This course offers a basic and accessible introduction to programming in Python, aimed specifically at researchers and teachers without prior coding skills. Due to limited capacity, we can only offer this course to staff affiliated with Leiden University. You can find a link to the registration form at the bottom of this page.

During three interactive weeks, this course will explain the core principles of programming using Python, including topics such as variables, data types and conditional execution (e.g., if X, then Y). You will be able to perform basic calculations, manipulate text and read from and write to files.

The course is fully online and consists of three sessions on 3, 10 and 17 November 2023; the sessions start at 09:30h and end at 13:00h. 

For more information on the contents of the course, please contact the Centre for Digital Scholarship via  [email protected].

What you'll learn

Session 1:

• Use Jupyter notebooks to run code and write documentation

• Differentiate data types and use variables to store data

• Manipulate strings and perform simple text processing

Session 2:

• Execute code conditionally and/or repeatedly

• Collect and analyse data values in lists

• Store and look up key-value pairs in dictionaries

Session 3:

• Find and reuse existing functions, modules and packages

• Create new functions to allow reuse of code

• Read data from files and folders, store results in files

Workload

The course consists of three sessions of three and a half hours each. Participants are also requested to do some background reading and to carry out coding tasks as homework. The total workload is estimated at about 20 hours.

Approximately two weeks before the start all registered participants will receive practical instructions on how to prepare for the course.

Application form