[MUSIC] Hi everyone. I want to take a moment to talk about some logistics of how this course works, and how it might be different from courses you've taken in person in the past. Specifically, let's talk about how deadlines work, how you're graded, what pre-requisites this course has, and how to get software licenses. These answer some of the most common points of confusion students have, so hopefully we can help you avoid any frustration. First off, pre-requisites. This course is part of the geographic information system's specialization, and the courses build on each other. While you don't need to take all the courses in the specialization, you do need to have equivalent experience in order to take this course. I recommend going to the previous courses in this specialization, Fundamentals of GIS and GIS Data Formats, Design, and Quality, And at the very least, doing a free audit of the course, or signing up for it, to make sure you have all the skills those courses teach. If you're new to GIS, you should definitely start with Fundamentals of GIS. If you're considering taking the courses at the same time or out of order, I don't recommend that. They all run monthly though, so you'll be able to come back and take this course when you have the necessary skills from the previous courses. If you've purchased the course, you have a full year to take the course, and access the materials, so, you should have time to go back and complete the previous classes. Having access for a year is a nice feature for another reason. Cousera's deadlines aren't hard and fast, they are suggestions for you about the pace you might want to take the course at. If you fall behind or miss a deadline, that's okay, just do your assignments as soon as works for you, and you don't have any penalty on your grades. If Coursera's site notices that you've fallen significantly behind the suggested deadlines, it might suggest to you at the top of the page, that you move to the next session of the course. This is so you can always have classmates working on the same material with you, and people to grade your assignments. If you ever want to change sessions yourself, you can also go to the course info page, and there's a section to manually switch to the next time the course runs. Regardless, don't worry about notifying me when you're falling behind, or submitting late. Because you do need to, and I don't give you your grades. Your quizzes are automatically graded by a computer, your practice assignments aren't graded, and your classmates grade your final assignments. So again, falling behind is okay, because there are still ways to submit and get your grades in at any point. Submission never closes for your quizzes and assignments. And you aren't penalized if you're late. If you have an issue with a grade, or think we weren't graded correctly, post about it in the discussion forum with the sharable link to your assignment that you can get from the assignment page, not from the browser's address bar. Sharing this link allows others, possibly including course staff, to provide your assignment with additional grades that help the site better understand the grade you're supposed to have. Finally, if you have the necessary skills and won't be taking a previous course, but you have trouble with your arc JS license or need a license, there is a section in this course that provides information on how to obtain a license, getting arc JS running on a map, and installing the software in general. If you're using an existing license from your employer or school, make sure it's the highest level of license, arc JS Desktop Advanced. We're using tools only available in that license level. So if you want to follow along, you'll need that license. The license provided in this course is free, valid for one year, and includes everything necessary for the specialization. If you already got a license from previous courses in this specialization, you won't be able to get a second one. It's one per student. Okay, that's it for now. As always, post your questions in the discussion forums, but hopefully we answered some of the more common questions about how this all works.