Hello, and welcome! My name is Ben Lambert, and I’ll be your instructor for this course. 

A bit about me, I started developing software before the modern cloud existed. And during that time I’ve been fortunate enough to work on a wide variety of projects. Projects spanning programming languages, operating systems and cloud platforms. 

Through this course, I’m hoping to share some of the lessons I’ve learned during that time. Should you wish to ask me a specific question, you can do that with the contact details on screen. 

You can also reach support by using the email address: support@cloudacademy.com. And one of our cloud experts will reply.

This course is part of a series of content designed to help you learn to program with the Python programming language. 

The content was designed for a first time developer. However, there’s a lot of variation in the technical knowledge of a new developer. 

For example, does the new developer have a general understanding of their operating system? Are they a digital native who is used to using apps and websites? Are they familiar with the command line? Etc...

When learning to program there is a fair amount of baseline technical knowledge required. Let’s talk about that required knowledge in the form of prerequisites. 

• This course assumes:

• That you’re a new developer.
• That you’re comfortable using applications and navigating web sites.
• That you’re willing to fill in any gaps through self study.

This last item is actually the most important. A large majority of developers' time is spent in search of understanding. 

Developers are often:

• Researching online to understand a particular error.
• When you experience a new type of error you typically research what it means. 
• Reading through online documentation.
• When learning some new tech thing you’ll spend a fair amount of time reading its documentation so that you’ll understand how to use the thing.
• Searching for online documentation.
• Oftentimes you’ll have no documentation for something that you need to use. And you’ll spend time searching online for any details you can find. 

Developers have to be willing to fill in any knowledge gaps that they identify. No single source of knowledge will provide you with everything you need to know. 

If you recognize that some missing knowledge is holding you back from learning more, attempt to fill in that knowledge gap before moving forward. 

That’s going to apply for this course, and also when developing software. This one trait of identifying and filling in knowledge gaps will help you level up your programming more efficiently. 

The goal of this course is to provide you with a vocabulary and mental model for understanding Python. 

You’ll learn about:

• Python’s low level building block called an object
• The anatomy of an object
• The behaviors of objects

This will become the baseline for learning how to use the Python programming language. 

As a content creator, the only way to improve content is through your feedback. Positive or negative, if you have any feedback you’d like to share you can do that by emailing support@cloudacademy.com.

Now, if you’re ready to begin learning about Python’s low-level building block, then I will see you in the next lesson!