Starting the Semester

by David Evans

First Class Meeting

We will have our first meeting on Wednesday at our scheduled 3:30-4:45pm meeting time via zoom: zoom link.

Assessed cohort meetings will start (at the ealiest) on Tuesday, 1 September, so students scheduled in Tuesday cohorts will have preparation Cohort Meetings on Sunday (30 August), and will need to be ready with the Week 1 problems by their cohort meeting on 1 September. (Other students will have more time, depending on when your assessed cohort meeting is scheduled.)

The first class meeting will be the only one that meets at the same time for all students, with all future instruction being delivered asynchronously, and all future meetings being held exclusively with your cohorts.

Posted Materials

You can also find these materials posted now:

Cohort Scheduling Preferences

Submit your cohort scheduling preferences here: https://cohortor.herokuapp.com/.

Everyone will need to do this by Wednesday at 10:59pm in order for us to assign and schedule the cohorts.

Message

Below is the message that was sent out by email to the list we have of enrolled students. If you know of others planning to take the class but how have not been able to register for the course, please forward the message to them.

From: Nathan Brunelle
Date: Sun, Aug 23, 2020 at 1:19 PM
Subject: [cs3102: Theory of Computation (Fall 2020)] CS3102 important week 1 information

Hello students, the beginning of the semester is upon us!

tldr: Here’s the course webpage: https://uvatoc.github.io/. You’ll be working in cohorts this semester, please read the syllabus for the details. The first class will meet live on Wednesday August 26 at 3:30pm at this zoom room. Please complete this survey before the first meeting.

Hopefully you’ve read the email we sent late this summer describing our plan for the coming semester (if not, you can find it here: https://uvatoc.github.io/summersurvey/).

Summary of course structure To briefly summarize, the course is going to work on a cohort model. Each student will be assigned to a small cohort with several other students (that number will be as small as we can logistically support). You’re going to work together with those cohorts on all assignments in the course so that you have peers to learn with and learn from. You will be required to meet with your cohorts at least twice a week - once to discuss your progress on the problem sets, and once to demonstrate your understanding to the course staff. Overall, your grade will be determined (almost) entirely by how well you’re able to speak on the concepts related to various problems during the assessed cohort meetings, and by how well your group does at writing up a small number of problems per week.

You can think of this system as a “flipped classroom” like structure in that instruction is to be done entirely asynchronously (through pre-recorded videos and readings), while at least some of your homework will be done synchronously at these regular cohort meetings.

To see all the gory details on what to expect with this atypical structure this semester, please reference the course syllabus: https://uvatoc.github.io/syllabus/. I would especially like to highlight the sample weekly schedule listed under the “Cohorts” section to get a glimpse of what it will look like to be a student in this course throughout the semester.

First Meeting on Wednesday These cohorts will be assigned and begin meeting during the first  or second week of class (depending on when your cohort meetings will occur, look for a future email on the scheduling process). The first lecture will be the only one that meets at the same time for all students, with all future instruction being delivered asynchronously, and all future meetings being held exclusively with your cohorts. This first meeting will be held Wednesday at our scheduled 3:30-4:45pm meeting time via zoom, join us here: https://virginia.zoom.us/j/95556147173?pwd=cW5iVUxiSEg4M0pVWlg1MG0yZ29zZz09

Course Registration Survey We like to gather a little information about students prior to the start of the semester. This information will help us to get a feel for where y’all are at, help you to get acquainted with the course, and to help us to optimize your overall learning experience. Please first read this fantastic article: Jeremy Kun’s Habits of highly mathematical people, next read the course pledge, and then complete this course registration survey. We hope you can find time to do this prior to our first meeting.

We look forward to seeing you on Wednesday, Nate and Dave