My. Name is s'agit sati I'm director of academic programs here at the Stanford center for professional development, and. I'm. Really excited to have you here tonight we. We. Have gathered a very, interesting group of people to share information with you and. We'll. We'll, start by just. Taking taking listen and getting started so I want. To acknowledge all the SCPD team members who are working with. Colleagues. And other teams across the university, with a single purpose in mind and that is to give. You access to these classes that are offered every quarter, here at Stanford. The. Result this, this autumn quarter SCPD, is offering, sixty four classes to remote students, and we're excited to have you here and join us, if. You look around the room and as you get to know your classmates later. In our welcome reception also. Know that you were part of a group of more than 1100, remote students, are joining you this. Quarter from. Around the, world and all over the country so. On, behalf of all of us at Stanford congratulations. On taking this step in your education journey we're really glad you're here. Our. Goal tonight is to share with you the, information need to know to get the quarter off to a good start our. Discussion, will be mostly Q&A, with. The panel of experts two, returning SCPD, students, a professor. And a TA all. Of whom will tell you simply, just the way it is. But. Before we dive in I want, to introduce our keynote speaker tonight, computer. Science professor John Mitchell John, earned his bachelor's degree at Stanford and, his master's and PhD degrees at MIT he. Joined Stanford, as a professor in 1988, and, over the years has, published, hundreds, of articles. And collaborations, and, tours and advised thousands, of students, John's. First research, project in online education, started. In 2009, when he and six undergraduate, students, built, Stanford, course where an innovative. Platform that expanded, to support interactive. Video and discussion, course. Were served as the foundation, for initial. Flipped classroom, experiments, at Stanford, and helped inspire the first massive open, online courses, better known as MOOCs, from. Stanford, that, captured wall while attention in 2011. Since. 2012 John has served his vice provost at Stanford. Most, recently a device Provost for teaching and learning under. John's leadership a, CPD. Transition, from the School of Engineering to, unit within VP TL allowing. SCPD to have a broader impact in reach across the entire university. After. Completing two terms as vice provost John, stepped down earlier this year but. Before we started missing him too. Bad in for, real we. Were happy to learn the in January he will become chair of the computer science department by. Far our largest. Collaboration. In the university, so. While he's no longer my boss's, boss's boss I'm, still, I'm still working for him so with this in mind please help me and give, John. Mitchell and SCPD welcome. Thank. You so, I just want to welcome. You all here and. Congratulate. You on making the, excellent, choice to. Listen. To people like me and believe what we say and, go. Off and tell other people, because. It's. All true and and we wouldn't teach you anything if we didn't know it well, here so I think this program here has been, very successful. Many. Of you may not know much about the, history. Apparently. In the School of Engineering our. Distance, education programs. Date back to 1954. So. That's before I was, born I have, no idea what they did in 1954. Probably. Something on paper, in the mail or something like that I don't know how they did distance education, 1950. Oh I know in the 1970s. We, had this. Kind of direct. Microwave. TV, link to local companies Hewlett Packard was one of the leading companies in, the valley at that time other. Companies, would subscribe and, I, was actually a student here, as I gave mentioned. Sometime. In that decade, and what, I remember from, a course that I took in this building, this right above this auditorium, is we, would all, sit in the classroom and look at our little screens, and, the person at the front would talk at his little screen and whenever, there was a question somebody. Else in the valley could, push their button at, their sight in Milpitas or, Cupertino. Or someplace, else in Palo Alto and ask a question in real time so, the quality, of some things has gone up but we've kind of lost that interactive. And eye, interaction. With you if your, remote and I hope it'll come back sometime in, the, time that you're involved, in this program.
I'm Not quite sure about that but I really, liked that interactive. Activity, and I think that's something we. Can hope for in the future since, the 1990s. This has been, web-based. Delivery. Which. Has been, very successful. So, we we as I've mentioned, offer, about, 200, courses a year from the School of Engineering and, otherwise in the format, that you're taking, them and that's, if you were to count the number of students, enrolled on campus, and where they're enrolled in that's, the bulk of the, student, course hours, in the School of Engineering are all available. To all of you so I think that that's really, represents. Our commitment at, Stanford, to reaching as many people, as possible, as. Successfully. As we can and. You. All look bright and cheerful and energetic and. So I'm sure we're reaching. The. Right the right people, as best, we can there one, thing you might not know is that you probably have the same experience. Remotely. As students. On campus, it. Turns out that about 80 percent of the video, views, for. The courses, that we. Deliver. In, the form that you see them are, from students, on campus, so, you, might not see it remotely, but for most of us teaching the room is empty and, everybody. Is remote, so. You, are, following. The, most popular. Path, through. Stanford. By. Being remote students, you're. In really good company I don't know if you've been to the Huang engineering. Building does anybody recognize that, it's the place where there's a cafe, and and stuff just. Over behind, this building. Jenson, Wang who was the donor who's. The, building is named after was, a remote, student, he, got a master's student at, Stanford, and as far as I know he never set, foot on campus. During. That time so. You're, on the path to become, a, CEO, of a company, like Nvidia if. You want. And. If you're lucky a friend. Of mine bill Dahle who used to teach in our department, has, been the chief scientist, of Nvidia. For maybe, 10 years and. He told me an entertaining, story that I'm not going to repeat about, Jenson Wang being. Pulled over by the California. Highway Patrol for, driving his Ferrari, too fast, down. The highway. So. I wish, you success. If. You have that kind of success don't, tell us but. If you have another kind of technical, success around, your business or your your, scientific, career we that we'd love to hear about it the way you drive your Ferrari is. Kind of your business. So, please, enjoy the courses, I know that they're they're challenging. We try to challenge everyone. That's. What we do for a living. But work hard you, know have fun learn. Stuff, and, you. Know keep in touch you know let us know when something, is successful when, something isn't. One. Of the things I that I really appreciate. Very much and it happens, all too infrequently. Is, you know somebody, a year. Five, years ten years after they took a course, will. Send me an email and, say you, know that course I hated when I was a student. Meaning. My good course you know it, actually was very valuable and the most important, part to me was this that I didn't appreciate it at the time but I do you, know that kind of thing is very gratifying, as, a teacher.
We. Teach too you know this big empty, room and lots of people on video so, hearing from you is valuable, to all of us and I, know as you go forward in your careers and, have, the success, in the directions you choose you, know you're in your advice and and input, to us on what we could do better or what topics, we should cover or how we've been helpful to you is very, valuable isto so please you, know make good connections with each other with. Other people in the courses and programs, you, enroll, in and you. Know keep. Us informed of, what, happens, to you and where. We've. Been helpful to you and how we could be more successful. In, reaching others, so that's basically my thought I don't know if there any questions. But, I, do appreciate, all of your interest, in, our programs, we. Work hard as second I said there's a big organization. Here to try to deliver to you the, best possible, experience we can for people at a distance and, from. The point of view of being on the faculty here. We. Feel very. Enthusiastic. About our fields, we love, our work we, love our topic, area and we're. Really just very pleased to be able to share that with as many people as possible so, please have a good evening here, enjoy. Meeting each other and thank, you for coming. Perfect. Thank you John. Let, me share with you the plan for the evening. First. I'm going to briefly, overview, some of the key information you need to know as the quarter begins because. All this information is available online, I'm. Not going to go into a lot of details, about it. It's. It's. On our web site the SCPD website or the University website right I do, recommend it if anything I speak to is, something that is confusing, not, familiar or new, please. Be sure to ask questions of our team later. Tonight and as we go to our network, receptions, we. Want to make sure that you have the right information so. After. Going over the the. Short deck we will introduce. Our. Panel team members will, respond to your questions now this is really cool and this is our first time trying it but it's been tested here so. Let's give it a try I'm going to ask you to go to Paul f dot-com, slash SCPD, on. Your on your phone. In. Start you have a choice to enter and input a question, that you would like to ask the panel you also have the very cool opportunity of up voting, questions. That have already been submitted. And. By you up voting the question it gives us indication, as to whether or not this is of interest to a larger number of of, individuals and we'll try to to go. Through the. Questions are of most interest to the most people, as. Best we can, the. Other cool thing about is do you you can also vote down questions, but, we don't do this here right it's. Technically possible but it's not cool so so please remember that and. Also our tech team is appreciating, your your stress testing our Wi-Fi in the room and, I hope everybody will be able to connect doing it before the quarter is better then as the quarter begins and. So let's get started. Accessing. Course content, right so as we all know our, quarter. Begins next week next week is week one the, most important thing for you to do is to. Access. Your course website and, identify. The. Platform, in how to access. The. Lectures in the course go. To the SCPD website then. Click on the my Stanford connection, button log in and, as you complete your login process you'll get to you essentially or your your dashboard, where the, class or classes you're taking will be listed right that, should provide information for you at the very least to. A to. Our video. Platform, our. Video platform, and video X is where recorded. Lectures are hosted, do. Not wait to receive a special invitation from anyone right so this is just like when you got, your undergraduate degree or any other graduate degree right you're now a student in university. You're. Expected, to find your classroom even if it's a virtual classroom many. Teaching teams will send out a welcome email. But. But, it's your responsibility to, go and find it information I do, want to mention that depending. On the course that you are enrolled in you, will access your course information either, via a canvas, website canvas, is a learning management system in user or a, website, or, some, other platform, that information, is available to you after you login. For. Most classes that we offer here at SCPD. Recorded. Lectures are also available in, near-real-time by. Logging into canvas don't, stanford.edu, you. Go to canvas, with stanford.edu, you. Use your student ID to sign in you, get your dashboard, with a tile that you can click and access your class so. The, nice thing about it is that because classes, are streamed, in near-real-time if. You know for example that your first class is on Monday at 9:30 and, your schedule is open and work and you can actually log, into the system and you'll be able to watch that first lecture as it is given canvas. Is also the place where recording.
Of Lectures, and and other sessions, from the course will be kept throughout the quarter so. Definitely check that out real, easy to use, we. Get fantastic reviews, for that system. Contacts. Any, questions, you have about your, course about your class the, best the, best way to get an answer is simply to contact the teaching team and how. To contact the teaching team will be available on the class website, any. Other issues that are not real to academic, content or if you're not sure please. Please. Do not hesitate and, contact our, student and Client Services team we're, here to support you especially during, the first week of the quarter, so. The one thing we don't want you to do is you, know don't hesitate, write ask, us those questions. Exam. Procedures, very, very important, than you you'll notice the red font right so, students. In classes with in class monitored exam must have an approved exam monitor. Information. About how to get that process started is, on. The exam section in Nice Stanford connection, so. Just log in and. Understand. The process understand, how it works, the. Autumn. Exam monitor no nomination. Due deadline, is Monday October 8th so this is really if there's, one thing to take right is to make sure understand, the process you know who can be a exam. Monitor and, you complete this process by. October. 8th any. Delay, in in doing this right increases, the likelihood of off of nearly. Needless, worrying, about about stuff not happening on time right so please, please, be. Sure to take that, action item, that, step. Stanford. Honor code, what. Is it the stanford honor code is a set of standards that establish, the expectations for academic, integrity required, of all students and you. Are now students in the university, right if, you want to get I highly. Recommend, Google. Search Stanford. Honor code you will get to the University website where. All the policies are detailed, but. In a nutshell you're. Supposed to do your own work you're, not supposed to help others with their work. And. And. Others. Are and, and, vice versa right so so here are some violations, that I that, I think are interesting right, and. I collected.
These From from prior, classes, the. Teaching team in your class will also have additions, to this policy, so looking. At previous year's homework, solutions, right either official, or written by another student. Discussing. Homework prone right so individual. Assignments are to be completed individually. Submitting. Malicious code right, not, an honorable thing to do it's a violation of the honor code and, I don't do it. Uploading. Your code if you're if you're dealing with computer code to a to a public repository like github get the violation, and we have the systems in place right, so, let's. Let's try and see if, if. We have systems in place to to. Identify. This event I will say that the process is a, serious. Process a process of honor code violation it. Is a very fair process and in the few instances where we have been involved we certainly notice that there is a. Sincere. Effort on the part of the university to make sure that your site is heard the. Know. The policy. Course. Evaluations, there are two opportunities for you to give feedback the. First one will happen mid-quarter, will, send to you via email the SCPD, mid-quarter survey it, happens, around week five. That. Survey is for us to understand, to make sure that everything works right it, is not a vehicle, for you to ask questions of the teaching team and it's not a vehicle for you to ask questions that are timely, right we, receive hundreds, of responses and while. We read through all those responses, if there's something timely there that you need us to respond to might, take us a couple of weeks that's. Not the way to go. The. University end of quarter evaluation. Is available, on the tenth and eleventh week of the quarter very. Important, to complete that you do not want to. Cause. Incompletion, of it to cause any delay in you getting your grades at the end of the quarter. Important. Deadlines important. Deadlines first, day on instruction is next week the. Drop deadline is Friday October 12. Before. 5:00 p.m. Pacific, time. Withdrawals, and grading basis changes, November, 16, incomplete. Requests December 7 assignments.
And Exam are subject, to your 2, plus syllabus right so. You're. All working professionals most of you are however. Work related travel or or heavy workload. Generally. Speaking is not a. Is. Not considered a sufficient, justification for, skipping a deadline right so at. The same time we know that life happens. When. Events outside your control happen that it might cause you to miss, a deadline. Be. Diligent, and inform the teaching teams as early as you can and, do not hesitate to involve the student, services team also the. Earlier we know the challenge did the earlier we have an opportunity to help the. Last one at the last item here I want to speak to his tuition reimbursement, right many of you will receive tuition reimbursement from your companies, some. Companies, because because, autumn quarter ends, very. Near to the end of December end of the year some. Companies, stopped processing, this request say on December, 15th right. Your. Responsibility. Is to understand the policy, at your company, know if you have any deadlines, for. Submitting, tuition reimbursement, requests in your company and make, sure that you know when will degrades be available, in, certain cases, we. Can help you get your grades a few days earlier but, please let us know about that in advance. These. Are the important policies, right all. Of it is on the website. Thank. You for for, for listening as we review this I, hope. You've been busily, and. Entering, and up voting questions to poll EV dot-com / SCPD so please take. A moment think, about. What. We cover and. I. Will now introduce my colleague, pax hammer will. Also, bring. Our panel of experts, and. Will take us through a what. We hope is the heart of the conversation, tonight which is. Asking. Questions right students. Professor, a TA. An. SCPD, and so it's my pleasure to introduce the, panel tonight which is made up of instructors, and grad. And students, here as. Part of the SCPD, program so I'll just invite them to come up to the chairs, up here front and center well front into the side I suppose and I'll. Introduce them as we go through and then we'll come, up with some questions and then at the end I'll come. Back to the questions that you'll be posting and pull everywhere and direct, some of them to the panel, so first, is Nick Turco Lee he's, a lecturer here in the computer, department, at Stanford and, before. Being before, teaching here he was a graduate student he was also the lead TA for the past two years for 106 ACS, 106, a and CS, 106, B and so. This quarter, he, is teaching. CS. 106. X and, C, in the fall and CS 107. In the. Spring. So as. His role as sort of the lead TA he, oversaw a lot of logistics, for sebt these. Students and making sure that your experience is really fantastic so we're excited to have him here today to share some of his insights we're. Also really fortunate, to be joined by, Zahra kucik who's one of our most experienced, TAS she's a fifth-year, PhD students. In the electrical engineering department and she's, been a TA for some of our most popular courses, so machine. Learning deep, learning intro. To linear algebra and this, this. Quarter she's part of the teaching team for CS. 229, machine learning is that correct.
Fantastic. So we're excited to have her here and share some of her on insights, in addition, to our two instructors we also have two students, so. Colby Lopez, is, currently. Part. Of our honors cooperative, program he's pursuing a part-time. Master's and the management science and engineering program. He. Has a Bachelor, mechanical, in bachelors in mechanical engineering, from Mississippi, State and he's. Working, at Chevron he's been working there for the past five years he, works, in technical support for some of the mechanical. Mechanical. Operations. And he's, been work, for, Chevron he's worked in Houston, he's worked in Australia and now he's working over in Richmond, so we're excited to have him here tonight and next. To Colby is to Shara Deut who is it, has a, bachelor's. In computer science from Waterloo he has also, has a bachelor's, in business administration from. Wilfrid. Laurier University and. He's. Been part of the Google family for a while so he starred in ads I hear that's where everyone starts at Google and then he moved on to let. Me see here you were part of X the moonshot Factory and now you're part of alphabets. Cybersecurity. Startup, locally. In Mountain View and like Colby to Shara's is part, of a honours, cooperatives program and he's pursuing a master's in computer science with, dual, focus and artificial intelligence and systems. So. We're really excited to have here today and I. Want I've got the microphone so we'll, just pass it back and forth and I want to start with just a high-level question, here, for Nick and Zara so, both. Of you have a lot of experience, here working, with students helping. Them through so Nick I'll start with you just at, a high level what does it take to be a successful student here at SCPD, what would be your high level advice to the students here tonight, sure. Well thanks for having me. I think, you know I've gotten. The opportunity to have a lot of experience, teaching a CV classes, which has been a lot. Of fun and, I think the biggest thing I would probably say is to engage, with the teaching staff as much as you possibly can, I think, you know we certainly. See from my personal experience, and from other experiences, from other teas and instructors you, know the more that students, on campus, and remote engage with their teaching team the better they do in the class because they, get more responsive, help they form, relationships, with their TAS which is something that you can absolutely do on campus but it's certainly harder to do when you're a remote student but, as you, communicate with them you can get better feedback you can you, know get have more of a back-and-forth conversation about, ways you can improve and.
So That would be kind of my number one piece of feedback is the, teaching team is you know for every team that I've been on has. Been extremely, eager and and interested. To hear feedback from every SCPD, student want to engage with them as much as possible so you. Know I encourage you to take advantage of that before, you pass on with just one question that's already come up maybe as a follow up is who should students, be reaching out to first, is it the TA the CA the professor, who's, best to make that first first. Outreach - and and how soon should they do that yeah, it's a great question so I think certainly there's a lot of benefit in reaching out in the first week or two for sure just. To get some contact on the teaching team to kind of get your orientation, a lot, of classes for SCPD, organized, the TA team to have. Certain SCPD students assigned to certain graders, for instance that's a great person to reach out to because they're the ones that are going to be giving you feedback on ways to improve and. Then last but not least some classes, have specific, SCPD, TAS that they might make available to you as well for office hours or, other questions so it really depends on kind of the class organization, and the class size but. For the most part there are usually multiple people, that have different responsibilities. In relation to you and it's definitely beneficial to reach out to all of them thank. You Nick, you could share some of your insight, hi. I'm. Zara and I'm very excited, to be again. A CPD ta dis quarter. So. As, Nick said I just want to add one, more thing is that, to. Be a successful, sepds. You then I think it is important. In. Addition, to try. To connect, to the, TAS, try, to connect, to others, CPD, students. For. CS two to nine in, particular. Via we, have a site called, Piazza. Make sure that, you. Log in to the Piazza very, early in the quarter this. Is like the most important. Like. Question, and answer. Source. For, on-campus student, and remoter, students, so, when, you got a question just. Make sure that this question is not already, asking Piazza and if it is a new for, everyone, posted. On Piazza and, also, another, good feature on the Piazza is that it helps you to find. Like. Good. Teammate. For. Your class so, basically. From. My experience, I was, student. Here in Stanford if, you want to get. The. Best outcome, of their Stanford courses, especially. In the cs department, is. That you find the teammates. That. Have, the, same concern as you working. On the same assignment, same. Like project, as you that can help you. To. Have. The better experience. So it's, not like you, sit alone at home and do. Your assignments, only by yourself so. It's good to be in connection, with other students and. Have. They help so, try. To be connected, to the TAS and, to. The other, students. Specifically, STP the other CPD, students. That's. That's fantastic advice and, I have a high level question for both to char and Colby, but maybe if you want to build on that have either of you had that opportunity to reach out and make connections with other students at, SCPD, and if so could, you talk about that yeah, I, stay in conversation.
With Quite a few SC BD students especially those are in the HCP, program, so one. Of the things, that you guys will probably experience, there's a lot of the SCP students like to use what's called slack. It's a QuickTime messaging system kind of like facebook Messenger, so, I was actually just chatting with another SC media student before this through slack and we, use that Avenue Piazza like she was mentioning before and. Skype. Or video. Chat that's. My experience with it. Yeah. There's. A slack that I think a lot of SCPD, students are on and then there's also just, if, you depending. On what companies, you work on you might find that there are some people in your company already taking, courses. For SCPD that might be how you were introduced to it so you can reach out to them and also. You. Can just. Use Piazza, or so on to meet up with other CPT students so, sure. Maybe hold, on the microphone, and just could you share so as Aaron and Nick offered, their sort of high level feedback, what. Would be your insights if you think back to your first quarter here with SCPD, I mean, what course were you taking, and, you. Know what do you wish you had known before. You began in. The program. Yeah. So my first quarter with SCPD, I took I, can't. Remember the exact course number of videos client-side, web, programming. Essentially. And. It. Was really good I actually think for. Your first course you might want to consider taking it, was, a lighter course it was a hundred level course and so you might want to consider taking something like that to kind of gauge the workload, and so, on so. I. Think, I was really helpful if not to start with you know a heavier, course and. Just. If I were to go back one of the things would be you know in general you gotta you have to think of all these courses and your. SCPD, kind of career, as more of a marathon. Rather than a sprint so you. Know try. To if, you if you take all the intense courses all at once you know or try. To take multiple courses as, you can your first quarter or anything like that you might you know get turned off from the entire program so definitely pace yourself take, breaks in between quarters. If you need it and you. Know just think. About it as being a. Longer, term invest, rather than just one-quarter investment, that's, great Kobe do you have anything. That you would add to that no, no I agreed, them completely about the longer-term investment, these courses are very intense and the teaching. Team puts a lot of effort into making sure that they're it's a really unique experience for, you so you're not just gonna be doing problems out of the back of the book you'll be very engaged so I'm, gonna agree with them completely it is a marathon could. You both maybe tonnes talk a little bit more about the kind of workload that you that you you, experienced, and what your typical week like is like as a CPD student, yeah, so I'm taking one class so I'm fixing to start up one class right now but I take one class a quarter, so my, workload I dedicate, probably about three days a week towards you know just this class in the evenings or so that, means attending, the teaching. Assistants, live, Q&A. Sessions, that you can ask it's typically through Skype or some other method and, engaging. With other SCPD, students, I've actually been on campus quite a few times for. My last class I did a presentation here, for, my first class here you know I spent an entire month down here working for a on, a Robotics Competition so, my, workload is typically pretty heavy with SCPD, I'd say 20.
To 30 hours a week is average. Sometimes, heavier depending on what classes you're taking okay. Yeah. I would say it's. Very dependent on the class, you take I've had classes where there was 15. Hours a week and I've had classes where I was above 30. Hours a week. The. The, key thing I think which was pointed out earlier is, having. A study group probably like cuts. Or workload down significantly I think my first few classes I just tried to go it alone and you. Know just do it all by myself and that probably added like ten hours a week to my workload. But. It's, it's, an investment of times, especially if you're working and, the. Other thing is if you. If. You if you want to take classes almost, everybody I know is taking one class a quarter so if you're considering taking more than one class a quarter. Definitely. Like really strongly, consider that decision and make sure you know what you're getting into before you do that it's. Great advice I've got two classes it sucked so I was here until like 3:00 a.m. for, like multiple times a week so. So, utilized against it heard it here you heard it here so. Maybe building on that czar could you talk about some of the common difficulties. And struggles that you see SCPD. Students facing on. Your side oh yeah sure. I think. One of the most common problem is that their CPD students start working on an assignments. Too, late start. Working on an assignment as soon as it is published and, posted, because. If, you just postponed, doing. - diamonds on the weekend there's, not how it works right so. On weekends you see some problem you post on Piazza I take some time for the teaching of SAP because they are on the beacons - right so you. Should expect some delays and, then you. Would, I mean the other CPD, might complain. That hey it's, like let's. Say five, hours I posted. My question, but I didn't get any, answer yet, so, try, to, start. Working, on assignments. As early. As it has published and then. The. Other thing as they, mentioned. So. I was ta for two to nine and 2:30. Also. I took two to one and other CS courses, there. Are not easy courses, there. Are intense. Be. Prepared, for them so, we had like a ton of emails. Like. Three, weeks before finals saying that hey, I didn't expect this, workload, from, these courses may, request. Incomplete. May. Drop, the course. This. Is not something, that usually happened, so, if, you think you cannot, dedicate. Enough. Time to, this course. Just. Just reconsider, your decision, for. Taking this course we, have as, far as I know we have a long wait list for the students wants, to take this course and. They. Can't be enrolled so, if you think you cannot, dedicate, enough, time for. These intense. Courses, reconsider. Your decision. Thank. You oh did. You wanna. Just.
So It's not all you, know necessarily doing, I think. There definitely like a rhythm and it might take you to like your second or third quarter, to hit that rhythm but you, know your first quarter you're gonna be trying to figure out how to balance like you know what time do I watch the lectures on do i watch it after dinner do i watch on the weekends, and you're gonna be trying to figure out like you know should I start the assignments, early or should I wait till you, know later how long does it take um by. The time I made me hit my third course in my fourth course I was trying to get into this rhythm, and when you get into that rhythm like it makes it a lot easier because you know that okay the lecture is published Tuesday I haven't gonna set aside some time to like watch it Tuesday night I'm gonna, like do the assignment I have friends here that I'm gonna contact I'm gonna like post, my question on Piazza early like the, it. Is very very, hard and not to understate it at all um but don't. Be completely scared off from it you'll get, the hang of it eventually. Nick. Do you want to add anything common, struggles that you see yeah sure so I think. You. Know one of the things that we try to encourage a lot to. Help, people do really want the classes is to take advantage of all of the resources that we publish and what I mean by that is a lot, of the extra session videos that we record a lot of the additional handouts, and section problems that we post as one, of the remote. Students, that John Michell mentioned even though I was an on-campus student I know a lot of the struggles around you know keeping yourself motivated to keep up with the material especially, if you're not attending a lecture on a regular basis cough-cough, as. I did you know regrettably whatever, I graduated. So it's all fine. But. The point being you know like in in you. Know one of our classes CS 106 a or 106 B you know we have discussion, sections every week that are required for on-campus students, but are obviously optional, for remote students we make videos available for those and and a lot of times from feedback from on-campus students we know that these discussion, sections are one of the single most helpful, resources, that we have for students because especially. In computer science practice, is what makes you better at the subject so. Even. If videos like that are published and you're not required to attend a section or watch a section live-streamed or anything like that we, highly recommend that, you you, know pretend that you're in a discussion section at a specific time or watch the video as soon as it's published or you. Know take advantage of all those resources even if there's not a structured, reinforced. Requirement. For you to use, them you, know we try to post them for a reason we post them when we see needs, that, students raise for. You know oh I didn't understand this well enough okay well let's try to post an additional video clarifying, that topic you, know a lot of times we see people you, know right before exams, or assignments are, due you know they'll try to binge all the videos and you know I know firsthand it can work maybe sometimes, but you, know a lot of the times, you. Know we try to structure, the course and the schedule, and post resources, in a way that if you can keep up with the schedule as much as possible you have a great, chance of being successful, can. You you, say you mentioned some, of the discussion sections, how does has, office hours I know it probably depends on the course but has office hours work for remote students sure, so a lot of times, you. Know at least in the experience that I've had we try to hold remote. Office hours over Google Hangouts or queue status if any of you have experience, with queue status where. You can sign up online bol video call you and we'll help you one-on-one on. Your computer remotely, just. Tying back to one of the things I said earlier a lot of the time when we're trying to schedule office hours for students, we. Are eager to hear from you about how we can improve office, hours times structure. The way that we organize you, know how we help students you, know whether it's oh this time isn't great for me this time would be better or I had, an experience where you, know something you know as a, TA, did this and I wish they had done that we love that kind of feedback to improve, our office hours because you're the ones that are taking advantage of them you, know we don't have on-campus students that are taking advantage of those remote office hours those are just for you, but.
It Really does depend on the class some some classes will combine remote, and local office hours at the same time others. Will have discrete office hours for SCPD students alone, so. It really depends on the course structure but they will usually are, always eager to hear feedback for how they can make that better thank, you as our do you want to add anything to that oh yeah sure I'm specifically. For machine. Learning course yes two to nine we're. Gonna have like a post on Piazza, and asking, when is the most convenient, time for you, STP. Dear students, to attend office hours, is it like after 5:00 p.m. or is it early morning depends. On what, time. Zone you, are and then, we're. Gonna pick up the most convenient time that satisfy you know it. Cannot satisfy the, needs of all of the sepds students, but at least we can try to. Satisfy. Most of them. Great. Thanks, and actually sticking with use all right so we've gotten a few questions you've, been at, ti4 some of the really big courses, can you maybe help you give the students from the insight into how that teaching team works because it's, a big teaching team and so just they they can have a some. Kind of sympathy to to the the. Way your the structure of your team and thank you. Last, year we have over. 1,200, students. For. CS two to nine I guess, like 600, students for CS 230. So. One. Thing I want to mention that I remember, the TAS, or teaching a staff to. York grad students, so, they're, not full-time, employees, sitting, back and behind. It they laptops. Answering, your question, on Piazza or, on emails. They. Need to take some courses they. Also have some TAS answering, their questions, so maybe. It. Will be nice if you give some time for them to get back to your questions, some. Decent time some reasonable, time and, one, is specific, advice for the. Ones are taking 2 to 9 2 to 1 or 2:30, is that, like. 4, weeks after the quarter starts, we're gonna tell you who is your party. AES make. Sure that you know who's your project, here is because the project, here is the one that is gonna, evaluate your project, at the, end of the quarter so. You. Will be in contact with your project, TA and. Also make sure that look. At the course, website make, sure that we have a specific time, slot for there CPD's, so, make sure that you know where, this time slot is, we. Are there we. Mostly use zoom. For. Communicating, with sepds, students, make, sure that you. Know how zoom works, what's, the ID for the TAS, for, the TAS, and then. Make sure that you online at the same time that they are online so. Basically. The, course website and, the, Piazza. Are. Two, main. Sources. That you should. One, more. Advice. That I can give you is that always, be on top of your grades so, basically, we try to. Upload. Your grades for each assignment, straight, after. You probably after you stop into your assignment, am, I gonna have like a week to Grade II and then we publish your grade make, sure that you see your grade and if, you have any complaint. Make. Sure that you we're, gonna give you like a week for, the submitting, your complaint, make sure that you submit, your complaint, in that specific. Window do, not postpone, all of your complaint, by the end of the quarter right. It's, not how it works we. Have like a ton of requests, at the end of the quarter and it is and the best of your benefit, to know, what your grade is for, each assignment and if you have any complaint, just submitted. Right away okay, thank you, colby. - shark it may be sort of building on what, you were talking about earlier i really like this idea of creating a rhythm what were some of the ways you, know that you've gotten help from your boss or, from family members or from friends have, you. Reached out to them to help support you - I mean to accomplish. A 20 you know there's essentially a part time job on top of your full-time well. My, supervisor, was my exam Proctor, most of the time so he, was fully aware of what my course load was and there was a time where we were working seven, days a week so of course I had to take some time out of work to actually complete this coursework so just keeping them engaged and I'm, married as well so, when, I was traveling, quite a bit my, wife was, always like it is traveling all the time now you're doing schoolwork we don't really get a lot of time together so, you, know it's just about having that open communication and, you. Know kind of planning. Your actual schedule so some of the things I did to plan the schedule where you know, talk. Talk to the teaching, assistants how long should this homework be taking if I'm extending them beyond this time go, looking for help or something and you know just plan your day around that I guess.
Yeah, To build on that communication. Is obviously very. Very important like me. Make sure you're possible, you're doing a course. And. You know that it's gonna take some time I think, like one of the things is at the start of every quarter you're gonna get a syllabus and it'll have you know here are all the important, dates here the exam dates here are the assignment dates I, throw. All the exam dates and stuff into my calendar just so you know there's. No surprises later on you know my your, your manager hopefully can see your calendar and they know that you're possibly booked for that time, there's. Also I. Think one important. Piece. Of advice I got when I started was you, know despite, the despite. Your best efforts despite your boss's best efforts, and you know the core staffs is best efforts there. Might be times where it's gonna be like I have this work deadline and I, have this you, know school deadline and they conflict and there's. Just not much anybody, can do and like you planned in advance and everything and that's gonna happen and one of the things about finding your rhythm is just realizing. That that, happens it's part of the whole, SCPD. Thing instead of being a full-time student and so. If. That happens don't beat yourself up over it prioritize, like you prioritize anything else you know maybe you don't finish every single question on the assignment, right you, just finish the top first five or the five that you knew or something and yeah. Just talk to the core staff and use your late days so. We've. Gotten a couple questions. About exam monitors I know you can't answer all those but can you maybe just talk briefly about your experience, with doing. Taking exams as an SCPD, student yeah, so, I, had, to designate, an exam monitor so I just chose my manager, but I've never I've always taken my exams on campus so I just, come and take the exam I've, taken exam this room many times in some other rooms and you just take it with the the, students that are taking it here if you if you live in the area I. So. I use my supervisor, I was in Australia whenever I first started here in 2016. And, yeah. So I think there's a list on the SCPD, website that tells you who you can nominate as an exam monitor one of those are your direct supervisors. The. Other ones are like testing centers and I think a libraries in there is something that but yeah. I mean so. I, use, my supervisor, worked out really well, it's, just engaging with him letting him know when all the exam dates were and always blocking out time on his and your calendar, to, you.
Know Have a plan to actually take the exam that day but I've, never had any issues with that I guess okay. Sorry. And Nick sort of keeping. Their the questions on on exams, how do you how would you recommend that students prepare for those kind of big deadlines. In the court or the midterms, the finals, or big, final projects, oh sorry. So um. Start. Early again, do. Not so, make, sure that you know when exactly is the meter. Specifically. For two to nine two to one and 2:30 and then. Try. To start. Preparing for the exams like, two weeks ahead. Of the exam the exams are not, again. Easy. And. Then. You're competing with, the most brilliant, students, in the world in Stanford, they are taking the same course as you're taking, and then, we, are looking at the distribution of the grades at the ends right so. Make. Sure that you, start preparing for the exams early in, the quarter and. We. Post midterm. Questions. Like. A week, before, the exam make sure that you went through that practice, midterms, and make. Sure that you. Know what, you are expected, in the exam time also. View post the largest, sticker of the exams like two weeks before the, exams make, sure that on the Piazza make sure that you read off them and there. Is no surprises. On the exams I okay, do. You have anything sure, yeah so, I think there, are a couple things that I've seen over time the first one is, you. Know a lot of classes have review sessions outside of their normal class time and so for that reason you, know it's not something that everyone can attend you know whether you're on campus or where your remote you know you can watch an additional video but, one way or another I'd highly recommend taking the time that the course provides you to kind of reflect, and rehash all the material that you've already learned and take that chance to reach out to the core staff if you have any confusion, or, you. Know misunderstandings, about any of the course material, we do, our best to try to mark, a period of time in between, you know assignments, and in the midterm where, we are, eager, to answer as many questions as we can and say hey try. These practice problems tell us if you have any questions or are confused, and along. Those similar lines try to form a study group either online or in person I know you know from personal experience study. Groups are like the bomb because everyone's, like oh you know that half I know this half I love you you know you can study together so, you know and then it'll all work out except I'm not condoning cheating no I'm not but. The point is that you know if you get together with somebody who's really solid on one subject and you're really saw it on another and you can help each other out whether, it's meeting in person and doing problems together or even something, I've done in the past which is teaming up together and making an online study guide together and saying hey why don't you try to fill in this part I'll fill in this part and then we can go over and discuss the material together so, having. It having somebody. To bounce ideas and, challenges and questions off of whether it's the teaching staff or another. Fellow student, I think is really helpful common exams I'm fantastic. We're. Nearing the end and so I actually, just some of the tips that you've provided I was thinking and maybe as a kind, of a final, take away what. Would be especially, in these first two weeks what would be the one or two things that you would recommend all students, do in those first two weeks I, think. The the number one thing I recommend is, talk. To your professor, and your teaching staff just, as a person not in an academic setting just introduce yourself your background what you're interested in why you're here why you're doing this I think you. Know a lot of things make you as a crowd unique but one of the most interesting things is a lot, of you are doing this in a professional setting you're doing this to achieve professional, goals or do more in your workplace or work, on projects that you couldn't previously do before we, love to hear about that you know it's different when you're a student obviously you're a student working towards a full-time degree and you, obviously have a lot of interest as well but you, know you as a crowd are you in a unique position where in, a lot of cases you're applying what you learned directly, in a job that you're doing at the same time and we.
There's Nothing that makes us more excited than hearing about oh you know I learn about this and you're lecture last week and then this week like you know we were working on a project and you know I got, to apply what I learned or you, know if you have an open-ended project in a class and you, decide to you, know incorporate. Some aspect of your work in that project and have kind of hit two birds with one stone, that is fantastic and we love to hear about that so it you know it really makes us excited, it lets us connect with you so I'd highly recommend you do that do, you have any other examples of sort of the key contributions, the way in SCPD student is really added to or increased. The. Class, experience, for themselves, and other students yeah I mean we I mean obviously you all have a really unique background. Where in a lot of cases you have more experience either. From, you know past degree standpoint, or an industry standpoint where, you, know we've had Piazza, discussion groups as others have mentioned you, know where we've seen SCPD, students chime in with like oh well in this background that I had from a previous degree I did or this job that I'm doing or something like that they'll chime in with this amazingly, relevant, answer, to a question or, application, of some concept, that we're learning so you know your background is, and, your experience is one of the biggest assets that you have and you know nothing makes us more gratified, than to see that kind of shine in a class setting fantastic. Sorry. Is there what would be the one thing that you would recommend everyone do in these first, two weeks. Probably. For. Many courses. For, many CS courses, you, need to pick the topic, of your project, in. The early weeks like first, two weeks or three weeks make sure that you. Pick an appropriate, topic. For. Your project, don't be too ambitious, make. Like, a decent. Goal and. Make. Sure that you, know, you're. Teaching a staff very well make sure that you. Know their resources, make. Sure that how you can see your grades how, you can ask. The question how, you can submit your, homeworks. And, just. Be on top of everything in the first two weeks of the quarter if you have any questions, just. Send. Us an email or post on the Piazza I'm able you be more, than happy to answer you Thank You Koby. I, guess, my advice would, just be to read the syllabus so a lot of courses use their own platform.
It's Python, MATLAB, or or something like that I've seen a lot of SCPD, students wait till like oh three days before the homework to try to install all this software and order, their textbooks, and oh it's not working or the. Textbooks, not coming until the day after the homework just read the syllabus you're, a distance student so you might have to take a little bit more initiative, to get some of these softwares. And books before the other students do. Yeah. Two, things I would say is one the, study group. You. Know this is actually a great opportunity you're with a bunch of people that are probably taking some of the same courses that you are there are also SCPD. Students maybe, try to find one or two people that you can go study with when the semester, the, quarter starts and then, the second thing would be like. When the first lecture comes out early next week try. To watch it as soon as you can it's, very easy to fall behind and very, very hard to catch back up if your two lectures behind or something so yeah. Just watch it as soon as you can that's. Fantastic and that's a perfect, segue to Shara thank you very much I want to thank our panel first of all so, if we didn't really come. As. Sushar said this is an amazing, opportunity we're going to have a reception, right now so this is a chance both. If you have more questions to reach out to SCPD, staff there, are student client services here they can answer some of your questions John. Not mines in the back and the white shirt he sees well you can ask him your. Questions I hopefully, didn't send too many people doing right away and as, well as some of the course advisors, for I believe CS and EE will be there some of our panels will be there and as, again as sushar said I think, most of you have written your course and and. Your your where, you're working on your name text this is a great way to go out there and see and meet some fellow students, to build those connections and to check, that first thing off your your checklist which is forming a study group so follow. Us you can follow us up to up the hill to a four way Panama, and yeah. We look, forward to seeing you there thank. You.
2018-10-09