Brendan Shea, PhD | Brendan.Shea@rctc.edu
https://brendanpshea.github.io/computing_concepts_python/
Welcome to Computing Concepts with Python, an open-access textbook designed to introduce students to the foundational concepts of computer science. The textbook includes Jupyter notebooks with interactive exercises, real-world examples, and practical coding exercises using Python.
PyQuiz is an interactive Python coding practice tool designed to help students learn and practice Python programming through a series of coding questions. It provides a user-friendly interface using IPython widgets, making it ideal for use in Jupyter notebooks or similar interactive Python environments.
Loop of the Recursive Dragon is an interactive quiz game that combines elements of role-playing games with educational quizzes. Students can battle monsters by answering questions correctly, earning gold, and upgrading their equipment as they progress through the game.
Learn more about Loop of the Recursive Dragon
This open-access textbook and associated tools are licensed under the MIT License. Case studies are licensed under the GNU Public License (GPL). For more details, refer to the LICENSE file in this repository.
These chapters were initially developed as the "generative AI" explosion took off (starting with OpenAI's GPT 3.0). The author has experimented with many of these tools—including successive versions of ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Claude, CoPilot, Mistral, and others—in helping to turn lecture notes into a proper book. While these tools can be helpful, they are not a replacement for the expertise and effort required to produce quality, meaningful educational content.
Brendan Shea, PhD, is Professor of Philosophy and Computer Science at Rochester Community and Technical College and a Resident Fellow at the Minnesota Center for Philosophy of Science at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities. He also serves as the Public Member of the Institutional Biosafety Committee at Mayo Clinic-Rochester. His main research and teaching interests lie in the philosophy of science, data modeling, applied ethics, and in the areas where these overlap (such as bioethics and the ethics of artificial intelligence). You can find out more about his research here: Brendan Shea's PhilPeople Profile.