Office Hours

Having questions or getting stuck on something is entirely expected in the learning process. If you find something challenging with your studies, that is a sign you are learning! Learning is not something that you need to do alone though! In fact, connecting with your peers or asking a member of the course staff for help can add extreme depth to your knowledge.

• Synchronous Help (Office Hours): One place to go to get help is our Office Hours hosted throughout the week. TAs staff office hours for many hours a day to provide you the help you need when you need it! This is a great place to go if you want to review a particular course concept, work on a practice problem with the help of a TA or your peers, or get help on a Creative Project or Programming Assignment if you are running into difficulties.

  Tip

  A common misconception is that you can only go to support hours for help with a specific assignment. That is not true! If you have any questions about course concepts (e.g., from class that day), you are super encouraged to go work on that concept with a member of the course staff at support hours! Getting help with a concept earlier, when you first are feeling unsure, is much better than saving it until you need it on an assignment.

• Asynchronous Help (Ed Discussion): With a class of our size, directly emailing a member of the course staff is not usually recommended. There are many of you and only few of us, so if you email one person directly we can’t guarantee how quickly we can respond. To alleviate this, we have a course discussion board that will be a much more lively place for discussion and a way to make sure you can get help more quickly. The message board is set up so that all of the course staff can help you, which will make it more likely for you to receive a quicker response!

  Ed Tips

  • If you are asking a general question about the course logistics or content, you can make a public post. This way other students can benefit from seeing your question, and you can even answer each other’s questions to share your perspectives!
    • If you want, you can choose to post anonymously so that other students in the course can’t see your name. Note that anonymous posting does not hide your identity from the course staff.
  • You’re encouraged to answer each other’s questions as well! Explaining a topic to someone else (even on a discussion board) is a great way to help you better understand the material The course staff will still look over student answers and can nicely point out misconceptions (if there are any) so that everyone benefits.
  • If you have a question that’s pretty specific to your assignment solution or is related to a personal situation that you would not want to share with the class (e.g., DRS accommodations), you can make a private post on Ed that is only visible to the course staff. This way, any member of the staff can respond to get you the help you need!
  • For sensitive matters that you only want to discuss with Brett and Elba, you can instead email Brett/Elba if that makes you feel more comfortable. Note that the response time for the instructors’ email is generally longer than posting on the Ed board.

Introductory Programming Lab (IPL)¶

The Introductory Programming Lab (IPL) is a TA run office hours space available for many hours a day during weekdays and some hours over the weekends. The IPL is located in MGH 334 and can be attended by students in CSE 121/122/123. Click below to see the schedule.

IPL Schedule Join the IPL Queue