The recommended way to access skills labs is through JupyterHub. All of the JupyterHub links require you to go through the Pitt firewall. If you are on the Pitt campus and connected to Pitt wifi, then you can access the labs through the JupyterHub links below. If you aren't on the campus wifi then there are two ways to access the lab:

  1. Method 1: First, use PulseSecure to establish a VPN connection to Pitt's network. The instructions for doing that are available here. Then, click on the Skills Lab link on Canvas. The link is available in each of the Skills Lab assignments.
  2. Method 2: You can connect virtually to one of the University's lab machines using these instructions. and from there open your favorite browser and browse to Canvas and click on the Skills Lab link. You don't have to use PulseSecure for this method to work. If you want to save your notebook files to your local computers, you can download the files to your OneDrive folder (available from the Windows Explorer on the virtual lab machine) or download them then upload them to your Box folder.
If you can't get the VPN (or you just don't want to poke that bear in the first place), there are two other options. First, you can install python and jupyterlab on your personal computer. From that point on, you can complete the skills labs by cloning the github repository and running jupyter lab. Here are the instructions for installing jupyter lab and git. Here is the environment.yml file that you need to create your python environment. Download it and use it as directed by the instructions.

If you have troouble installing jupyterlab, Binder will be our break-in-case-of-emergency recourse. Each lab contains a Binder link that will allow you to access the lab from any location with internet. Note that If you are running on Binder, all files or notebooks you create will be deleted after an hour of inactivity. Download anything you create to your local machine in order to preserve it (you will have to do this to hand in the lab exercises anyway).

All lab solutions represent possible solutions. If your solutions are different, that does necessarily mean they are incorrect.