How it works
Instructions for doing the course material at home
Succeeding in this course is simple in concept
but will require effort. Throughout, you will be doing lots
of small bursts of work where each burst consists of three steps:
- Read something.
- Do some programming or thinking to answer a question.
- Watch or listen to something, sometimes a hint for the
exercise, or a related explanation. Continue with working.
Let's start by explaining how you will start with Unit-0:
- When you click on Unit-0 (try it
out for a second: unit-0, and hit the back
button to come back here), you will see
When starting a new unit, listen to the introduction before starting
any of the modules.
- Then, click on module 0 of Unit-0 and proceed:
- Do everything in exactly the sequence the material is presented.
- For example, all the modules in a unit are numbered sequentially.
Do the modules in that order since later modules build on earlier ones.
- Important: Essentially, ALL your learning will follow
this pattern:
- You read the material in a section of a module.
- You do the numbered exercise or exercises that follow.
- If there's an audio or video, listen or watch as appropriate.
Many of these are hints for doing the preceeding exercise.
Do NOT listen/watch until you've really tried hard (perhaps
many times) to work on the exercise.
- Only then should you proceed to the next section.
- Important: You will not be given solutions to
exercises. However, it's really easy to know if you've succeeded.
The combination of reading and then immediately doing the exercises
IS how you will learn. There's nothing else.
- Note: Part of the final exam will consist of small
variations of the exercises without access to your computer.
It's in your best interest to really do the exercises.
- Each module ends with an audio.
- After doing a few modules, you will likely see
an assignment.
Lastly, we will point out something. It is quite possible that
you will "get stuck" or feel that way. On occasion, you may
have to re-read carefully and try a particular exercise many times
before succeeding. That's just the nature of learning a mental skill.
Feeling overwhelmed.
It is quite possible to feel overwhelmed, for a variety of reasons.
What you must accept is that it's perfectly OK to feel this way.
There might not be a moment when you say "Oh, now I get it" and
everything is easy after that. Nor is there some magic explanation,
if only someone said it to you, that would make everything easy.
The only way learning occurs is through continued persistence.
We will have many opportunities for help: study hall, office hours
and class. Don't wait too long.