Class discussion will be handled on Piazza. Piazza is a third party discussion site for college courses, blending forum-style discussion with wikified Q&A functionality (and LaTeX math formatting!). It is designed to get you help quickly and efficiently from the course staff and your fellow students. We will not be using the CS department newsgroups this semester.
To setup your account, go to our Piazza site here. You will need an email address and the course access code (ask any course staff member).
If you are particularly concerned with privacy, be aware that Piazza is a third party service, i.e. the University of Illinois does not own the servers/software. You do not need to use your Illinois email address when making an account, even though it may say differently. Anonymous posting is also allowed once you are logged in.
Check Piazza frequently for questions and discussions. The TAs will monitor Piazza and help answer questions. We encourage you to discuss problems with other students here, but please do not post any part of any solutions to a problem (that would be considered as a form of academic misconduct). Postings regarding the definitions and problem formulation are acceptable. The newsgroup can also serve as an opportunity for students to give constructive feedback to the TAs and professor in the way the course is being handled. Constructive comments and suggestions that are posted by students could help improve the learning experience for everyone.