What I need to know on day one

You need the following information before we start the program:

The most commonly-asked question on day one

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You will need my official email address at CDI College:

• Eric Bright’s official, school email address

You will need to have a Google account to submit and to share your course projects:

• A Gmail address
• Google Docs (will share your papers with your instructor)

You might need to know how to use the following software (or their equivalents):

• Firefox or Chrome
• Something to type on and sign PDF files with. Microsoft Edge can do that easily
  • Note: you can also use PDF-XChange Editor Portable instead Use the pencil feature to draw your signature. Do not visit this web site without uBlock Origin installed in your browser first
• LibreOffice, MS Word, or something similar
• Zotero (see my explanation on Zotero)
  • JAVA runtime (only if you are going to use Zotero. Use a 64-bit version of the Java Runtime if your OS is 64-bit, and a 32-bit version if your OS is 32-bit.)
• SumatraPDF to read PDF and a lot of other formats on a Windows PC
• Chat app: Please log into this online chat app, which is free, and open source to communicate throughout the program with your classmates: Element. Element uses Matrix.org as its backbone and you can log in using your Gmail account (with a username of your choice)

If you don’t know how to sign a PDF file, you should watch this video.

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You will need to have an active, Toronto Public Library card (you can also get a digital access card via Digital Access Card). We will need that card to access three of the following resources via the library’s on-line access links:

• LinkedIn Learning
• O'Reilly

We always work in Google Docs, so we won’t have to exchange documents back and forth. If you have to send me a document, i.e. if you cannot work in Google Docs for a valid reason, then the only files that I will accept from students are in the following formats:

• ODT for text
• ODS for spreadsheets
• PDF

Due to security concerns, I will not accept, nor will I open any file that is in DOC, DOCX, RTF, or other formats.

You will need to educate yourself on the subject of plagiarism before you start your classes. If you don’t already know what plagiarism is, please read the page on Plagiarism for more information.

Once you started your classes with me, you will be asked to read, understand, and sign an Anti-plagiarism Agreement document that will be added to your file.