We rely heavily on internet resources in this course, and we’ll need to make sure we are all set up before moving forward on the actual course work. Complete the tasks on this document to ensure you are ready to go before the next lecture. If you run into any issues at all, let us know so we can fix them.
Please complete the tasks below prior to Wednesday’s class.
As done in other GIS classes, we’ll be using Nicholas School server to house shared data and your project work for this semester. Each of you should have a dedicated folder already created, but if not, let me know and we will create one.
You can access these folders from any Windows machine (and likely and Mac) on campus. You can access these folders off campus as well, but you’ll need to establish a VPN connection first. (Ask me, NSOE IT, or Duke OIT about VPN, if you’re unsure how to do that.)
I’ve created drive mapping scripts and made them available here, on this GitHub site, as well as on Sakai. To use these scripts, simply download them to a local drive and double click them. Once complete, you should see a V: and W: drive in Windows Explorer. The V: drive maps to your personal project workspace (and will be empty at first), and the W: drive hold shared class data where you’ll see the ‘859_data’ & ‘859_docs’ folders.
— IMPORTANT NOTES REGARDING YOUR NS-GIS2 DRIVES: —
►Task 1. Make sure you can map these two drives using the scripts provided. Also check that you can create a file (and file) on your V: drive. If you run into any issues, let us know.
Having already taken a GIS course, it’s quite likely you’ve established your ArcGIS Online account. However, if you haven’t initiated your account, you’ll need to for this class. Follow these instructions:
Using your Duke University Account. This will take you to the familiar NetID login page where you should provide your credentials.<NetID>_dukeuniv. You may want to edit your profile by selecting the MyProfile option under the dropdown menu in the upper right (though you can’t change your username).Feel free to surf around your ArcGIS Online account. We will likely revisit this resource later on.
►Task 2. Create your ArcGIS Online (AGOL) account by logging into Duke’s AGOL portal
Briefly, GitHub is (among other things) a place to share your coding projects with the world. We’ll discuss more about all that GitHub can do a bit later, but you’ll want to create a GitHub account now. This account can be just for noodling around in this class, or it can be what might become a key element in your prospective employment portfolio. I mention this as it may be relevant for what you chose as a username… In any case, navigate to the GitHub site and create an account.
►Task 3. Create your GitHub account.
We’ll be experimenting with Slack this semester. If you haven’t used Slack before, well, it’s something between texting and email, and certainly something the tech world is buzzing about. I’m unsure how useful it will be for us, but I figure it’s worth a try…
To get started, first accept the invitation: https://bit.ly/2L2LsgG. You’ll be asked to enter your email address and specify a password. Once you verify your account, you should be in!
When everyone in the class has joined, we’ll review in class how we’ll us it.
env8592019.slack.com►Task 4. Join our class slack channel. Once your set up, click the “random” channel on the left hand side, then send a brief message to the group.
As this is a fairly large class, it will take me a while to get to know you. To speed this process up, I’ve created a course survey on Sakai designed to give me a better feel for where you are coming from and what you hope to get out of this class. This will allow me to tweak the class to meet everyone’s collective needs as best I can.
You’ll see the course survey in the tests/quizzes section on Sakai.
►Task 5. Complete the course survey on Sakai before Friday Aug 30th.