Link Search Menu Expand Document
W22 Mentors

How-to for a Chief Communication Officer (CCO) :

As mentioned in the Roles Document the main responsibility for this role is to monitor the class forum(piazza/campuswire). This includes answering questions promptly, helping other TAs based on the feedback you receive on the forum, and posting reminders about deadlines, course evaluation, etc.

The majority of the questions on class forums will be regarding assistance with lab activities. As much as possible refer them to the corresponding zybooks sections and ask them to read through them. Professor also posts several notes and guidelines on the forum. You should also refer students to these.

For instance, one of the first posts in Fall 2021 was regarding a challenge activity(CA) in zybooks and a student replied to the question with their solution. This was against the rules of posting solutions in public posts. In such a case, you should make such posts private, and point the student to the guidelines on posting a question.

The initial “Posting Guidelines” post also has the following template; ask students to Use this template so that they get into the habit of properly formulating their requests:

  • the issue that I am running into:

  • the relevant snippet of my code:

  • the input that I used:

  • the output / error I get:

  • here’s what/where/how it doesn’t match what I expected:

Emphasize the last part to get them thinking of where the issue might be. Once they share this, ask the leading questions to get them to the part that they are missing – for the most part do not just solve the problem for them – guide the student to the solution.

Useful Resources To Answer Questions

  • Keep notes for yourself and use them as a reference to answer commonly asked questions. You can use MOMs from various meetings throughout the quarter to answer any questions. (YK: Ask Sai what MOMs are. :-))
  • The FAQ pages for the course in Gauchospace and Zybooks are quite useful and you can refer students here so that they can find the answer themselves.
  • Professor posts several elaborate notes, reference material, and emails throughout the quarter. Summarise these in your notes and use them.
  • Use Slack groups with fellow TAs and the professor. Here you can tag the TA with the appropriate role to get an answer. There are experienced TAs who can help you and you can also tag the professor.
  • Write down the general information regarding the course such as the invitation link to the forum, class code, etc, and keep it handy. A few students might ask for them in the middle of the quarter, so have the wording ready to send them to the appropriate section of the FAQ on the website.

Best Practices

  • Whenever you are asking other TAs/the professor for help with a question, comment on the question saying that you are looking into it. This way the student will be assured that someone is working on their query.
  • Respect students’ privacy. If a question is anonymous to students, do not use their name in the answer.
  • Use the code markdown feature(</>) in piazza/campuswire to answer questions so that students might not confuse the variable names and nouns in your sentence.
  • Encourage the students to use the markdown feature(</>) too. This way, indentation is preserved and it will be easier to read and answer the questions.
  • Motivate students to answer questions on the forum. You can mention this in your lab session(s) or during your office hours.
    • Giving students time to answer each others’ questions means that you might need to delay your response or address the questions in the evening.
  • When reminding students about TA midterm evaluations or ESCI evaluations at the end of the quarter, post multiple reminders on the forum. In the post, quantifying the completion time (such as 5 minutes) will encourage more students to complete them.
  • During the finals and in week 10, the number of questions in the forum will increase drastically. Divide the load with other TAs as it is your finals too.

Dos and Don’ts

  • When a student does not provide their code in the post, you can visit zybooks -> The corresponding lab activity -> “Lab statistics and submission” -> “Submissions for ()”. Then select the name of the student and check their latest submission.
  • If a student asks for a deadline extension, let them know that TAs can’t extend it and ask them to contact the professor with all the essential information.
  • If it is an urgent issue such as a network outage etc, ask them to mail the professor with “CSW8 Urgent” at the beginning of the subject.
  • If the professor is not responding to them, you should mail the professor and cc the student (remembering to add “CSW8” to the subject of your email).
  • Help other TAs to make specific posts and polls for Sunday reviews.
  • If a topic is confusing to many students, make a small reference post, showing an example different from the zybooks section, and ask CIO/CFM to include it in the weekly reflection.
  • Communicate any changes that are required in labs to CLO and CLD.
  • Ask the students to raise regrade requests on Gradescope.

Commonly Asked Questions

  • Many students will ask for answers for lab activities. Remind them of the posting guidelines and ask them to visit office hours if they have doubts regarding specific topics. Refrain from providing direct answers.
  • Students will post their submission files for Gradescope/Gauchospace quizzes. Remind them they should submit it on the corresponding platform and you cannot accept their submission on the forum.
  • Many students will ask questions regarding the final project on the forum. Remind them regarding the penalty (if applicable) and direct them to appropriate methods of inquiry as stipulated by the professor.
  • If a lab is corrected and a student is asking about the outdated issue, ask them to reload the lab page in zybooks. This will resolve the issue.

Hope you will have an amazing mentoring semester! Have the best of luck!

Acknowledgement

Original draft was created by Saikumar Yadugiri.

Updated by YKK in W22.