Consulting Hours

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The course staff will hold “consulting hours” at the times listed below. We will provide a mixture of in-person and online consulting for students.

The idea of consulting hours is that it is a “room” where at least one member of the course staff (usually 2-3) is available to answer questions. Multiple students can come to the room - which gives a chance for students to talk to each other, and to see answers to others’ questions. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work as well online.

Historically, this was an actual room (we reserved a room in the CS building). It has been a great part of class - many students would come, often spending time helping each other beyond just having course staff.

Online we can try to recreate the “consulting room.” We will have a Zoom room that everyone can enter. If a staff member needs to work with a student individually, they can move to a breakout room. In theory, if multiple people have the same question, they can be put in the same breakout.

In person consulting is much better than online. Both because it is easier for course staff to provide help, but also because of the collaboration between students and for staff to help multiple students at once. So, even though the class is online, we want to do at least some of the consulting in person.

Even though consulting hours are “walk in” (or “drop in” on Zoom), please use the Consulting Assistance Form form. This lets us handle requests in order, lets us group related questions together, and helps us be better prepared to answer your question. If you can’t fill the form out ahead of time, that’s OK - fill it out when you “arrive”. A staff member will not help you unless you have completed the page and are in the queue.

The Zoom room for consulting (with the room links) can be seen in the Canvas Zoom List page.

The staff will monitor the Zoom room even during in-person consulting hours. Note: if they are busy helping people in person, they may be slow to respond to you. We will usually have a separate person to handle online.

We will try to adapt the amount of staff available for consulting hours if there is too much demand.

Details about where consulting hours will be held will be coming soon.

The weekly consulting hours schedule (this will begin January 25th):

  • Sunday 3pm-5pm (online)
  • Monday 3pm-6pm (in person and online)
  • Thursday 3pm-5pm (online)
  • Friday 3pm-6pm (in person and online)

In-person consulting is in Room 3331 Computer Sciences (3rd floor, near the elevators).

Other Resources

See the Getting Help page, but:

  • Professor Gleicher also has “office hours” - they are usually Wednesdays, 11am-noon, and usually held in person and via Zoom (use the link in Canvas). However, check his home page (Gleicher's Home Page) for specific weeks.
  • You can make an individual appointment with a course staff member using the Appointment Scheduling Form. But please try to use consulting hours if possible.