Update to CSc 110 - Online Mode
Update to CSc 110 - Online Mode
(Red text = updates/changes made on 3/16/2020)
(Blue text = updates/changes made on 3/31/2020)
Online-mode, activate!
As you might be aware of, Robert Robbins (the UofA president) sent out an email announcing that classes will shift to online mode. The online mode will be in place until The end of the Spring 2020 semester. This means there will be some changes to how 110 will run between now and the end of the semester. Below is a summary of what changes will (or will not) be made to accomodate for this.
The model for accessing the specs for and submitting your PAs, Short PAs, and Prep Problems is already fully online. Thus, there is no need for change here! Continue to work on these as-usual.
With the online format, the groups are mostly defunct. You will still have a designated TA who will be responsible for grading your work, and who you are welcome to reach out to directly via email if you have questions. For now, your designated TA will be your phase 2 groups TA. Group exams 2 and 3 are cancelled. These two group exams would have made up for 6% of the total course grade. These points will be redistributed in the following ways: Individual exams 2, 3, and the final will each be worth 2% more than the syllabus originally stated. Thus, individual exams 2 and three will be worth 10% each. The final will be worth 19%. The syllabus has been updated to reflect this change.
Individual Exams 2 and 3, as well as the final will be offered online. You will have to take exam 2 via D2L, during the usual class time, on Friday, 3/20 (the date it was originally scheduled for). If you have DRC accomodations, please contact me at least 24 hours before the start of the exam. I can configure time adjustments in D2L for individual students. Please make sure that on Friday afternoon you are in a computer, and a reliable internet connection.
All in-person office hours are cancelled. You may continue to ask for help via Piazza. You may also email Ben or your TA individually, but response time might be slower than Piazza. We will be using Zoom for online office hours. See the updated office hours page for more information on this.) See here for more info on the zoom software, and please take some time to download it into your computer and/or phone in the near future. If you do need to talk to Ben in person, send an email and an appointment can be made.
Instead of class, there will be pre-recorded videos of Ben presenting the material. These videos will still have an active-learning style, in that there will still be a number of activities that you can do to follow-along with the topic(s) of the videos. There will be required questions for you to answer throughout each video. These videos will be accessible on D2L, using a tool called PlayPosit for the questions. These questions within the videos will count for your attendance for the duration of the online mode requirement. There will be one or more videos to watch corresponding to each day of class on the schedule. You will be able to watch and answer the questions for these for a 24-hour period of time, the same day as the class would have been. You must answer the questions during that time to get the points. A grade of 0% on a video, even if you attempted to watch it and answer the questions, will count as a missed attendance. Skipping a video altogether will also count as a missed attendance.
Unfortunately, I have not yet come up with an algorithm to digitize and undigitize skittles, so I will not be giving candy for correct activity answers. Slingshotting candy will have to wait.
