Support and discussion
Online and on-campus support
The course has online and on-campus support schedule that is available on the Support schedule page. The support schedule lists the times when course personnel are available for help. The support schedule is updated weekly, and it is recommended to check the schedule regularly for possible changes.
Help request functionality
The course platform has a help request functionality that is embedded to the programming assignments. When you submit a programming assignment for grading, you may ask for help on the assignment given that the automated assessment of your assignment indicates flaws in your program.
Asking for help using the help request functionality is done by pressing a Ask for help -button that is available below each assignment. At the moment, we are exploring the possibility of first asking for help from the AI assistant and then, if needed, from the course personnel.
Responses from the AI assistant are rapid, but the quality of the responses may vary and may also be misleading. The course personnel will provide more accurate help, but the responses take longer.
When you ask for help, you are asked to describe the problem you are facing. The more detailed you are in your description, the better the help.
Discussion area
There is an unofficial discussion channel on Slack, which can be used for course questions. The channel is attended both by course participants and course personnel — helping others is voluntary but much appreciated; you’ll also learn when helping others!
Click here to join the discussion channel: Join the discussion channel. The discussion area is shared by other courses on this platform. For Device-Agnostic Design -related questions, use the channel #device-agnostic-design.
The discussion area is attended both by course participants and course personnel.
The discussion channel is a harassment free zone. Harassment behavior will lead to removal from the discussion channel and the course.
Asking for help
When you ask for help on the discussion channel, formulate the question so that it is clear (1) which assignment you are working on, (2) what the problem is (e.g. an error message), and (3) what you have already tried out. The more you can tell, the more the helpers will understand — explicitly outlining the issue will help you also in understanding what is going on.
If you add code to your question on the discussion channel, remove the code from the discussion channel once you have solved the problem.
When asking questions, use the public channels and avoid direct communication with course staff unless otherwise instructed. This way, others will also benefit from your questions and the answers to them.
Giving help
When someone asks for help, try to guide them to the right direction by pointing out possible problems in e.g. how they have interpreted the assignment handout, suggesting areas in the materials to re-read, and helping them to identify possible bugs or flaws in the logic of their current train of thought.