Email has gone from a convenience to a stressor and a burden, and potential email substitutes don't help and may be worse. These guidelines are aimed at reducing everyone's stress and improving the quality of our communications as a group.
The forum for this course is hosted on Ed Discussion (henceforth Ed). Our Ed forum is also linked from Canvas. The Ed forum is broken up into several categories:
General, for broad posts about the class as a whole, as well as class announcements;
Lectures, for posts about lectures, notes, or discussed topics;
Readings, for posts about any readings;
Programming, for posts about software or programming topics or questions;
Assignments, for posts about assignments (each assignment has its own sub-category);
Projects, for posts about projects (both projects have their own sub-category);
Random, for posts that don't fall into any of the other categories.
Search before you post! It's possible that someone else has posted a similar question, and you might be able to find an answer in that thread. If you f*ind a relevant post without an answer, endorse it to boost it. And if you don't find a post that is quite right, please do post a new thread (rather than adding a comment to a different thread).
Posts can be set to public or private. A private post will only be seen by the poster and the course staff. Use private posts for non-urgent messages that should be accessible to myself and the TA. Email, rather than private posts, is best for messages that must be kept private between you and either myself or the TA.
I will set Ed to send me a digest of new activity on a regular basis, rather than being notified every time there is a new post (and I recommend you do the same). If a message is actually urgent, email is a better channel than Ed (in fact, this is a reason not to use email for non-urgent or private messages; I'm less likely to make it a priority to read every message if I can't tell which ones are actually urgent).
If you see a post and have relevant input, feel free to share! This class works best when we learn from each other, and you should share links and other guidance that have helped you.
If you're asking a question about programming or an assignment, please include as much information as you can. There are more details given in a pinned post in the forum, but the more information you provide, the easier it will be to identify the problem and find a solution. Vague questions can only get vague answers.
Please reserve email for confidential or urgent messages. Overuse of email has been linked to increased stress, which should be avoided as much as possible, and other students may be able to benefit from a public Ed post. Adherence to this policy will make sure that the TA and I can immediately recognize an email as something that should be read and acted on ASAP; otherwise, messages can be lost in the shuffle.
Do not expect me to check or respond to emails after 7pm, or on Saturdays. If you send a message during this period (which is fine!), I will read it the next day.
Class announcements will be posted on Ed. These will also be sent out to your emails. I will reserve these for urgent messages (class cancellations, changes to deadlines, etc), so make sure you check Ed for important but non-urgent messages (which will be pinned).
I will do my best to post lecture notes ahead of the upcoming week (the Wednesday notes may be modified based on how far we get on Monday, but they should be broadly accurate).
The notes will be posted as an HTML slideshow. These can be saved to a PDF by using your browser to print to PDF.
Each lecture will start with a poll for questions that you'd like me to answer at the start of class. I will give you time at the beginning of class to pose questions, but if something comes to mind ahead of lecture, use the link or QR code at the beginning of the notes to access the poll and ask your question.
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