This week you'll prepare for the course proper to make sure all the systems you need are functioning so you are ready to get started without distraction next Saturday. Here's what you need to do:
Read the pages in the Course Information section that describe the course with some care. It's not exciting reading, but it is important, and will give you a clear idea what you are getting yourself into. If anything is unclear, or if you would like further information, post your question to the Message Board (Discussion Forum) on the MyYC site.
(Aside: The forum is preferred over email because the questions and answers accumulate. This way if another person has the same question the information is shared. Feel free to answer other people's questions too!)
Download and install a Python development environment for your platform (Linux/Mac/Windows).
The Installing Python page will get you started on this.
Be sure to test your installation as decribed on the page!
Familiarize yourself with the course's two websites*. We'll refer to the two of them as the courses site and the MyYC site. The basic distinction is that courses provides information like the course notes and assignments (think of it as the online textbook), while MyYC provides logistical support. This table lays out it more specifically:
| courses (Textbook) |
MyYC (Logistics) |
|---|---|
| Course Notes and Videos | Message Board (Discussion forum) |
| Assignment descriptions | Schedule and Calendar (so you can see when the next assignment is due!) |
| Your Grades (so you can see how you are doing) | |
| Assignment submission (or you can use email) |
Log in to the MyYC site. We've got some instructions to guide you in logging in to MyYC for the first time.
Set your MyYC email to forward to your regular email address (unless you really want another email address to check). The MyYC course management system will assign you a Yukon College email address, but you've probably already got one you're used to using. You can tell MyYC to forward email from the address it assigns you to your regular one: by following these steps.
With those tasks out of the way you'll be ready to begin the course itself (whew!).
* Why two? The software behind MyYC a product called Campus Cruiser, makes it awkward to post and edit course code (and this course has a lot of that), and difficult to produce visually clean web pages.