Computer Science 101 (Coursera)

Offered by Stanford University,
Computer Science 101 (Coursera)

CS101 teaches the essential ideas of Computer Science for a zero-prior-experience audience. The course uses small coding experiments in the browser to play with the nature of computers, understanding their strengths and limitations. Sign up for the "To be announced" session to be notified by email when the class is next run, and sign up for "Self-Study" to start browsing the class materials right away. Self-Study mode makes all the videos and assignments available to be done at your own pace, but without a certificate of completion at the end.

Class Deals by MOOC List - Click here and see Coursera's Active Discounts, Deals, and Promo Codes.

CS101 teaches the essential ideas of Computer Science for a zero-prior-experience audience. Computers can appear very complicated, but in reality, computers work within just a few, simple patterns. CS101 demystifies and brings those patterns to life, which is useful for anyone using computers today.

In CS101, students play and experiment with short bits of "computer code" to bring to life to the power and limitations of computers. Everything works within the browser, so there is no extra software to download or install. CS101 also provides a general background on computers today: what is a computer, what is hardware, what is software, what is the internet. No previous experience is required other than the ability to use a web browser.

Go to Class
MOOC List is learner-supported. When you buy through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Related Courses

Programming and Application Foundations (Coursera) Coursera
Illinois Tech

Programming and Application Foundations (Coursera)

This course introduces the students to the creation and deployment of modern, standards-compliant web pages written in HTML, CSS, and JavaScript in the context of the client-server architecture of the web. The course also covers the fundamentals of programming in a modern programming language, basic data modeling, database design, implementation, and administration of single-user and shared multi-user database applications using a contemporary relational database management system.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Algorithmic Thinking (Part 2) (Coursera) Coursera
Rice University

Algorithmic Thinking (Part 2) (Coursera)

Experienced Computer Scientists analyze and solve computational problems at a level of abstraction that is beyond that of any particular programming language. This two-part class is designed to train students in the mathematical concepts and process of "Algorithmic Thinking", allowing them to build simpler, more efficient solutions to computational problems.

Sep 7th 2026
4 Weeks
An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 2) (Coursera) Coursera
Rice University

An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 2) (Coursera)

This two-part course is designed to help students with very little or no computing background learn the basics of building simple interactive applications. Our language of choice, Python, is an easy-to learn, high-level computer language that is used in many of the computational courses offered on Coursera. To make learning Python easy, we have developed a new browser-based programming environment that makes developing interactive applications in Python simple.

Sep 7th 2026
4 Weeks
Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps (Coursera) Coursera
University of London,Goldsmiths, University of London

Creative Programming for Digital Media & Mobile Apps (Coursera)

This course is for anyone who would like to apply their technical skills to creative work ranging from video games to art installations to interactive music, and also for artists who would like to use programming in their artistic practice. This course will teach you how to develop and apply programming skills to creative work. This is an important skill within the development of creative mobile applications, digital music and video games. It will teach the technical skills needed to write software that make use of images, audio and graphics, and will concentrate on the application of these skills to creative projects. Additional resources will be provided for students with no programming background.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Applied Text Mining in Python (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Applied Text Mining in Python (Coursera)

This course will introduce the learner to text mining and text manipulation basics. The course begins with an understanding of how text is handled by python, the structure of text both to the machine and to humans, and an overview of the nltk framework for manipulating text. The second week focuses on common manipulation needs, including regular expressions (searching for text), cleaning text, and preparing text for use by machine learning processes. The third week will apply basic natural language processing methods to text, and demonstrate how text classification is accomplished. The final week will explore more advanced methods for detecting the topics in documents and grouping them by similarity (topic modelling).

Sep 14th 2026
4 Weeks
Principles of Computing (Part 2) (Coursera) Coursera
Rice University

Principles of Computing (Part 2) (Coursera)

This two-part course introduces the basic mathematical and programming principles that underlie much of Computer Science. Understanding these principles is crucial to the process of creating efficient and well-structured solutions for computational problems. To get hands-on experience working with these concepts, we will use the Python programming language. The main focus of the class will be weekly mini-projects that build upon the mathematical and programming principles that are taught in the class.

Sep 7th 2026
4 Weeks
An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1) (Coursera) Coursera
Rice University

An Introduction to Interactive Programming in Python (Part 1) (Coursera)

This two-part course is designed to help students with very little or no computing background learn the basics of building simple interactive applications. Our language of choice, Python, is an easy-to learn, high-level computer language that is used in many of the computational courses offered on Coursera. To make learning Python easy, we have developed a new browser-based programming environment that makes developing interactive applications in Python simple.

Sep 7th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Python Data Structures (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Python Data Structures (Coursera)

This course will introduce the core data structures of the Python programming language. We will move past the basics of procedural programming and explore how we can use the Python built-in data structures such as lists, dictionaries, and tuples to perform increasingly complex data analysis. This course will cover Chapters 6-10 of the textbook “Python for Everybody”. This course covers Python 3.

Sep 7th 2026
5-12 Weeks
Uso de bases de datos con Python (Coursera) Coursera
University of Michigan

Uso de bases de datos con Python (Coursera)

Este curso presentará a los estudiantes los conceptos básicos del lenguaje de consulta estructurado (Structured Query Language, SQL), así como el diseño básico de bases de datos para almacenar datos como parte de una iniciativa de varios pasos para recopilar, analizar y procesar datos. El curso utilizará SQLite3 como base de datos. También crearemos rastreadores web y procesos de visualización y recopilación de datos de varios pasos. Utilizaremos la biblioteca D3.js para realizar la visualización básica de datos.

Sep 14th 2026
5-12 Weeks