CS35: Remote Learning Plan

Hello everyone! I’ve spent most of extended spring break trying to plan for moving CS35 course online. As of March 20, much of this planning work is complete. This page contains information about how the course will operate going forward. Please read this message completely. Below is a high-level summary:

Much of the technology we’ve been using this semester will still be in use. In particular, we’ll still use git to distributed and collect assignments and to hand back grades. Importantly, we’ll still use Piazza for common class questions.

In an effort to facilitate online learning, we’ll also use two new applications.

Slack communication is quick, but messages expire. For questions that become common, or for lab-related questions that are worth keeping around, we’ll migrate the conversation over to Piazza for more permanence.

Note: if you are having trouble accessing Zoom, Slack, or any other part of CS35 as we move to remote instruction, please let me know as soon as possible. Both Charlie and I, the CS department, and Swarthmore as a whole are focused on ensuring each of you has the tools to proceed this semester. I expect some kinks, especially the first week back. Hopefully we can resolve these as soon as possible.

In accordance with Swarthmore College policy, lectures will still be held Tuesdays and Thursdays, 9:55am-11:10am. We’ll use the Zoom video conference software. To get launch the zoom meeting for lectures, click here: https://swarthmore.zoom.us/j/314469044. I plan on opening the Zoom meeting at 9:45am to give us time to work out connection issues.

Based on student request, I will try to upload definitions and brief lecture notes prior to lecture. We’ll use the lab-examples git repo for this purpose.

I will record each lecture and upload them to Youtube. Information on where to access these videos is forthcoming.

Our current plan for Lab sessions is to (i) start with a short demo or group discussion, (ii) spend most of the time providing one-on-one help with lab assignments, and (iii) returning to the group discussion to summarize and conclude the lab.

Expect to start the lab session by going to your lab’s slack channel. From there, Charlie or I will launch a zoom session. We’ll use Zoom to manage group and one-on-one discussions, and we’ll use slack for quick answers and to know which students need assistance (similar to a Ninja help queue).

One nice thing about Zoom is that sharing code with Charlie and I is very easy! In the practice session last Thursday, I found it just as easy to look at student code remotely as I did while I was with you face-to-face in lab.

Technology-wise, we’ll be running office hours similarly to lab sessions — we’ll get on the appropriate slack channel and launch a Zoom meeting for individual assistance.

There will be some changes to how much office hours will be offered and when. Zach Palmer and Michael Wehar will staff additional office hours.

Joshua's office hours have changed. The new office hours are: Monday 2-4pm, Tuesday 10pm-12am.

Michael's CS35 office hours are Monday 10pm-12am.

Zach's CS35 office hours are Tuesday 11:30am-1:00pm.

We’ve decided to make all lab assignments individual going forward. My primary reason for making this choice are based on equity concerns. I expect that many of you will have stable internet connections, and most of you will be on either the East or West coast and will have an easy time scheduling time with your partner to work on assignments.

However, a fraction of CS35 students are currently in very different time zones, and I expect a fraction of CS35 students will have difficult connectivity issues. For these students, partnered assignments would be very difficult to manage.

Our goal is to make sure every CS35 student can access class material and is a position to succeed in this class.

The assignments we prepared for the second half of this course were partnered. We’re aware that expecting you to do a two-person lab alone is not reasonable! Charlie and I are busy modifying the lab assignments to make the workload manageable for individuals, while still retaining as much of the pedagogical value as possible.

We’re still working out exactly what the format for Tests 2 and 3 will be. They will likely be open-book exams distributed, collected, graded, and returned via git.

For the final exam, I expect Swarthmore will make a single policy for all classes. This too is to be determined.

Moving to online learning for CS35 will be challenging, but I am optimistic that we’ll still be able to operate remotely. My focus in the short term will be to ensure that everyone is able to develop remotely and access lectures. Here is a list of things you’ll want to consider:

The first week is likely to be very bumpy, but we’ll get the details worked out. Charlie and I are here to assist you with whatever problems you encounter.