Wed, 2 Sep 2021, 02:29 Several items



My students,

Several items have come up in the last few days, and I thought the simplest
thing to do is to send you all email.  Normally I would just post the items 
to the course website, but since we are just one week into the semester, 
I thought I would use email instead.  This will be long, I apologize for that.

1. I am told that a few of you are using the chat feature of Zoom to send
messages during class that has gotten to the point of being very distracting 
to the other students.  Well over 100 today!  Starting now, parts of the chat 
functionality is being disabled so chat messages will not go to the students 
in the class.  I ask you to use chat during class ONLY to ask questions 
dealing with the lecture, AND to address them ONLY to Sabee.  Sabee will 
interrupt my lecture as appropriate to read the questions.  Please do not 
send the chat messages to me since it is distracting to me also.  Bottom line: 
I want you to understand the concepts in EE306 and will do what I can to help 
make that happen, but to do that effectively, I need to set up the above rules.
You can also ask questions by clicking the icon that raises your hand, and 
Sabee will interrupt me and call on you.  Or, you can unmute yourself and 
just ask the question.

I realize that the above is not as convenient as it would be if all 185 of you
were in a classroom with me in person.  Hopefully, we will get there before
much longer.  Until then, please follow the above process for asking questions.

2.  As I said in class today, I have to be away next Wednesday, so I am going
to give next Wednesday's lecture over Zoom this Sunday evening, September 5,
at 8pm.  We will use the usual Zoom Meeting ID.  I leave it to you to decide
whether to tune in live, or wait until next Wednesday when the TAs will play
the recording we produce Sunday night.  Or, watch the recording at your
convenience.  Any questions about this, please ask one of the TAs or me.

3. We have noticed that some of you are connecting your laptop to the Zoom
lecture and then going off and doing something else.  I am not sure why you
are doing that.  As I told you on the first day of class, I never take
attendance, so connecting your laptop if you are not going to actually attend
lectures is a waste of time.  Whether or not you attend class is completely 
up to you.  My experience is that if you do not attend class and discussion 
sessions, you will probably not do well in the course.  But it is up to you.
You are in college now, and as far as I am concerned, you can be trusted 
to manage your time.

4. Study groups.  The overwhelming result I have seen over the years has been 
in favor of study groups.  If you form a study group (3 to 5 students) and 
work the problems together, my experience has been that all members of the 
study group will do better than if you do it alone.  The stronger student 
benefits from explaining things to the weaker student and the weaker student 
benefits from getting those explanations from a classmate.  Some students 
have asked me how they can find other students to form a study group.
Most of you are in FIGs, which contains a ready source of potential study group
partners.  I will not put a limit on the size of the study group, I leave that 
up to you.  I do know that if the number gets too large, it becomes more 
a party and less a study group.  If you are not in a FIG and have trouble 
finding classmates to join in a study group, ask your TA during discussion 
session if he can make an announcement and couple you up with two or three 
other students.  If that does not work, then please let me know and I will 
see what I can do.  You can form a study group whenever you wish.  Doing so
earlier rather than later usually works best.

5. FIGs.  Speaking of FIGs, I hope you are taking advantage of the FIG program.
I think it is one of the best things we do for first semester students to help
you get acclimated to UT. In fact, I make it a point to meet individually with 
each FIG that wants to spend an hour with me, and have already committed to 
meeting with one of them late in September.  Almost any day of the week is
fine for me, and if we meet late in the day, we should be able to find a large 
enough classroom where we can meet in person and maintain social distancing.  
If your FIG wants to meet with me, please have your FIG advisor or mentor 
send me email to set it up.  I am very willing to meet with each of the FIGs, 
but only if the FIG thinks it is something you want to do.

6. The EE306 course page.  URL: http://www.ece.utexas.edu/~patt/21f.306
Please make it a point to check for new announcements, etc. every two or
three days.  It is my most common way of getting information to you, rather
than cluttering up your email inbox unnecessary.  If I post something, after
three days, I will assume you have read it.  There is already plenty of useful
information on the course web page and that will grow as the semester continues.

That should do it.  Sorry this was so long winded.  But what is most important
is to get all of us on the same page so you can do your best in EE306 this 
semester.  Feel free to contact me (email is usually initially best and we 
can move our conversation to Zoom if necessary) if I can be of help.

Good luck with EE306.
...and most importantly, stay safe.
Yale Patt