Before you embark on this course,
let me take you through a quick tour of
all the learning resources that are available in this course and how
best you can make use of these learning resources to
maximize the benefit of doing this course.
The course itself is organized into four modules.
Each module has an overarching theme that guides the design of the module.
A module itself is divided into multiple lessons,
each lesson concentrating on one specific topic.
There would be an assignment due at the end of each module.
Each module typically corresponds to one calendar week of work.
So, this whole course could be completed in four weeks time,
but please take the time necessary for you to
completely understand before you move on to the next module.
As already mentioned, each module is divided into multiple lessons.
Each lesson itself is organized in this manner.
A lesson starts out with a set of objectives
and outcomes being specified for that lesson.
Then following that, you will have a set of videos that
introduce you to the concepts and technologies
on which this particular lesson is concentrating on.
This will be followed by one or more hands-on exercises that will help you
to understand the concepts and technologies by doing the exercises.
At the end of each lesson,
you will also have additional resources which will point you to
resources that might be useful for the topic covered in this particular lesson.
Let's take a quick tour of your course page.
So, as you go to the course homepage,
you will find a lot of details about the course there,
and you'll also notice that the course itself is organized into weeks.
Each week corresponding to one module.
Let's visit one particular module to learn how the module itself is structured.
So, as you go to each module,
you will see that the module will have
a brief introduction on the theme of that particular module.
Then there will be a set of learning objectives for that particular module.
Following that, you will have a set of lessons.
As I mentioned earlier,
each lesson will be organized into a set of items.
Let's take a quick tour of this lesson on introduction to Node.js and NPM.
As you click and go into that lesson,
you will notice that at the start of the lesson,
you will have the objectives and outcomes for the lesson explicitly specified.
I would urge you to take a few moments to read through this document.
Because this will clearly set up the goals for this lesson and
also tell you exactly what you will achieve at the end of that particular lesson.
Following that, you will have a set of videos that will explain
some of the concepts and technologies relevant to that particular lesson.
I would urge you to watch these videos first.
Following the set of videos,
you will have a one or more hands-on exercises for that particular lesson.
The exercises themselves will be illustrated through a video which gives
you step-by-step progress of that particular exercise.
So, I would strongly urge you to watch this video in
order to understand how to do the exercise.
Also, in the exercise,
I will explain a lot of details
about why each step is being performed in that particular exercise.
Now, in addition to the video illustration of the exercise,
you will also have a summary of
the instructions for that particular exercise
given as a separate document following that video.
The objectives and outcomes for that particular exercise will be listed out.
Then each step will be illustrated briefly in this particular document here.
So, once you watch the video,
you can also use this exercise instructions as
a guide as you perform your own exercise routine.
In addition, the exercise instructions will also contain
code snippets that will be useful for you to do your exercise.
I would strongly urge you not to simply cut and paste this code snippets,
instead understand exactly what you're doing at each step,
and then, either type in the code
yourself or copy and paste the code from the instructions here.
Furthermore, for every video if there is a set of presentation slides,
those would be available in the downloads to
the right of this video there on the web page.
Also, if you go to
the additional resources that are provided for you at the end of each lesson,
you will also have links to the PDFs or the presentation.
So, there are two places from where you can download the PDFs of
the presentations about the the concepts and technologies for each module.
You will also have links to Node.js documentation
about the specific concepts and technologies covered in that particular lesson.
I will also give you links to articles, blogs,
or additional resources from the internet that might be useful or
relevant to this particular topic of the lesson.
I would suggest to you to spend
some time looking up these additional resources so that they may aid
you in also furthering your understanding
of the specific topics covered in that particular lesson.
To summarize, the learning resources in each lesson is organized
into a set of video lectures illustrating the concepts and technologies.
Then hands-on exercises which include
both step-by-step instructions in the form of a video,
and also written instructions for the exercises and
additional resources that might be useful for you relevant to that particular lesson.
Also as I mentioned,
at the end of each module you will have an assignment due.
The tasks to be performed in the assignment will be illustrated through
a video where all the tasks that you need to do in the assignment will be shown to you.
Thereafter, you will have
a written document that explains the details of that assignment.
This written document will give you access to
the resources that might be required for this assignment.
Following that, you will have the set of objectives and
outcomes for that particular assignment given to you,
then the requirements of the assignment will be specified in terms of
the set of tasks that you need to complete
and the steps for each task will be illustrated.
At the end of the document,
you will also be given the review criteria.
The criteria based on which
your submission will be judged for this particular assignment.
As you embark on this course,
let me quickly remind you of a Sanskrit Subhashita or a wise saying about learning.
It goes as follows [FOREIGN LANGUAGE].
What this means is that one fourth of your learning comes from your teacher,
one fourth of your learning comes through your own intelligence as you do the steps.
Use your own intellect to analyze and understand what you're doing.
One fourth of your learning comes from your classmates.
So, this is where interacting with your colleagues that are
also taking this course at the same time through the discussion forums,
would also help you to understand the concepts.
Finally, the last fourth comes only through experience or only with time.
As you learn and make use of the concepts and technologies that you learn in this course,
you'll begin to understand more and more about this particular topic.
Let me leave you with my best wishes for you,
so that you would get the most out of your journey through this course.
Wish you all the best.