Master Computers - From Beginner to Expert in One Week
- 39.5 hours on-demand video
- 1 article
- Full lifetime access
- Access on mobile and TV
- Certificate of Completion
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Try Udemy for Business- Learn from a highly rated instructor with over 20 years of experience teaching individuals of all ability levels.
- From the fundamentals, to the most advanced features, this course covers everything you need to know to use computers well.
- Learn incredibly valuable hands-on computer skills.
- Presented with high-quality video lectures, this course will visually show you how to easily do everything with computers.
- Lifetime access to this course allows you to easily review material and continue learning new material.
- After taking this course, you will have a thorough understanding of how to use computers well.
- Money Back Guarantee - Satisfaction Guaranteed or Your Money Back
- Suitable for all ability levels. Perfect for beginners while also being valuable to advanced users who will also learn valuable new insights and skills. Microsoft Office will be used for a portion of the hands-on skills.
You are about to embark on an exciting journey learning about the information revolution and the incredible world of computers.
This course is very practical and applicable. It focuses on teaching you skills you can use. These skills include not only specific hands-on skills, like "right-clicking" and taking "screenshots," but also skills such as keeping yourself safe online, not texting while you're driving, and what to look for when buying computers (just to mention a very small fraction of the skills this course will teach you).
This is a university level course designed to introduce individuals to the world of computers, so it is rich in its depth and breadth of content. I have taught this course for over a decade and have refined it to be incredibly amazing and awesome. You are going to love this course and it will forever change your life. You will gain skills in this course which you will use for the rest of your life and which will make your life easier. Knowing how to use computers is essential in our day-and-age. This course will give you the skills you need to use computers well.
Presented with high-quality video lectures, this course will visually show you how to easily do everything with computers. This is just some of what you will learn in this course:
Learn the basic principles of hardware including circuits, coding schemes, binary, the five generations of computers, Moore's Law, IPOS, registers, cache, RAM, magnetic storage, optical storage, solid-state storage, ROM, BIOS, the motherboard, buses, and the CPU.
Learn how to operate a computer including a vast array of hands-on skills – just to mention a few for example: managing files, backing –up files, right clicking, taking screenshots, determining your computer’s properties, upgrading your computer, changing settings on your computer.
Learn how to use word processing software including the creation of a title page, document sections, headers and footers, styles, an automatically generated table of contents, the insertion of images, references, and the insertion of an automatically generated citation of works referenced.
Learn how to use spreadsheet software including formulas, functions, relative references, absolute references, mixed references, and the creation of a graph or chart.
Learn how to use video editing software including adding credits and transitions then publishing that video to a video hosting website such as YouTube.
Learn how to use databases including table creation, the setting of a primary key, the establishment of table relationships, the setting of referential integrity, and the creation and execution of a query.
Learn how to use presentation software to more effectively give presentations.
Learn to do some simple programing including designing, coding, testing, debugging, and running a program.
Learn about the world wide web including sending email, conducting searches , having familiarity with online educational resources such as Khan Academy, and having an awareness of online "cloud computing" tools such as Google Word Processing, Google Spreadsheets, and the many other online tools offered by Google.
Learn about application software and system software including operating systems, utilities, and drivers.
Learn about networks including architecture, topology, firewalls, security, wireless networks, and securing wireless networks.
Learn about the Internet, the World Wide Web, censorship, the digital divide, net neutrality, differing legal jurisdictions, website creation, multimedia, social media, and eCommerce.
Learn about information systems, systems development, and the systems development life cycle.
Learn about program development, programming languages, and the program development life cycle.
Learn about databases including table creation, primary keys, relationships, referential integrity, queries, and structured query language.
Learn about privacy and security issues related to computers.
Learn about robots and artificial intelligence including the Turing test.
Learn about intellectual property including patents, trademarks, copyrights, and the creative commons.
Learn about ethics and ethical issues relating to the use of technology.
Learn about health ramifications of using computers including repetitive stress injury, carpal tunnel syndrome, and ergonomics.
Learn about e-Waste and other environmental concerns related to technology.
Lifetime access to this course allows you to easily review material and continue learning new material.
After taking this course, you will have a thorough understanding of how to use computers well.
From beginners, to advanced users, this course is perfect for all ability levels. This course will add value to everyone's skillset.
- From beginners, to advanced users, this course is perfect for all ability levels. This course will add value to everyone's skill set.
This video will show you how to improve the quality of the videos you are watching - whether you're watching them here at Udemy, or on YouTube!
Please know that if you hear me refer to "blackboard" or "assignments" those references are for the students who are taking this course at college for credit. There are two types of students watching these videos: those who are here solely on Udemy, and those who are also attending college and taking this course for credit. If you are solely here on Udemy, you do not need to do assignments.
An introduction to I/O devices (input / output devices) including brain interface units. This week covers computer INPUT & OUTPUT devices, also known as, I/O Devices. This is a pretty exciting area right now with computers. It really looks at how humans interface with computers. How do we, as humans, get information INTO and OUT OF a computer? Once of the most exciting innovations in this area recently is the Brain Interface Unit. Check out these lectures to learn more about INPUT and OUTPUT devices!
Continuing our study of input and output devices, this video covers scanners including flatbed scanners, bio-metric scanners, bio-metric authentication, RFID Radio Frequency Identification, bar code scanners, Optical Character Recognition OCR, Optical Mark Recognition OMR, and Magnetic Ink Character Recognition MICR.
What is a PIXEL? It's a Picture Element. How do pixels relate to monitors and displays? What is a monitor's resolution? How does resolution relate to aspect ratio, and what is aspect ratio? What is the difference between a VGA connection and a DVI connection and a HDMI connection? This video will show you!
Have you ever heard of HEAD UP DISPLAYS? What about HELMET MOUNTED DISPLAYS? How about AUGMENTED REALITY or REALITY OVERLAYS? These are all the same concept, the phrases are pretty much synonymous, and they represent a new OUTPUT DEVICE that allows information to be OVERLAID on top of REALITY. GOOGLE GLASSES is the latest development in these REALITY OVERLAYS.
Just in case you're tired of THIS reality, there is an alternate reality which some people choose to spend time in, and that is VIRTUAL REALITY. What is VIRTUAL REALITY and does it have any REAL WORLD significance? This video explores VIRTUAL REALITY technology and shows some of its industrial, military, and recreational uses.
Another important OUTPUT DEVICE is the PROJECTOR. Projectors are used for, of course, projecting images. We've seen projectors already, probably, in our lives - in the classroom being used for presentations, in movie theaters. What is new and exciting are 3-D MAPPING PROJECTORS. These are projectors that are being used to project images onto HUGE surfaces, like buildings. Check it out. It's pretty cool!
There is an online learning revolution occurring. This video shows you many of the great websites you can go to in order to learn! Some of the websites include: Khan Academy, Coursera, Udacity, Udemy, DuoLingo, and Lynda.com. This video also talks about MOOC's, which stands for Massive Online Open Courses.
System Software consists of your OPERATING SYSTEM, UTILITIES, and DRIVERS. Sometimes "translator" is included in this category, too. This overview of system software shows what will be covered in the rest of the videos. We will look at the various components of operating systems, the functions of an operating system, the types and categories of operating systems, and the brands of operating systems that are on the market.
An operating system makes your system operate. It's a reflexive definition, but it's also a good one! There are several functions of an operating system. As well, the operating system serves as an intermediary between application software and the hardware. An operating system knows how to make your hardware operate. Operating systems are written for specific hardware. There are many ways to categorize the various operating systems that we find running on different hardware configurations.
The functions of an operating system include providing a user interface (gui), booting, configuring devices, managing networking, managing security (passwords, biometrics, firewall, checking to ensure if there's virus protection), managing and monitoring hardware resources, scheduling tasks and jobs, and providing file management.
There are many different ways that we can categorize operating systems. One way to categorize operating systems is by size: Embedded (Cash registers, digital photo frames, GPS devices, ATM machines, medical devices, robots, my wrist watch), Mobile, Desktop, Server, Mainframe, Super Computer.
When the personal computer revolution hit in the 1970's and 1980's, Microsoft and Apple were the two rivals vying for market share. This video looks at how the operating system was the key business play during the personal computer revolution, and how "switching costs" lead people to stick with whatever operating system they learned to use. It also looks at why Microsoft gained such significant market share.
What is spooling and buffering? Computers will spool to the buffer. Just what does that mean? When your computer needs to process something for another device, it will process that data, or spool it, into a BUFFER area, which will hold the data until that other device is ready for it. A common example of spooling into the buffer is when your computer prints something. The print job gets spooled into the buffer area, and when the printer is ready for the data, it will then pull the processed data from the buffer. SPOOLING into the BUFFER frees up the CPU to do other tasks instead of having to wait while the printer prints and slowly feed it a little data at a time.
UTILITY SOFTWARE helps your computer run. Just like utilities in your house help your house run, utility software in your computer helps your computer run. Some examples of utility software: File Management, Search Tools, Diagnostic Software, Disk Management Software, Uninstall Software, Cleanup Software, File Compression, Backup, AntiVirus, AntiSpyware, Firewalls, Other Security Software.
Device Drivers, which are also known as just DRIVERS, allow your computer to DRIVE different pieces of hardware. You can pretty much always go to the website of whoever manufactured a piece of hardware then download the DRIVER and install it on your computer so that your computer can then DRIVE that hardware device. Make sense?
An essential computer skill is knowing how to use OPEN WITH to open files. You can right click any file and then choose OPEN WITH. This will allow you to select which program opens that file. You can also choose to always use a default program to open a certain type of file. For instance, I could choose to always have Photoshop open my image files.
Operating System Updates are critical to keeping your computer safe and running well. Flaws, including security flaws, are always being discovered with large complex pieces of software like operating systems. An OS UPDATE will fix any security flaws, and any other flaws, with your operating system as they are discovered. You should have your operating system set to automatically install updates.
If you ARE running AntiVirus Software, it is important to keep it UP TO DATE. You do this by running AntiVirus Software Updates. There are always new viruses being released. If you do not keep your AntiVirus Software UP TO DATE, your software might not catch all of the viruses!
When you purchase software, you want to make sure your computer will be able to run the software you are purchasing. To find out if your computer will be able to run a piece of software you are interested in buying, look at the software's MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS. The MINIMUM SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS will tell you what type of computer hardware you need, and what type of OPERATING SYSTEM, you need, in order to run the software.
You can RESTORE your computer system to its original state by easily accessing the RESTORE PARTITION and then running a SYSTEM RESTORE. This will REINSTALL all of the software that came on your computer originally, resetting your computer so that it has the same software on it just like it did the day you took it out of the box.
This video looks briefly at what "OPEN SOURCE" means. In this video, "OPEN SOURCE" is defined. We will talk about LINUX in this video which is a very successful open source OPERATING SYSTEM. I will also show you about the "civilization starter kit" in this video, which is an open source movement at OPEN SOURCE ECOLOGY.
Software is categorized as either "system" software or "application" software. System software includes your operating system, utilities, driver, and translators. Application software refers to the applications, or programs, we run on our computer. Examples of application software include word processing, spreadsheets, databases, presentation software like powerpoint, graphics software, and video editing software just to mention a few categories of application software.
When you purchase software, you are not purchasing the software, you are purchasing a license to *use* the software. After purchasing software, you cannot make copies of it and start selling it. You don't own the software - you own the right, or a license, to use the software. This video talks about INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY, PIRACY, SOFTWARE LICENSES, the END USER LICENSE AGREEMENT (EULA), and categories of software including commercial software, shareware, freeware, public domain software, and open source software.
What is CLOUD COMPUTING? Software can either be installed and run on your computer, or you can work with software that is located on the web which is also known as the cloud. Web-based software, which is also known as cloud based software, or cloudware, is software that runs on the web. You do not need to install anything on your computer to use web-based, our cloud based, software.
You can purchase software at a discount by purchasing academic versions of the software. Purchasing academic software is also known as getting educational pricing. Who qualifies for these discounts? Watch this video to find out!
Pretty much all software shares a COMMON DESIGN. By creating software with familiar user interfaces, software companies increase the likelihood of users to adopt and use their software. This COMMON DESIGN between software applications means that, once you learn how to use one piece of software, you're well on your way to understanding how to use *all* software.
There are several levels of formatting that can be done in Microsoft Word. This video shows how to format at the page level.
This video shows you how to write a formula in microsoft excel. It also shows you what a relative reference is in ms excel.
This video shows you how relational databases work.
Many people struggle with public speaking. Yet, public speaking doesn't have to be hard. While many people will use presentation software like Microsoft Powerpoint as a crutch when giving a presentation, this video will show you how you can present more effectively using presentation software.
This video shows you how to manage money using quicken. In addition, in this video the importance of having a CPA do your taxes is discussed. Why would you want to use a CPA to do your taxes? For one, they know what they're doing when it comes to taxes, I mean, that's their job, and usually they will save you more money on your taxes than they charge you to do your taxes. The second reason to use a CPA to do your taxes is that you'll be less likely to be audited.
This video looks at voice communications including Plain Old Telephone Service (POTS - landline phones), Cellular phones (must be within range of cell tower), Dual-Mode Phones (cellular and wifi), and Satellite phones. We also look at the cellular network, cell towers, honeycomb shaped zones, and some of the potential hazards of cellphone use. This video will explore whether or not cellphones cause cancer.
This video explores collaborative computing and provides examples of collaborative computing including DNA Folding, the Johnny Cash Project, Amazon Turk, crowdsourcing, crowdfunding, Don Tapscott's Ted Talk on the four principles for the open world, and one gold-miner who crowdsourced his mining data to find his gold.
Another way we can categorize networks is by access. An INTRANET is an "internet" that only people within ONE organization can access. An EXTRANET is an "internet" that people in a FEW organizations can access: for instance, WalMart might have an EXTRANET which all of their suppliers can access in order to obtain information that might be useful to WalMart Suppliers. A VIRTUAL PRIVATE NETWORK (VPN) is a term used to refer to a PRIVATE network that connects separate locations by encrypting data and sending it over a public network.
To create a network, we have to connect devices, and there are two ways with can do that: with WIRES or with a WIRELESS connection. Devices that connect in a WIRELESS method have to send signals to each other. An example would be the RADIO. By sending wireless signals from a transmission tower, when we're in our car we can turn the radio on and the radio receives those wireless signals which then allows music to play in our car. When connecting computing devices, exactly the same thing happens: wireless signals are transmitted from one device and then another device receives those signals. The frequency of the signal used when connecting computing devices or cellphones, however, varies from the frequency used for radio broadcast - the frequencies for computing devices and cellphones are higher than that used for AM/FM Radio. This video will look at the ELECTROMAGNETIC SPECTRUM, provide an introduction to wireless transmission, and explore whether or not the wireless signals bombarding our environment are harmful.
Check out some of the amazing things occurring on the world wide web every 60 seconds.
Have you ever heard of Silk Web, or Sheep Marketplace? There is a "dark web" that is also on the Internet, which is kind of like the dark back alley of the Internet. This "dark web" is more difficult to access, and you can find all kinds of illicit things occurring there.
Net Neutrality is the concept that the internet should be kept neutral - all content, sites, and platforms should be treated equally. Some businesses would like to change this so that they could make more money by charging for varying levels of accessibility. This video looks into net neutrality.