March 16-18 town hall summary

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• When is Homework 21 due?

• March 23rd.

• What about TA office hours?

• TA Office Hours will most likely be through Zoom meetings and in combination with Piazza.

• We will need to discuss with TAs as far as schedule goes but we will keep you updated.

• Will classes be pre-recorded, or will they be live during regularly scheduled class times three times a week?

• We will see how well the live lectures go this week. But no matter what they will be recorded and made available from the class website.

• If live lectures don't work out. A possible scenario would be to post them a day before the meeting time and then have live questioning during the meeting time.

• Will the date of our next exam be affected?

• The exam will be moved back to kept consistency.

• Also might need rethinkiong to see how learning and studying is affected.

• How will grading/testing be adjusted?

• I do not know at this point. But doing assignments will remain crucial.

• Will the tests be taking place the same way they did when we were still in class, but this time all online?

• Testing will need to take into account we are in different time zones.

• I picture there will be both short answer and coding parts.

• If we do not have any buddies in the class, will we be able to ask for help with the homework from the TAs, or join a help session with groups of students?

• I think working with others is crucial in a programming course. That is why we do so much what is commonly referred to as active learning.

• We will come up with some way to help you form peer partnerships.

• Feel free to make groups with other students in the class through Zoom.

• TAs will still be available but that's is still being worked out

• Nadia says feel free to email her if you need help with homework as the new office hours schedule is being worked established.

• Will the pace of things increase - meaning will be going through the material faster due to some of our lost time - or will we continue going through everything at the pace we have been going at, slow with baby steps? :)

• We will still use the What about Bob Baby steps teaching pedagogy.

• But if you feel it's getting fast / need clarification, feel free to address your concerns.

• Will be able to see your PyCharm screen while we listen to lecture?

• You will definitely see PyCharm.

• Will Nadia still be writing comments on the code we are working on?

• I belive there will be multiple versions supplied. Certainly my annotated version. In addition, there should typically be a version annotated by Nadia, and a clean version.

• Is the short answer section of the test going to be give on Collab?

• I do not know yet.

• We will for sure make sure that students with accomodations will have those accomodations met to the very best of my ability.

• Some schools, like Northwestern, are allegedly making exams optional so if you want to help your grade or not. Is that something you’d consider?

• Most likely not. Exams are a large portion of the grade.

• Would we still have only 75 minutes to take the exam, or could we have more time? I just remember being on a little bit of a time crunch.

• We are not restricted to 75 minutes given there is no class that follows us now in our room. However, I do not want exams to take an inordinate amount of time. I can see the default time going to 90 minutes to allow for non-locality problems.

• How would the short answer questions be asked?

• They would likely be similar to the ones in Test 1. If the format does change you will be told in advance.

• If Collab is used for the short answer questions and the coding questions were still sent out through the class website would we need to complete both during that the normal time frame at the standard class time of 2 pm?

• That is an intersting question. I can see separating the short answer from the coding. I do not think I would so without strong class agreement.

• Testing will take account into people live in different time zones. I expect a window of time to take the test. That window might require accomodations for some students. Again it will be timed and you will be on your honor.

• I will say more as we get experience with online learning.

• For exams, will we be asked to do any coding with url module?

• I believe you will not be writing any code for the rest of the semester that has you directly using the url module.

• However, some of the tester programs that you use, will make use of the module. So, you must have an up-to-date copy of url.py in your CS 1112 folder.

• For those who might be in different time zones, will we be able to complete the test at our time-zone-specific time or should we adjust to US EST time to take the test?

• Ideally, you'd take the test 2PM EST. But again, I expect to allow a window of time to take it.

• No matter what it will be a timed test. Otherwise, my class would adversely affect your other classes.

• Is it confirmed the homework will be worth less?

• I never said that. I do not see the percentages changing.

• Will we be having Zoom meetings/lectures on every scheduled class time from here on out?

• I am to aim to be available every MWF 2-3:15.

• Lectures may become prerecorded but that is tentative to how well Zoom works out. But our our normal class time to will be at least there for live questioning.

• Meeting times will be recorded no matter what.

 

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© 2020 Jim Cohoon

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