Taking two classes at once

(updated Jan 23)

Technically, CS559 is scheduled to be synchronous. That means (officially) students need to be available during the class time slot. In practice, most class activities will be asynchronous.

It is against University policy and Department policy to enroll in two courses at the same time. I am not sure what the ramifications are if a student tries to violate the policy.

In practice, many students choose not to attend lectures synchronously (even when the class is in person), but they are responsible to be available to attend class meetings. More practically, students who do not attend class generally perform poorly, and setting students to perform badly is not something we like to do. (yes, this was true even for the online class last year)

It is my intent to record all of the lectures and make them available to students to watch afterwards. I cannot guarantee that all lectures will be recorded (sometimes there are technical difficulties), and I cannot guarantee how promptly they will be processed (both the manual processing but also the time it takes for the University’s systems).

There may be class activities, such as quizzes and exams or help sessions or group discussions held during the synchronous class times. I have not finalized the plan for the class. I expect to do evening exams, and generally not have syncrhonous class activities.

Taking multiple CS classes

Similarly, we advise students against taking multiple implementation intensive 500/600 level classes simultaneously (e.g., taking CS559 and CS537 in the same semester). This is a difficult workload, and often creates problems for students. Students who do this often perform poorly. On average, grades are significantly lower for students who take CS559 and CS537 in the same semester (this is the only pair of classes I have data for).