Following the Course
This class is being offered remotely! There are three different sites you will need to bookmark and use regularly throughout the term. I know that’s a bit of a hassle, but unfortunately there’s no one tool that does everything well.
However, I’ll try to make it as easy as possible for you to follow along by posting all important announcements to Campuswire. If you’re attending lectures and following Campuswire, you won’t miss out on anything.
Course Web Page
You’re here right now!
The course web page is the “home base” and contains most of the resources you will need throughout the course.
You’ll use the course web page to:
- Review course policies
- Access materials from lectures, such as slides and example code
- Read homework descriptions
- Check quiz and exam dates
- Access any other resources needed for the course
I try to keep the course web page perfectly up to date throughout the term, so if you ever notice a mistake or omission (e.g. if I forget to upload example code after class and it’s been a few hours) post to Campuswire to let me know and I’ll fix it ASAP.
Canvas
Although we’re not using Canvas for announcements or discussions (for those, we’re using Campuswire), you will be interacting with Canvas quite a bit for other essential tasks.
In particular, you’ll use Canvas to:
- Get Zoom links for lecture and office hours
- Submit homework assignments
- Take quizzes and exams
- Check your grades
Campuswire
Instead of a traditional mailing list or Canvas, we’ll be using Campuswire for all course communication. You should sign up and make sure you’re subscribed to the class feed ASAP.
Within Campuswire, we will only use the “class feed” (which includes announcements and Q&A), and the chat rooms. You can ignore the links to “live sessions” and “lectures”, which I unfortunately cannot disable.
Class Feed and Q&A
I’ll post the following information to the class feed:
- Announcements of new homework assignments
- Reminders of upcoming quizzes and exams, describing the topics to be covered
- Practice problems for quizzes and exams
- Any date changes or other essential course information
However, the main motivation for using Campuswire rather than Canvas for course communication is its Q&A support in the class feed, which is geared toward students helping other students. Students can post new question or answer other students’ questions, and you can even do so anonymously to other students, if you’re shy. The TAs and I can then revise or clarify (if needed) and endorse student answers so you can be confident in the quality of the response.
Please post all questions to Campuswire about lectures, homework, or any other class-related topic. If you email me or the TAs with a question, we’ll tell you to post it to Campuswire, so it’s more efficient to post it there directly! (Note: you may still of course use email if the topic is of a personal or sensitive nature.)
Since we want to foster students helping other students, we will often wait to answer many questions until a student has had a chance to answer. Therefore, students should frequently check-in to try to answer other students’ questions. Not only will this enable everyone to get help quickly, but teaching someone else is the best way to learn something, so you’ll be improving your understanding of the material as well.
As a little external incentive, a few points of extra credit will be awarded at the end of the class to especially active and helpful Campuswire participants.
Chat Rooms
I’ve set up some chat rooms in Campuswire for discussing homework, lectures, studying, and general chit-chat. You’re free to use these rooms however you like (within the bounds set by the community statement and course policies), but we won’t be actively monitoring these to answer/endorse questions.
I’m new to Campuswire this term, so if you have any other good ideas for using the chat rooms or class feed, feel free to suggest away!