UCSD CSE 11 Winter 2023

Asking Questions and Getting Help

There are 32 staff members (instructor, TAs, and tutors) to help with your learning, and a few different ways to get in touch and ask for help.

Quick links:

Do NOT use the Canvas mailing feature to contact us. We will NOT respond to those messages. If you need to send a private message to the instructor, you can use his ucsd email address (but any course related questions should ideally be through Piazza).

Message Board Questions

You can post questions on our Piazza message board at any time: https://piazza.com/ucsd/winter2023/cse11_wi23_a00/home

The message board is a good place for questions about something that was confusing in class, in videos, in the book, or generally about course content. It’s not always the best place for help with programming details on your assignments (remote or in-person lab hours are better for that). If you do post for help with a programming assignment, we ask that you use good judgment in how much code you share – sharing too much as part of your question could harm others’ learning if they aren’t expecting to see parts of a solution.

Feel free to engage with your classmates and help answer their questions. Always be polite and assume the best intentions. Always assume that the person you’re talking to is asking an honest question, and don’t assume they “should know” something; if they seem to not know something from the course, reminding them with a link to where it was taught can be useful (instead of saying something like “that was already covered”). Try to guide your classmates to useful conclusions on their own rather than solving their problems for them. Using emoji can always help with a positive and friendly vibe 🙂

During the times where we have take-home programming exams, Piazza will not allow posting public to the class.

Meeting with Staff and Office Hours

Please see the Help Hours page for more details on meeting with staff and attending office hours.

FAQs

Do I have to participate if I’m on the waitlist?

Yes, you’re responsible for everything as if you’re a normally-enrolled student while you’re on the waitlist, including any submission deadlines, and your work will be graded as usual.

I have a question about enrollments and the waitlist.

Please contact CSE student affairs, who can give the best advice and information about the enrollment process. They are friendly and helpful and know much more about timing and any updates you will see through the registration system.

There is some useful advice at Enrolling in CSE Courses that likely summarizes a lot of what they would tell you to get you started.

Will the course be in-person or remote? Is attendance required?

The content of the course is primarily delivered through an online textbook and through pre-recorded videos from the instructors. The synchronous sessions are for problem-solving with your classmates and Q&A with the instructional team. In each session, you will work in pairs or small groups on problems that we provide and we will go over them as a group.

Attendance is required for 15 lecture (not including the first lecture and exams). Studies (by UCSD faculty) have shown that attendance and participation in lecture leads to better student performance and higher grades.

All of the exams, including the final exam, will be in-person. The midterm exam will be held during lecture in Week 6. Students will be required to take the final exam in-person during the scheduled time. The room for the final exam will be posted in Week 10.

What’s the course material like?

You can see a previous version of the course, which will give you a sense. This offering will not be identical, but will be similar.

There is no required textbook for you to purchase for the course. The course uses a combination of online resources and notes from the instructors.

I’m not sure if I should take CSE11 or CSE8A.

We endorse the CSE course placement advice. Also feel free to message g2miranda@eng.ucsd.edu if you’re not sure.

Can I audit the course?

You can use all the public resources on this website, and if you’re a UCSD community member, you can view all the podcasts for the problem sessions at https://podcast.ucsd.edu/. Beyond that we don’t have any formalized support for auditing the course.

What if I have enrolled in CSE11 but won’t be able to be in La Jolla for most or all of Winter 2023?

You will be required to take all exams in-person and attend at least 15 lectures. We will not offer any remote options for the exams. If you cannot take the exams in-person, you will not be able to pass the course.

Do we need a clicker for this class?

No.

Where are the icons from?

Icons made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com.