CPSC 203 — Introduction to Problem Solving Using Application Software
Today, just about everybody uses a computer. Indeed we use lots of computers — frequently, without realizing it. After all, you are using a computer when you drive a car (unless it is more than five or ten years old), listen to music with your MP3 player, make a phone call, or make popcorn using your microwave.
When we’re actually aware of the fact that we’re using a computer, it’s likely because we’re using something that “looks like” a computer — it has a keyboard and a monitor (which looks like a television screen), possibly along with one or more other boxes. These might be separate pieces of equipment or they might be combined. In any case, you can install and run software on these.
Lots of people use computers like these to read email, browse the internet, keep up with their friends on facebook (or one of its competitors), do word processing, organize their music, and play games. If you can find (and/or pay for) and install more software then you can do other things too.
If Microsoft Office is installed on your computer then you can use Microsoft Word to prepare documents (including quite sophisticated ones). You can also use PowerPoint to prepare presentations.
Some people never use their office software to do much more than that. However, Microsoft Office also includes a powerful spreadsheet program, Excel, which can be used to maintain budgets and generate sophisticated financial reports. Professional editions of Office for the Windows operating system also include Access, a system that can be used to organize and maintain large systems of data — such as all the information about courses and students here at the University of Calgary. You can do amazing things, and solve a wide variety of problems, just with this software — but you need to know how to use it!
One of the goals of this course is to help you to use this software — specifically, spreadsheet programs like Excel or database management systems like Access — more effectively.
Of course there is generally more than one software product that you can choose to use. OpenOffice is free software that can be used to do many of the things that people do using Word, PowerPoint, Excel and Access. Google Docs does not currently include a database managment system like Access, but it is another piece of free software than can be used to produce text documents, presentations, or maintain financial information.
Happily, all these programs are organized around the same basic principles, so that the information you learn in this course can be applied to effectively use either OpenOffice or Google Docs (or any of the other competitors of Microsoft Office that have existed or will exist in the future), just as it can help you to use Microsoft Office.
Computers are also used to develop software like Word, Powerpoint, Excel or Access. CPSC 203 also provides a brief introduction to computer programming — a significant part of what needs to be done to develop software (including the software that is run by your car, cell phone, MP3 player or microwave oven — not to mention computers that “look like computers”).
Finally, the course includes information about computers, including computer organization and computer networking. Additional chapters in the textbook (which we might not have time to cover) discuss social issues concerning computation as well as the limits of computation — interesting parts of the academic discipline called “computer science.” That said, it should be noted that this course is not designed for students who want to become “computer scientists,” and no particular technical background, beyond the general familiarity with computers that virtually all students presently have, will be assumed or required.
Note: While word processing and presentation software like Word and Excel, respectively, are also part of office software, and while previous versions of CPSC 203 (intended for a different generation of students) did spend time on these, we will not be doing so, this year. Word processing and presentation software are now used extensively in elementary schools and high schools, so a familiarity with this software can now be (reasonably) safely assumed. We’re trying to help you become more skilled computer users, and not to bore you to tears.
May 12: A complete listing of marks (as of May 12) is now available.
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