Computer and Internet

No preliminary university level studies required. Recommended to do programming courses at the same time, unless already completed.

After the course you can

• describe the basic structure of a computer and tell what happens during the start up process
• explain all the locations where a computer can store data temporarily or permanently
• decribe what is a process and what is its purpose in the program execution
• clarify the connection between a network address and a hostname and transform a network address to its binary number representation and vice versa
• describe the structure of Internet and explain its main functionalities and principles
• write an assembly-language program that involving a simple data structure and are able to modify values of variables 
• explain and describe different data representations and transform the numerical representation of a number between different numeral systems
• describe how multiple processes execute in one processor and explain the mechanism for interrupt handling
• explain how message are sent, forwarded and received in the Internet
• describe the functionalities and the meaning of the key Internet services and protocols (DNS, HTTP, TCP, IP, DHCP, routing)
• justify the need for protecting data and explain the key principles of some mechanism discussed in the course

During the course you will also improve your general academic skills specifically in: reading professional and academic texts, academic writing, time management and constructive interaction with others.

You will also practise field-specific general skills like text-based use of computer via a terminal program and basic use of LaTeX.

Course material used is distributed to the students, but also material that the students search themselves may be included

Course books that contain the key materials are: Patterson&Hennessy: Computer Organization and Design RISC-V Edition and Kurose&Ross: Computer Networking or similar.

Completion methods

Participation in teaching. Course contains a mixed set of elements, such as lectures and/or videos, exercises, individual or group tasks, writing documents, possibly peer reviews, etc. 

General exam. Course might have compulsory group works and oral presentations that require the  student to be present in the class room.

Course organised via the Open university might differentiate from this description.

Assessment practise and criteria

Writing tasks are compulsory and if the course has oral presentations, then those are also compulsory.

In addition to the compulsory writing tasks, there can also be exam.

All submissions required during in the course will be used in evaluation. A part of the evaluation might be done using peer-review, in such case also the given reviews will be evaluated. Also the student activity during the course and the exercises can be used in the evaluation.

If there are oral presentations in the course, then those are evaluated.

The course grade will be based on all the evaluated elements of the course instance.

Activities and methods in support of learning

Peer reviews and teacher feedback. Also discussions with the peers about the problems to be solved.

All tasks (the problems, the writing and presentation assignments) of the course are designed to support learning

Target groups

Compulsory course for Bachelor of science -programme's students. 

Suitable to all student at the university, as well as exchange students.

Course is also suitable for open university students.

Teaching period when the course will be offered

Course is double-period course that will be offered in the Spring term periods 3-4.

Recommended time or stage of studies for completion

Course is recommended for the first year students.

Study module

Part of compulsory studies in Computer and Data Science track in Bachelor of Science programme.

Language of instruction

English