Using Slack and asking for help
Due to the nature of this course, students are going to have problems and questions with either the lab materials, how to complete the labs, or just with architectural and systematic questions.
To help students communicate, reduce the waiting times of answers and provide as direct communication as possible for students physically not able to take part, we have a Slack channel.
Link to join slack: https://join.slack.com/t/utsystemadmin-cts1095/shared_invite/zt-151pq5nuc-OMepJll7GANGM_3EMnrgUA
Channels
By default each student has access to three channels:
- general
- group<n>
- questions
The group<n> channel is to facilitate conversations during group times, but we don't mind using it for other purposes either.
The general channel is for anything, but keep in mind, that as it will get noisy, the questions might get lost in the noise.
The dedicated questions channel. This channel is for questions only and requires a very specific format to be useful.
Asking about the course content
One reason we use Slack is so that you can ask for help. If you have a general question that is not about your specific situation or work, we strongly encourage you to post it in a public course channel or the #general channel. If you message us privately we may ask you to re-post in a public channel. The reason for this is that often many students have the same question and it is much more efficient to have them answered in a public forum. Beyond that, it’s often comforting for students to see other students asking questions, and generally encourages a vibrant Slack ecosystem.
Anonymity
We have added an Anonymous bot /anon to the Slack workspace to allow students to ask questions anonymously if they feel uncomfortable doing so publicly. We kindly ask that you maintain this feature for its designated purpose and continue to follow the code of conduct while applying it.
How to ask
Asking questions, especially in the questions channel, should be done in a specific format and should include all the relevant information.
Any question that needs an answer from the TA, needs to start with the phrase: QUESTION:. This helps TAs to find your question in the other noise. Any kind of activity about one question should happen inside the thread of that question. Once the question has been answered, annotate the whole thread with a green tick to show everyone, that this has been answered.
We illustrate best practices via two examples.
Example of a problematic post
This post is problematic for the following reasons:
- it tags the instructor. This tends to discourage others (TAs or students) from responding, which increases response time and instructor workload.
- it does not provide context or a link to the lab in question.
- it asks whether something should be tried, even though the student could have tried this before asking.
- the code and error message is not formatted properly with code font.
- the actual command used to run the code is not specified.
- it does not conform to our set standard
Example of a good post
This post is well-crafted for the following reasons:
- a link to the lab is provided.
- the specific error message is given.
- the student made a reasonable effort to solve the problem but still encountered difficulties.
- it indicates that the student has read the preceding conversation and is still stuck.
- The code and error message are formatted properly.
- the actual command used to run the code (python test.py) is specified.
- it follows the set format by having
QUESTION:in front of it