution (if statements)
- Repeated execution / looping (for statements)
- Functions and code reuse
Duration: 7 Weeks
Effort: 2–4 hours per week
Instructor: Charles Severance | Professor, School of Information | University of Michigan
2. Python Data Structures
The second course in Python for Everybody explores variables that contain collections of data like string, lists, dictionaries, and tuples. The course introduces the core data structures of Python programming language and teaches how to use Python built-in data structures such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples to perform increasingly complex data analysis. This course covers Python 3.
What you’ll learn
- How to open a file and read data from a file
- How to create a list in Python
- How to create a dictionary
- Sorting data
- How to use the tuple structure in Python
Duration: 7 Weeks
Effort: 2–4 hours per week
Instructor: Charles Severance | Professor, School of Information | University of Michigan
3. Data Science Ethics
This course focuses on data science ethics and provides the learners with the framework to analyse the concerns surrounding privacy, data sharing, and algorithmic decision-making. This course is also for every aspiring computer science professional including data scientists.
What you’ll learn
- Who owns data
- How we value different aspects of privacy
- How we get informed consent
- What it means to be fair
Duration: 4 Weeks
Effort: 3–4 hours per week
Instructor: H. V. Jagadish | Bernard A Galler Collegiate Professor, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science | University of Michigan
4. Web Application Technologies and Django
This first course in Django for Everybody explores the basic structure of a web application and how web browsers interact with web servers. The curriculum covers the introduction to Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP), Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), along with the overall structure of a Django application. You get to explore the gimmicks of the HTTP request/response cycle, including GET/POST/Redirect. The course highlights the Model-View-Controller (MVC) pattern for web applications and how it relates to Django.
What you’ll learn
- Basics of HTTP and how the request-response cycle works
- Install and deploy a simple Django application
- Build simple web pages in HTML and style them using CSS
- Basic operations in SQL
Duration: 5 Weeks
Effort: 2–4 hours per week
Instructor: Charles Severance | Professor, School of Information | University of Michigan
5. Building Web Applications in Django
This second course in Django for Everybody explores data models in Django and how it communicates with a database through model objects. This course also explores Object-Relational Mapping (ORM), Object-Oriented (OO) pattern in Python, basic Structured Query Language (SQL), and database modeling, including one-to-many and many-to-many relationships and how they work in both the SQL and Django models. The course teaches how to use the Django console and scripts to work with your application objects interactively.
What you’ll learn
- How to build a data model in Django
- Apply Django model query and template tags/code of Django Template Language (DTL)
- Define Class, Instance, Method
- Build forms in HTML
Duration: 4 Weeks
Effort: 2–4 hours per week
Instructor: Charles Severance | Professor, School of Information | University of Michigan
All these University of Michigan courses are available for free on the edX platform. To enroll in these courses, you can visit the edX website and search for the University of Michigan.
