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Programming with GUIs

CO217 Online course

Discover how to build your own Graphical User Interface (GUI) with Python and guizero.

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Programming Computing Key stage 4 CS Accelerator
Free online course Approximately 8 hours of self-study

Discover how to build your own Graphical User Interface (GUI) with Python and guizero. On this course, you will learn how to incorporate more interactivity in your program. You will experiment with different types of widgets and build the confidence to design more complex GUI-based apps in the future.

You will have the opportunity to put what you’ve learnt to practice. Upon completion of the course, you will be able to produce applications with interactive elements such as buttons, text boxes and images.

Who is it for?

This course is designed for teachers delivering computer science lessons up to GCSE level or equivalent. It’s aimed at teachers who have basic experience with Python. If you don’t have much experience with Python, perhaps complete Programming 101: An Introduction to Python for Educators first.

Topics covered

You'll cover the following topics:

  • Using widgets to build a GUI
  • Responding to user inputs using events
  • Reading and modifying the properties of widgets
  • Designing GUIs and using boxes and either auto or grid layouts to implement them
  • Adjusting the appearance of your GUI to improve the user experience
  • Using time-based events
  • Decomposing a project to make it more manageable

How will you learn?

This online, self-paced course can be completed flexibly. You can join and start this course at any time after the advertised date. This course is not facilitated. You can learn independently or with colleagues to directly address your individual needs.

Outcomes

You will be able to:

  • Experiment with different widgets that can be used to build a GUI
  • Produce a GUI that responds to the user through the use of events
  • Explain how event driven programming works, and the differences between an event driven program and a procedural program
  • Produce a countdown timer using guizero's built-in methods
  • Design several different GUIs, including a text editor and a picture-matching game

This course is part of the Subject knowledge certificate

Subject knowledge certificate

Our professional development programme, Computer Science Accelerator, is designed to help you develop or refresh your subject knowledge and leads to a nationally recognised certificate.

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This course is from the National Centre for Computing Education and is delivered by STEM Learning.

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