Your web pages will be published on RIT's main web server, which uses the Unix operating system. You will have to learn how to prepare your account for web use generally, and for class projects specifically. That means you will be creating files and directories, changing permissions, and editing files on the server. These are the sorts of tasks you would have to carry out in a "real world" IT position.
The Unix commands you will learn in order to accomplish these tasks will also be useful to you in other IT courses--from programming to networking to multimedia courses.
We will be connecting to the RIT server using the terminal and ssh applications on the Macs. On a PC you can use the PuTTY application.
If you plan to use a PC to upload files to the web server from home or the lab, then you should also read through the RIT WS_FTP tutorial.