0226 - Introduction to C++ Programming

Course Description

Course Details 
 
Here's your chance to learn how to program the easy way in C++. Introduction to C++ Programming is a project-oriented course taught by a master programming instructor and published author. You'll get right to programming in this course--even if you have no prior programming experience! Before you know it, you'll be putting together programs, and you'll see how easy programming really is.  Course Revised February 2016 
 
How It Works 
 
This course is fully online, you require internet access and an email account. The course duration is 6 weeks, followed by a 2-week period to complete the final exam (online, open book). Lessons are released on Wednesdays and Fridays of each week, for a total of 12.   You are not required to be online at any specific time. In addition to the specific lesson content, there is a discussion board with each lesson and often there is an optional assignment to apply the learning. Following each lesson,   there is a short multiple choice quiz. Your score on these quizzes does not count towards the final mark but completing these helps solidify your learning as well as prepare you for the final exam. The final exam is an open-book, multiple choice exam   and you need to achieve a minimum of 65% on the final exam to pass the course. There is only one opportunity to pass the exam. A certificate of completion from WatSPEED is available within four weeks of successful completion of each course and can be accessed in your student portal. Many of the Ed2Go courses are eligible towards the various online certificates offered by WatSPEED. 
 
Requirements 
 
Windows 7 or newer Windows operating system; 1.6 GHz or faster processor; at least 1 GB of RAM; 4 GB of available hard disk space.  A free edition of the software may be downloaded from Microsoft. 

Syllabus

Lesson 1 - Your First C++ Program. In your first lesson, you'll learn what a computer program is. What's the best way to learn programming? You have to write programs, of course! Your first step toward writing your first program is to install VisualStudio. So today, you'll learn how to install Visual Studio on your computer, and after that, we'll walk through creating your first program.

Lesson 2 - Understanding Your C++ Code and How to Fix Errors. You've created a working C++ application. Today, you'll find out what each line of C++ code means in your "Hello World!" program. We'll also discuss how this C++ code is translated to machine language that the computer understands and can execute as a running program. Finally, you'll learned how to see and fix errors in your code.

Lesson 3 - Data Types and Computer Memory. In today's lesson, you'll learn about the different areas of computer memory. You'll find out about data types, which correspond to the different types of information a program uses, and you'll write a program that can determine the amount of computer memory used by different data types. This lesson lays the foundation for Lesson 4, where you'll learn how to store different types of information in computer memory while your program is running.

Lesson 4 - Storing Data in Variables. Today you'll learn how to create variables of different data types to store information. You'll find out how to declare variables, which is the first step to using them. You'll then learn how to assign values to variables, using both the assignment operator and cin. You'll also access and output a variable's value.

Lesson 5 - Letting the Computer Do the Math. Computers can't think for themselves—not yet anyway. But computers can calculate faster and more accurately than humans can. In this lesson, you'll learn how to harness the computer's calculating power with the C++ arithmetic operators.

Lesson 6 - Letting the User Choose. Life involves choices, and so do computer programs. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use the different C++ comparison operators and control structures so different blocks of code execute depending on the user's choice.

Lesson 7 - Combining Choices. Choices can be complicated. For example, you may want code to execute only if two choices are made, or if either of two choices are made. In this lesson, you'll how to use nested control structures and the different C++ logical operators when more than one choice determines which block of code executes.

Lesson 8 - Repeating Code With Loops. Your parents may have told you not to repeat yourself, but code often needs to repeat. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use loops to make code repeat until a condition is met.

Lesson 9 - Using Arrays. Often, you may need to store more than one item of information, such as multiple test scores. In this lesson, you'll find out how to use arrays to store multiple items of information. Sure, you could also just use multiple variables, but with arrays, you also can harness the power of loops, which you learned about in the last lesson.

Lesson 10 - C Strings for Storing Text. Not all information are numbers. You'll often need to store text, such as names. In this lesson, you'll discover how to use C strings to store non-numeric information in an array.

Lesson 11 - Functions for Dividing and Organizing Code. What if your favorite textbook was just one very long paragraph with no chapters or sections? The content would be the same, but it would be much more difficult to read and follow, wouldn't it? Similarly, code, as it gets longer and more complicated, needs to be organized. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use functions to divide tasks and organize your code.

Lesson 12 - Saving and Retrieving Data. Microsoft Word wouldn't be very useful if you couldn't save your work and had to type it all over again each time you ran the program! Being able to save your work is important, but you also need to be able to load that saved work back into your program the next time you run it. In this lesson, you'll learn how to use file input/output to store and retrieve information.