The Hive - Learn, Help, Connect

Introduction to The Hive

Lesson 3 - Finding Your Way Around

You may have noticed by now that this isn't your ordinary course - things are done differently around here!

So, there are a few things you're going to need to know so you can get around without getting lost.

No Need to Enrol

We found that with other courses out there, the whole 'enrol on this course to get started' thing was a real barrier to learning. 'Just fill in this form, add your credit card details, get a letter from your favourite auntie...' and so on. So many hoops to jump through!

So we decided to get rid of it.

In The Hive, you don't enrol in courses.

When you want to learn something there are no barriers in front of you, you just get right into the lessons.

You just go to lesson 1, learn some stuff.
Move to lesson 2, learn some more stuff, and so on.

We call this Open Access.

For our longer, in-depth courses, you'll reach a point where you'll need one of our membership plans to continue learning, but by that stage you'll have gone far enough into the course to decide if you'd like to continue.

 In The Hive, unlike other places we could mention, you don't need to Buy Before You Try. We don't like that way, so we don't do it.

Mark As Complete

In common with most other courses, at the end of each lesson there is a 'Mark as Complete' button that tracks your progress, and here's what ours looks like (below left):

When you've completed a lesson, click it so that you know you've finished the lesson. Next time you visit the page you'll immediately know that you've already done it.

BUT - this feature is only available for those students that are logged in!

If you're following the lessons as a guest, you won't see the button. To make sure that your progress is being recorded, make sure you get our Free Plan (for the earlier, free lessons) or one of our Premium Plans (for the later, premium content).

Bookmark Your Progress

When you've finished learning for the day, bookmark the lesson you're on using your favourite bookmarking tool.

Why? Because the course won't remember!

At the left of the screen is a selection of the main bookmarking tools and apps available, like this:

You can bookmark your lessons in Pinterest, Pocket, Evernote, you can save it to Firefox favourites or any other bookmarking service you can think of...

...and you can even email it to yourself!

Go ahead - try it out. Save this lesson to your usual bookmarking tool...

No, really, go ahead and do it right now. There's no time like the present!

Check the Downloads Tab

Before starting each lesson, check the Downloads tab:

If there are any downloadable resources that you'll need for the lesson, this is where you'll find them.

Download them first, read, check, prepare...

Oh dear - I'm starting to sound like your High School teacher!

Check out the Talking Points

Once you've taken the lesson, check the Talking Points tab to see what the cool kids are talking about:

Then join in the discussion, either in the comments at the bottom of the page or in the dedicated course forum.

You never know - there might be some weird and wonderful competition going on. Maybe some things to collect or win. Who knows what delights await you...

Then go to the Course Forum

Talking about the forum, you'll find a link to it in the Forum Tab, like this:

Access to most forums is restricted to Premium Members or those that have purchased the course.

If you haven’t done that yet, you can still join the discussion in the comments section at the bottom of the lesson page.

BTW - the forum for this course is open to all so you can ask questions about The Hive, suggest new courses or just connect with other data ninjas!

Use the Next & Previous Buttons to Get Around

Towards the bottom of the page you'll find a pair of Next and Previous buttons that, er, well, I think you can probably figure out what they do...

Some courses are a work in progress, so if the Next button is greyed out, that means that the next lesson isn't available yet.

You can also use the Curriculum Jump-Station to get a view of the entire lesson plan for the course.

I will email you whenever I add new content to the course, so you’ll always be up-to-date.

Complete the Course

When you've completed the whole course, go back to the course's Home page and click the 'Mark as Complete' button so that you know you've finished it, like this:

Why do you need to do this? Because the course doesn't know!

Summary

If you've been with us for a while, you'll know that we've had problems with our site running slowly and crashing.

The problem was due to the piece of software we were using to deliver our courses.

So we got fed up - and decided to do something about it.

We have now got rid of it and put in its place a new system that has fewer bells and whistles, but is a lot faster, more reliable and gives you a much better experience.

The downside is that lessons and courses aren't automatically marked as complete and there is no automated bookmarking system in place.

But I know that you data ninjas can handle that, right?

Mark as Complete

So now it's time to test if you've been paying attention!

If you're still reading, go ahead and click the 'Mark as Complete' button below (remember - you'll only see the button if you're logged in!).

Go ahead, I'll wait...

  • DOWNLOADS
  • EXTERNAL RESOURCES
  • Learning Outcomes
  • TALKING POINTS
  • FORUM

Below are all the downloads you're going to need for this lesson - please download them before you start the lesson.

If there aren't any links or buttons then no lesson materials are required (or maybe I just forgot to add them, in which case - let me know in the comments below!)

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