before semester starts…

There are a few things to do before semester starts.

1. Please make sure you have read the course handbook and that you have a clear sense of the shape and structure of the course. Please talk to your course tutor if you’ve any queries or concerns about participation. Please also drop your tutor an email to let them know you’ve ‘arrived’.

2. Setup your personal data visualisation blog. You will receive an automated email inviting you to your personal WordPress blog – if you haven’t received this please contact Jeremy asap. You should already be familiar with the basics of WordPress from IDEL, although note that we’re not using the university installation here. There is some further guidance in the course handbook, as well as the Technologies handbook. Note that you’ll also have time in the first two weeks of the course to set up your personal blog.

3. Get the following group video tutorial times in your diary (you only need to attend one hangout in each of these weeks). We also recommend that you sign up to these asap in Moodle here:

[week 1] Wednesday 13th January at 11am or Thursday 14th January at 8pm

[week 6] Wednesday 17th February at 11am or Thursday 18th February at 8pm

4. Familiarise yourself with the Moodle page for this course – we’ll be using this during the first two weeks of the course for our introductory discussions, and this is also where you will eventually submit your assignments. Our WordPress blogs will be the main site for interaction throughout the rest of the course.

5. And finally, we’ll be using Twitter a lot in this course – especially in our ‘Tweetorials’ in weeks 3 and 9 – so get yourself ready to tweet! Our Twitter hashtag is #msccde.