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Virtual Office Hours Instructions

by Parth Dhruve

Office hours will be held online for the remainder of the semester to comply with the University’s response to the novel coronavirus. This page details how to utilize online office hours.

The course now uses two different queues for two different needs: conceptual questions and debugging questions. The conceptual queue is meant for questions that are focused on understanding how to approach a particular problem. Join the Virtual Conceptual Office Hours Queue if you have a question about material presented in lecture or lab. The debugging queue is meant for when you’re stuck on an annoying bug - especially when you’ve written and tested a solution, but can’t quite pin down why it’s not working correctly. Join the Virtual Debugging Office Hours Queue if you’ve reached an impasse with an MP, lab, or POTD.

The following sections outline how to join each Queue. Please familiarize yourself with these instructions before you seek help from course staff. This will allow us to maximize the time we spend helping you with course content. Of course, if you have questions or concerns about the instructions provided here, please reach out to us on Piazza. In particular, if your situation prevents you from connecting with us using the avenues detailed in this document, please create a private Piazza post. We understand that this is a difficult time and we want to work with you to make sure you have access to course resources.

Virtual Conceptual Office Hours

Conceptual office hours are centered on building a correct mental model of the material presented in lecture. Traditionally, we work through conceptual problems through a lively conversation with you. We reproduce this online with audio communication through Google Meet. (In person, we also sometimes use the whiteboards in the Siebel basement to illustrate problems. To date, we haven’t found an effective way to replicate this behavior online. Please reach out to us on Piazza if you have a tool that you think may be a suitable replacement.)

Joining the Queue

Open your favorite web browser and do the following:

  1. Go to Google Meet.
  2. Log in to Google Meet with your Illinois credentials.
  3. Create a meeting with your NetID as the nickname.
  4. Join the meeting you’ve just created.
  5. Join the Virtual Debugging Office Hours Queue. Make sure your netid is typed in correctly when filling out the new question form on the Queue. Course staff will join you in your Google Meet session when it’s your turn.

Virtual Debugging Office Hours

Debugging office hours are centered on investigating why your code doesn’t work the way it should. Traditionally, we employ three primary tools when debugging in office hours: access to your code and keyboard, feedback from terminal utilities Valgrind and GDB, and a lively conversation with you. We reproduce this online by using a couple of utilities; we use Visual Studio Code and its Live Share Extension Pack for code editing and terminal sharing, and Google Meet for audio communication. (In person, we also sometimes use the whiteboards in the Siebel basement to illustrate problems. To date, we haven’t found an effective way to replicate this behavior online. Please reach out to us on Piazza if you have a tool that you think may be a suitable replacement.)

One Time Setup

Follow the above video or the following transcription of its instructions:

  1. Download the appropriate version of Visual Studio Code (VSC).
  2. Install the application. We recommend using the default installation settings.
  3. Open VSC and install the Live Share Extension Pack extension (search for ms-vsliveshare.vsliveshare-pack in the marketplace if the link does not work). You may be prompted to authenticate the first time you create a collaboration session. Choose to sign in with an institutional Microsoft account and log in with your Illinois credentials.
    • Windows: Make sure you’ve followed the On Your Own Machine instructions. Then in VSC settings search for terminal.integrated.shell.windows and change its value in its associated JSON file to C:\\Windows\\System32\\wsl.exe.
    • macOS: Make sure you’ve followed the On Your Own Machine instructions.
    • Linux: Make sure you’ve followed the On Your Own Machine instructions.

Once you’ve followed the above setup procedure, familiarize yourself with VSC’s and Live Share’s functionality. Primarily, Live Share can be used to start a collaboration session. This allows collaborators to edit your code and communicate with you via chat. Once you’ve started a collaboration session, you can:

This functionality is demonstrated in the following video:


Joining the Queue

Open your favorite web browser and do the following:

  1. Go to Google Meet.
  2. Log in to Google Meet with your Illinois credentials.
  3. Create a meeting with your NetID as the nickname.
  4. Join the meeting you’ve just created.
  5. Open Visual Studio Code and create a Live Share collaboration session. Copy the link for the collaboration session.
  6. Join the Virtual Debugging Office Hours Queue. Make sure your NetID is typed in correctly when filling out the question form on the Queue. Paste the link for your Live Share collaboration session into the “Location” field of your Queue posting. Course staff will join you in your Google Meet session when it’s your turn.