COP3353: Introduction to UNIX
FSU's one-credit introduction to the shell, taught since 2025 on the existing course framework with a current textbook.
COP3353 gets computer science students, and some non-majors, onto a UNIX shell for the first time: the history of the system, logging in from any machine, the file system, basic commands, editors (emacs, vi, and pico), processes, and how to find help once the course is over. It’s one credit, so every hour has to earn its place.
I started teaching it in 2025 on the existing course framework. The work was different from CIS3250: not rebuilding the course, but making it teachable at a distance and gradeable in volume. There’s no required text, and the optional ones are a generation old, so I picked a current one and sequenced the course to follow it.
Like CIS3250, it’s part of the computer science bachelor’s degree and accredited through SACS and ABET.