So basically what everyone is saying so far.
I'd say depending what you want to get out of the course, you could even go traditional, but yeah, a lot of things here are focused on digital and everything is done on photoshop and zbrush.
Your alternatives are most commonly krita, clip studio paint and corel painter on computers and Procreate/clip studio on iPad. I'd say any of those apps are adequate but maybe consider subscribing to photoshop for the first month or two to give it a try if your budget allows (I got it for 10$ a month and it's what I'm mostly using)
You will need a graphics tablet and stylus of some sort for the digital work though, a mouse will really not cut it, so if you are still mousing it, I suggest saving and at least getting a cheap tablet or using pencil/pen for now
cheers!