Help is Available

If you have a problem or question, technical or team related, we want to talk about it — do not put it off.

• Post to the course Bulletin Board, especially if you have not made progress after an hour of effort
• Request a meeting with your assigned mentor UTA (or visit UTA Office Hours during the first two weeks)
• Visit Professor Duvall or Instructor Moffett during their office hours or set up an appointment using email

You are expected to show evidence you tried to solve the issue yourself so that we have a starting point for working with you, especially because these are larger, more diverse, projects. Asking technical questions to colleagues is something that professional software engineers need to do every single day. High quality questions get faster and more useful answers.

You can discuss the code on your computer but having it accessible via the course Gitlab organization is best so we can try it out as well.

Posting to the Bulletin Board

Post any questions you have about the course on the Bulletin Board because it is seen by other students and the entire Teaching Team, ensuring a much faster response time than sending us email.

• Check all previous questions before posting a question, since it is potentially confusing to have two different answers to the same question
• Post exact error messages and describe steps you already taken to make it as easy as possible for us diagnose the issue
• Post as little code as possible associated with your issue so as not to give away the solution to your classmates
  You may be able to post only the single line causing the problem or replace some parts with comments representing pseudocode. Never post complete methods — if you are in doubt, post a private message to the instructors.
• Post your solution if you solve your own problem, for others benefit
• Share things you think are useful for others benefit and to help build the class community

You are expected to contribute to the Bulletin Board by answering questions in addition to asking them.

UTA Mentoring and Office Hours

During the first two weeks only, UTAs will hold Office Hours to help you with any technical issues you may be experiencing with GIT, IntelliJ, and Java coding. These hours are posted on the Bulletin Board. After Add/Drop, you will be assigned a UTA as a mentor to review your progress and help you get the most out of this course.

Meetings with UTAs may be held in the study rooms in the Link or Edge spaces in the library or via Zoom as needed.

You are expected to meet weekly with your assigned UTA mentor and to take on more leadership during these meetings as the semester progresses to better direct your learning.

Learn Better and Think Smarter

I believe strongly in the Academic Resource Center (ARC), which offers free services to undergraduate students, including Learning Consultations, Peer Tutoring and Study Groups, ADHD/LD Coaching, Outreach Workshops, and more. Because learning is a process unique to every individual, they work with each student to discover and develop their own academic strategy for success.

Undergraduates in any year, studying any discipline can benefit — contact the ARC to schedule an appointment.