Understand the course layout

Outcome You understand the difference between your personal Instance and the Distributed Instance, and where your work is saved.

Before you start

• You have at least one application running, or you have opened the Files view.

Every student in a course has a personal Instance - a private working environment that only you and your instructor can see. Course material that your instructor distributes flows into this instance through a special distribution channel:

Master instance → Distributed instance → Your personal instance

Three terms are worth knowing without going deeper:

• Your Personal Instance is where you work. Files you save, applications you start, and snapshots you take all live here.

  • You can edit files, run applications, and complete assignments here.

  • Your work does not affect other students.

  • Changes you make are only visible in your own instance.

• The Distributed Instance is the channel through which course materials reach you. You see distributed material as files in your personal Instance, not as a separate location.

• The current state is the live, mutable version of your personal instance. When you take a snapshot, you create an immutable copy of the current state at that moment.

For the full conceptual model of how these pieces fit together, see Concepts › The hierarchy and resource model.