PROFESSIONAL DIPLOMA IN CODING FUNDAMENTALS

“Learning the fundamentals of coding can lay the foundations to a rewarding career in software development.”

Our Diploma in Coding Fundamentals course will cover the core principles of programming. This programme will encourage students to actively implement topics covered in class. The course will explore what programming is and what uses it can have, while at the same time focusing on displaying and calculating data in a meaningful way.

Throughout the course you will learn how to use variables to store and calculate information that is then updated in real time and based on the user’s input. You will discover how to understand and implement a sorting algorithm as well as the use of recursion and iteration and the differences between them.

This course has been designed to introduce students to programming with a focus on core concepts and how to apply them.

Why Coding?

• Programmers with more than 5 years’ experience can earn up to €70K per year
• Demand for programmers continues to grow with expected growth of over 20%
• You do not need a degree in coding as this can be self-taught & offers career flexibility

• Data types
  • A core element of programming, data types are split into many categories. In this course we will look at integers, floating-point numbers, characters, strings, and Booleans to explore their use.
• Iterations, recursion
  • Iteration and recursion are ways of accessing data in larger sets. This can be done using loops (for loop, while loop, for each loop, etc.) Each loop has its own benefits. Another tool we can use is recursion, this happens when code calls a specific code block over and over again until a return state is met.
• Arrays
  • Arrays and lists are data stored under the same variable name. If for example, you wanted to store the ages of all students, you could have the variable name that holds all the integer values as part of an array e.g. age = {18, 21, 36, 48}. Each of these integers can be accessed by stating the variable and the array index.
• Method vs Functions
  • Both methods and functions are often used interchangeably when talking about programming and some languages have more specific criteria for each. Exploring the difference and how to use each in an OOP setting will give a greater insight into programming and the methodology used.
• Object Orientated Programming (OOP)
  • OOP is a type of programming style defined by the use of four main principles. These principles are Abstraction, Encapsulation, Inheritance, and Polymorphism. Although these concepts can appear to be complex at first glance, they are simple and are used to help make code more simplistic and easier to understand.
• Debugging
  • Debugging is assessing the code for issues. This most often occurs when a code fails to compile. Assessing the code and finding the issues can be more complex in different languages. In the programming language C# missing a ‘;’ can cause a fail to compile while in phyton the use of ‘;’ is often optional.

• IDE’s
  • What is an IDE? Does the IDE (integrated development environment) we use effect the overall quality of the code and/or complexity we have to deal with as programmers?
• Algorithms
  • Algorithms are in short anything that performs an action in code. Generally something that takes in input, often data, does something and then returns new data based on the input.
• Stacks
  • Stacks are the order in which a computer will address the instructions given to it by the code. In some cases, we use the stack to our advantage. This can be seen in the ‘Towers of Hanoi’ where we can use recursion and stacks to arrive at a solution.
• Languages
  • Programming languages are varied and each one has its own strengths and weaknesses. Games programming often uses a variant of C with unity using C# and epic game engine using C++.

Students will require a laptop or a PC for the duration of this course. Students will be using processing3 software available online for free for practical work during this course.

• Students will be assessed through two practical assignments.
• The first assignment will be completed during the course.
• The second will be completed within one month of cessation of the lectures.
• These assignments will be based around the information and topics covered during the course and will focus on core programming principles.