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Disclaimers

Brief notes appear in the page footer and next to affiliate links where they're used; this page is the full detail.

Affiliation

Dakota Learns is an independent project by Dakota Hollmann. Its course materials are not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Metropolitan State University of Denver (MSU Denver) or any other institution. Where a course references a university course code or objectives (e.g., "CS 1050"), it is for curriculum alignment only — to show the materials map to recognized outcomes — and never to imply affiliation or that the author teaches there.

Licensing

  • Course content (text, explanations, assignment prompts, slides): CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 — free to read and share for noncommercial use with attribution; no derivatives. For commercial use or to create and share an adaptation, contact Dakota — it may well be welcome.
  • Code (starter code, examples, scripts): PolyForm Noncommercial 1.0.0 — free for noncommercial use.

These licenses cover original work only and grant no rights to any third-party materials a course references.

The materials teach from sources (such as the course textbook) but do not reproduce them — concepts are explained in original words and examples, and sources are referenced, not copied. See the initiative's copyright policy.

Dakota Learns is free, and it stays that way. Some links across the site and course pages are affiliate links — most often to textbooks, occasionally to tools or fun project ideas. If you buy through one, Dakota Learns may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. There's never any requirement or expectation that you do — you're always welcome to find the same thing elsewhere, or skip it entirely.

Why they're here. Building and running this takes real time and money, all my own. A little coming back through these links helps offset that and broadens what's possible here — better resources for the site, and eventually things a plain free site can't do on its own (more interactivity, maybe some compute). It will never put the learning behind a wall; the free core is the whole point. (Would you rather support the work directly? That's what GitHub Sponsors is for — also entirely optional.)

What you'll find linked:

  • Textbooks — recommended to supplement a course, never required. A good textbook is more rigorously prepared than I can manage on my own without a publisher behind me; it's there if you want to go deeper.
  • Tools, samples & ideas — things I've personally used, enjoyed, or have my eye on; examples of what you can build with what you're learning; or community projects that relate to the topic at hand.

No warranty

These are educational materials, provided as-is, with no warranty, and are not a substitute for an official course of study or professional advice.

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