COVID-19 Safety

All policies below are designed to match guidance from the University of Washington. It is possible for guidance to change as the pandemic evolves over the coming months, so we will constantly be updating this page as rules/regulations change.

If you are sick or have potentially been exposed to COVID-19, stay home. There are no attendance points in this class, so you will not be penalized for missing class to keep our community safe. More information from the UW administration is available here.

Below, we briefly describe the accommodations for students having to miss class due to potential illness, with full information in the linked pages.

Class Sessions: Recordings of lectures, as well as all materials, will be available on the course website. In-lecture polls are available on Ed asynchronously and remain accessible until a little before the next lecture.

Quiz Sections: All material (including solutions) posted on the course website, some videos posted walking through material covered in class.

Office Hours: Some office hours will be offered remotely, via Zoom. See the calendar for more information.

Asynchronous help via the Ed Discussion Board: Post online to get asynchronous help from a member of the course staff.

While in public, indoor spaces occupied by other people, wearing a mask is highly encouraged, but not required. This includes, but is not limited to: lectures, quiz sections, and office hours. For maximum effectiveness, a face covering must (1) fit snugly against the sides of the face AND (2) completely cover the nose and mouth. KN95, N95, KF94, and surgical masks are recommended; cloth masks, bandanas, and gaiters are not. See more information about UW's masking requirements here.

Vaccinations and masking provide strong protection against the spread of COVID. Currently, UW does not require social distancing in the classroom or office hours for students who are vaccinated and wearing a mask. The masking and vaccination requirements proved to be very strong in Autumn 2021, leading to no known documented COVID cases that came from transmission in a classroom.

Of course, some students might feel more comfortable keeping a little distance. If you would like to keep space between you and another student, please kindly ask them to leave a space between you and them if there is room available. Similarly, if someone asks you to maintain a space between them, please respect that request if possible.

See this FAQ by UW on what you should do if you get sick. You should also check out the Remote Access options listed above for information on how to keep up with the course!

The course staff is committed to keeping you safe, so we will not make you risk a potential exposure to COVID to attend class. If Sam or your TA feels ill, we will move any in-person activities we are hosting (e.g., a class session, quiz section, or office hours) to be purely online or have someone else on the course staff fill in for us while we are potentially contagious.

Please make sure you check your email frequently and before you attend an in-person event to make sure it is still happening in-person. We will always try our best to give as advanced notice as possible for any changes from in-person to remote for a day.