COMPUTER SCIENCE LABORATORY M - Z

Academic Year 2018/2019 - 1° Year
Teaching Staff: Francesca Valenti
Credit Value: 3
Taught classes: 7 hours
Exercise: 28 hours
Term / Semester:

Learning Objectives

The course aims at enabling students to acquire the skills needed to use the personal computer, write and edit a text, create spreadsheets, send email, use the network resources and the internet. In addition, the course enables students to learn the basic functions of a computer-aided design software for the creation of technical drawings.

In particular, the student will be able to:

  • Identify different types of computers as well as their main hardware components;
  • Identify the main types of storage media and programme applications;
  • Define the term software and distinguish between the main types of software like: operating systems, applications;
  • Identify the main types of integrated and external equipment like: printers, screens, scanners, keyboards, mouse/trackpad, webcam, speakers, microphone;
  • Identify common input/output ports;
  • Work effectively on the computer using desktop, icons, setting;
  • Identify files and folders and recognise common file types;
  • Understand the internet and the world wide web and the importance of evaluating information on the world wide web;
  • Understand what a web browser is, use the web browser and manage browser settings and Internet service provide (ISP);
  • Understand the structure of an email address and be able to create, send, and receive email and understand the security risks involved;
  • Understand the basic concept of 2d computer aided design;
  • Create, manipulate and modify objects or elements;
  • Insert objects from other application know how to print them;
  • Create, format, save and print a document;
  • Create and manage workbooks and worksheets, manage cells and ranges, tables, apply formulas and functions, create charts and objects;
  • Create and manage presentations, insert and format shapes and slides, create slide content, apply transitions and animations.

Course Structure

Interactive lessons.


Detailed Course Content

PRINCIPLES OF COMPUTER OPERATIONS: bits and bytes, the binary system. Architecture of the

COMPUTER: central processing unit, evolution of microprocessors, memory, other types of memory (cache, buffers, virtual memory), storage devices, expansion slots, and communication ports, input devices and output devices.

COMPUTER NETWORKS AND INTERNET: LAN, INTERNET protocols (HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP), the ISDN and ADSL.

AUTOCAD: the toolbars, the menu bar, command line, the status bar. Layers, the choice of colors, line types. Open and save a drawing. Line and polyline. Polygon, circle, and arc. The object snap, ortho. The commands offset, cut, copy, move, rotate, cima and fillet. Display (zoom, pan, redraw, and regenerate). Printing. Graphic formats.

WORD: opening and closing the program, file management (new, open, close, save, save as), find and replace, type of page view, print preview, customize the toolbar, undo, copy, paste, and paste special, cut, insert (image, formula, tables, footnotes, page numbers, symbol), select text and move blocks to move and copy, text formatting (bold, italic, underlined, capital letters, font, font size, superscript and subscript, line spacing, alignment and justification, hyphenation, copy format, tabs, bullets). Models. Styles. Headers and footers. Check spelling and grammar. Setting the document. Print. Tables. Design tools. Importing objects. Graphic formats.

EXCEL: opening and closing the program, file management (new, open, close, save, save as), the menu view, page break preview, custom toolbar, data entry, data types, inserting formulas, selection (cells, rows, columns, non-contiguous areas), change size, align text in a cell, copy, move, delete, find and replace, sort data, references (absolute, relative and mixed), the sum function, the function media, document layout, and print setting. Wizard of the graph, chart types (bar, line, pie, scatter), complex graphics.

POWERPOINT: create a new presentation from a template. Modify presentation themes, add new slides to a presentation, add and edit text, images, clipart, and shapes to slides. Add sound and video to a slide presentation. Insert and modify tables and charts. Insert and edit animations and slide transitions. Save to get to your presentations from your computer.


Textbook Information

1. Mario R. Storchi. Nuova ECDL – Modulo 1: Concetti di base del computer. Edizioni Manna, 2013.
2. Luigi Santapaga, Matteo Trasi. Autocad 2015 pocket. Apogeo, 2014.
3. Word 2016. Scrivere, redazionare, formattare e stampare documenti di testo. POCKET Edimatica. APOGEO, 2015.
4. Excel 2016. Impara a lavorare con i fogli di calcolo. POCKET Edimatica. APOGEO, 2015.
5. PowerPoint 2016. Creare slide e presentazioni efficaci. POCKET Edimatica. APOGEO, 2015