Section 3 How will we communicate?
Canvas.
We will be heavily relying on Canvas, UT’s Learning Management System. Each week, the topic, assignments, and assessments for that week will be posted to Canvas. Please check Canvas regularly.
Ed Discussion.
We will be using Ed as our class’ discussion board. Ed will be the preferred and quickest way to communicate with the teaching team.
You must read the discussion board at least once per day, and should post course-related technical or administrative questions or problems there. You are encouraged to respond to your class-mates posts. I expect you to make good use of the discussion board when you have technical or administrative questions or problems. Our TAs and I will be closely monitoring the discussion board.
Course-related announcements will be cross-posted on the discussion board. Every time I check throughout the semester, you must have read at least 85% of the discussion board posts (as recorded by the discussion board, so you must read them through the website, not through emails).
You are responsible for any and all information posted to the discussion board by any of the course staff. You are expected to read all announcements within twelve hours of being posted.
Emails to you.
In this course, email will be used as a means of communication with students. You are responsible for regularly checking (at least every 24 hours) both your CS email and your email officially registered with UT for class work and announcements.
Emails to the Instructor or TAs.
Email is not the best way to get in touch with the teaching team. If you need to have a personal conversation with one of us, please approach us at office hours or after class.
To follow up, we may ask you to send us an email. In this case, emails to course staff should begin with “CS378” in the subject line, followed by a brief description of the purpose of your email. I teach multiple classes, and by following this format, I can ensure I can better address your questions in a timely manner. If you miss this detail, a response to your email may be delayed indefinitely, since this lack of information in your email will cause uncessary back-and-forth email exchanges to figure out who you are, and which course your query is related to.
Do not use Canvas messages to contact the teaching team. If you use Canvas Messages, you may not receive a reply.
Last-minute assistance requests by email will not be supported. More generally, you cannot expect to get detailed answers to technical questions by email. If you must send an email, spend extra time to ensure that you are both brief and clear. Email is a valuable tool for communicating with the instructional team. But be sure to use it properly and follow the rules of good email etiquette (e.g., no flaming, spamming, etc.). Although it’s easy for you to dash off an email question, it takes a lot of thought and effort on our part to answer it.
In general, if you have a question to which you can find the answer somewhere like the Syllabus, Canvas, Ed, Textbooks, please do not email us regarding these questions.
