U.Lab officially started last Thursday with the release of week 0 material and while many hubs have already met for the first time, in some ways, it still feels like it hasn’t quite started yet.  You may have thought, “what’s a week 0?!”  Well, week 0 is an orientation week to give you some time to become familiar with the structure and features of U.Lab before really get stuck into the content of the course.

It can feel a bit confusing to get your head around the two different sites and all the different terms.  Discombobulating* perhaps.  But it’s worth putting aside a bit of time to go through the materials – even if you have done U.Lab before as the u.school community site has changed a bit.

At the end of this week you should have answers to the following questions:

1. What are live sessions, coaching circles, and u.lab hubs?
2. What is the u.lab community website and how do I join?
3. Who are the other u.lab participants?  To find this out, it is really important that you set up a profile on the u.school community site.  If you want to find a hub or participants for your hub, there is also space on the discussion board to do this under the topic “2016: Introduction Yourself – 2016: Europe”
4. How can I prepare for the offline parts of u.lab in the weeks ahead?  There is a handy guide at the end of the week 0 materials giving you an idea of what you can start doing now to plan in time for the next week’s activities.

I’ll admit, I only just got round to doing week 0 myself this morning and it took around 30 mins to complete so don’t feel bad if you’re finding it confusing or think you’re already behind!

u.Lab will really start to get under way today with the live session starting at 3 pm UK time (link to this is available on the edX site, after the week 0 content) and week 1 materials being released around the same time.  The live session will be recorded so can watch it at any time if you aren’t able to make that time.  Remember to tweet using #ulabscot #ulab or upload any photos and reflections on the FaceBook group.

We hope you enjoy getting stuck in to week 1!

*By the way, I love this graph of the usage of the word “discombobulating”.  A reflection of modern life perhaps?