Tue, 2 Feb 2021, 2:48

My students,

A few items:

Study groups and lab partners.  You are permitted to do labs 1 and 2 with 
a partner.  You are encouraged to study and do the problem sets in a group. 
Some of you have asked for help finding a lab partner and/or other students
to form a study group.  We have created a spreadsheet on Canvas to help you. 
The link to the online spreadsheet is [redacted, check email or Canvas]. The idea is 
to use email addresses to set up a Zoom meeting, during which I hope you can
find others that would make sense to work with.  If this does not work and
you need additional help finding a study group or lab partner, please let me
or one of my TAs know.

Recording of my lectures.  As you know I am recording my lectures and putting
them on Canvas for you to use as you see fit.  I know that sometimes it is
helpful to play a segment more than once in order to understand what's going
on.  Some of you are using the recordings as a substitute for coming to class.
Whether you come to class (or discussion sessions) is up to you.  I will not
take attendance.  You are an adult and I give you credit for being able to
decide how you spend your time.  I will say, however, that if you have a
question about something in the lecture, you can not ask a question while I
am teaching it if you just watch the recording.  But, as I said, it is up to
you to decide how to allocate your time.

The office hours after class.  These are not being recorded.  I want students
to feel comfortable asking questions and a lot of students will not ask a
question if they know they are being recorded.  So, that discussion session,
which went for almost an hour today with lots of students asking questions
was not recorded.  It is important to me to not discourage questions, 
particularly in the session right after class.  So, those sessions will not 
be recorded.  If you want to take advantage of those sessions, even if that 
means listening and not asking any questions yourself, you will need to be 
in the Zoom meeting while it is going on.

Recording of discussion sessions.  Discussion sessions will also not be 
recorded for exactly the same reason.  Discussion sessions are not for my 
TAs to teach the course, they are to have my TAs answer questions.  And I do 
not want to inhibit questions.  Therefore, discussion will not be recorded.

Finally, as I have said before, if you want to meet with me privately or with
your study group, I am very willing to meet with you.  Send me email and we 
will set up a Zoom meeting.  I do want you to do your best in 460N, and if
I can help you make that happen, I want to try.

Good luck getting Programming Lab 1 done by Sunday night, and good luck with 
the rest of the course.

Yale Patt