Purpose of this post is to gauge interest in an introductory course to computer programming. I ran this course last year at the Regina hackerspace and it was a hit. It would be an evening class, one night a week for 1-2 hours for about 10 weeks. It is a beginners course suitable for people who have never programmed before or for people with some rudimentary programming experience wanting to get an intro to Python which is a high-level programming language designed to make it easy to write code (i.e. you don’t need a computer science degree). The pace would be slow and would involve people doing exercises on their own computer (people would have to bring their own laptop or Raspberry Pi). I would open the course to VHS members and non-members as a way to try to get people into the space and charge a small fee per person per night.
The course outline is as follows:
Class 1 Why Program
Class 2 Installing Python, Variables, Expressions, and User Input
Class 3 Conditional Execution
Class 4 Functions
Class 5 Loops and iteration
Class 6 Strings
Class 7 Files
Class 8 Lists
Class 9 Dictionaries
Class 10 Tuples
What do people think? Assuming we did some external marketing do you think we could get 10-15 people to attend?
Excellent Rob. I could do with some backup. It really helps to have a range of people there from beginner to expert because it takes the pressure off me and leads to lots more learning. I think we might leave threading to the follow-up class…
I’d be up for this. I have signed up for a few python courses but never finished one. This would kick ma butt (and also be a fun time at the space). Fee-wise how much are you thinking of charging for this?
Also should add @workless if you’re not a keyholder (apologies if you are…I don’t think we’ve met) you’ll need to find one to bottomline the event for you (i.e. open the space and be responsible for who’s there etc…).
I’ll get some advice from others on the fee. I guess it would be good to earn some money for the space. I could make it cheaper for members too so as to encourage non-members to sign up. What have previous courses charged?
There is no requirement to make money for VHS. VHS Members are usually given a cheaper rate but that is not mandatory. Donations to VHS are always welcome.
The fees are whatever you decide to charge and you get to keep what you want.
Taking some of the income for yourself is encouraged! It leads to incentive for you and others to do more workshops! VHS doesn’t have any official requirements or guidelines, but I think if a bit of cash trades hands it’s a good thing.
The cost of an intro programming course at BCIT is ~$600, so, ideally a bit less than that
I think a good base number would be to cover your membership fees at the least for the duration of the course.
Langara seems to be doing the Vancouver School Board’s computer classes now. They have a 6-evenings “Gentle Introduction to Computer Programming” class for $289.
Thanks for the links. Looks like there was an intro to networking class and that was $5 donation to VHS. Other workshops charged more but there were material costs. Anyone recall what Dan Derange charged for the Sketchup Class? That’s more similar to learning a programming language.