Hello!
I'm from Greece and I want to join the online course of MIT "A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python" but I don't know at all what I have to do. I read in course description that: "This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month."
So to sum my questions:
1. What activities I have to do before January, when the course begins to join the course?
2. Do I have to Sign in somewhere to give my personal data?
4.This course offered only this period?

Question

Hello!
I'm from Greece and I want to join the online course of MIT "A Gentle Introduction to Programming Using Python" but I don't know at all what I have to do. I read in course description that: "This course is offered during the Independent Activities Period (IAP), which is a special 4-week term at MIT that runs from the first week of January until the end of the month." 
 So to sum my questions:
1. What activities I have to do before January, when the course begins to join the course?
2. Do I have to Sign in somewhere to give my personal data?
4.This course offered only this period?

e.mccormick · Answer

The MIT site you looked at is one where they have made many past courses freely available online. You get access to the materials, but not the professors or the credits. OpenStudy is a freely available study site. MIT has registered some of these classes with OpenStudy as a way to give people more tools for self learning. That way you can discuss topics on OpenStudy while learning at your own pace. If you need more structure, there is Coursera, edX, and a number of others. See the bottom of this post for more links to free, online classes that are more formal: http://openstudy.com/updates/543c51c5e4b0274f493164cb