Table of contents
NotesHow Computers Work
How Computers Work helps you understand and interact with computer systems. The module will teach you how to use knowledge about computational processes to analyse and explain the behaviour of computer systems. It will use the concept of a Notional Machine, an abstract representation of the functioning of a computer system, to help you to reason about computer systems and predict their behaviour. You’ll also learn about typical computer system architectures, basic networking and network services such as databases.
Professor(s)
- Dr. Marco Gillies
Topics covered
- Introduction to Computer Science and Notional Machines
- Notional machines of web applications
- Data representations, data storage, compression
- Computer Architecture and Machine Language
- Operating Systems
- Operating System processes
- Networks
- The internet
- Data and Databases
- Machine Learning
Assessment
One two hour unseen written examination and coursework (Type I)
Module specification
Past exams
Recognition of Prior Learning
- At the time of this writing, you can apply for automatic RPL for this module if you obtain the Google IT Support Professional Certificate.
Syllabus
Resources
Essential reading
“The essentials readings for this course will come from the following text book, which you will be able access from within some lessons on Coursera platform:
Brookshear, J.G. and D. Brylow Computer science: an overview. (Harlow: Pearson Education, 2015) 12th edition (Global edition).
This course does not require you to read the whole book; you will be given specific readings for each topic from these texts are listed with direct links on the Readings page for each topic.
You will also be asked to do some independent research from online sources or using the University of London digital library.”