Office hours

Office hours will start from week 2.

Most office hours will be offered in-person at the Siebel basement (tutoring rooms). We also provide virtual office hours, marked with (*) in the table below. Each course staff will be using their own virtual conference meeting for office hours. You can find their links by clicking on their names in the course staff list.

The in-person office hours may be changed to online if the need arises, and these changes will be posted on CampusWire. Check the message board before you go to in-person office hours. When needed, course staff may switch their office hours. We will also make these annoucements on CampusWire, to ensure you know which link to use in case of virtual office hours.

Students registered in the City Scholars section can get assistance for the GAs during their class time on Tuesdays 5-6:15pm using the virtual office hours scheduled at this slot (marked as "GA Priority" below). Other students can also use this virtual meeting, but students in the City Scholars section will get priority.

If you are interested in discussing conceptual topics from the course, stop by the Friday office hours (marked as "Conceptual" below). These office hours should not be used for questions like "can you please help me with question 2 on this week's homework".

The office hours schedule may be updated during the semester. Please check here often for the most updated information.

Queue

The TAs and CAs will open the queue as needed during Office Hours (they will tell you if they are using the Queue).

We will use the Queue to support the Group Activities on Tuesdays for the online section from 12:30pm-1:45pm.

Happy Hour - hosted by Mariana

Tuesdays 3pm-4pm, Siebel 2213

This is not the "traditional" office hours. This is just a time when I will be at my office to connect with students. We can talk about anything you want: career goals, projects, research, hobbies, big-picture conversations about course content, other courses and programs, weather, food, etc. This is a great opportunity to foster community and connections! I have really enjoyed these happy hours in previous semesters, I hope you have a chance to stop by!

If you have specific questions about homework, and need someone to look at your solution and/or code, this is not the best venue for that. We have over 25 office hours per week with course staff that can help you with these type of interactions.

Make sure to check CampusWire for announcements before you go to Siebel, since I may need to cancel or move the time in some weeks.

Guidelines for getting prepared for office hours and posting on CampusWire

1. Come to office hours with specific questions about problems you are not able to solve on your own. We are not able to help students that come to office hours without giving their best effort to solve a problem and simply ask course staff "How do I solve this question?".
2. When you come with prepared questions, we can efficiently help many students during office hours.
3. Do not post screenshots of PrairieLearn solution, or your code, on CampusWire. You should instead explain your current approach, and what has not worked. You can explain code with words, or post small code snippets.
4. If you have a question about your grade, or want to talk to course staff directly (professor, TAs or CAs), please post on CampusWire using the "Class feed" to "Instructors & TAs". Using DM is not as effective, since only one person gets access to your message. We split tasks among members of the course staff, so your message will reach the correct person only if you post to all of us.

Use the template below to post messages on CampusWire to get help with PrairieLearn questions.

1. Which problem do you need help with? You should provide the assignment and question numbers, for example, HW2.3 (homework 2, question 3)
2. Describe your specific question(s). For example:
   • (a) "I don't understand the meaning of variable x".
   • (b) "I don't know how to get vector x from A"
3. Describe what you have tried so far, or our general thoughts about the question. For example:
• (a) I tried solving with ... , but it failed because ...
• (b) I was able to get the answer .... using the approach ... . I don't know why this approach does not give me the correct answer.
• (c) I first added x and y together ... , then I got stuck at this step.
4. What were the course resources you have used so far? For example:
• (a) I have already looked at the course notes and slides, but still not able to understand the issue explained above.
• (b) I watched the video lectures.

Here is an example of a CampusWire post that is consistent with the course guidelines: