About Lectures

NOTE: The following lecture format is for the Autumn 2020 quarter.

Zoom (Stanford-only)
Passcode: on Staff website

This quarter, we anticipate that you are going to be spending a lot of time over Zoom, or (if you are unable to attend synchronous lecture times) a lot of time waiting for material to be published. We would like to reduce the amount of synchronous lecture time for students, as well as use our time together for active student learning and participation. To achieve this, we have done the following:

Pre-lecture recordings: About 30 minutes of pre-lecture content split into several videos that cover introductory material for each lecture. These videos are to be watched on Canvas prior to live lecture.
Concept checks: Short Gradescope quizzes to be completed prior to live lecture each day to keep you on track.
Live lecture: 50 minutes of asynchronous lecture (instead of the 80-minute Axess slot). This is an interactive, discussion-based lecture covering more advanced concepts.
Lecture will be delivered via Zoom meetings, MWF 1:00PM-2:00PM Pacific, accessible here and through Canvas.

Pre-lecture recordings

A few days before lecture, the pre-recorded lecture videos will be posted on Canvas.
Watch these videos or review the posted Lecture Notes and slides.
Before attending the corresponding synchronous, live lecture, work through the corresponding concept check assignment on Gradescope.
You can submit your answers as many times as you want; we will only grade the final submission. Correct answers will reveal the answer explanation; all other answers will not, so you can keep trying until you see the answer explanation.
For each concept check, we will only be grading your final concept check submitted.
After the initial deadline, you can submit your concept check up to a week later for partial credit (up to half).

Asking questions

For each lecture, we will post a lecture thread on our discussion forum. You can ask your pre-recorded lecture questions here and we will answer them as soon as we can. If there are particularly salient discussion points that arise from the forum discussion, we'll address them in live lecture.

Concept Checks

Concept checks are intended to be small exercises to get your brain thinking about the material. Learning research has shown that spaced learning and low-stakes assessments are critical to building long-lasting, connections between concepts over time. Some concepts may immediately make sense to you; others may take longer. You will develop a stronger understanding of the material if you visit the material (1) during the initial pre-lecture videos/concept check, (2) again during live lecture, and (3) during assignments and assessments.

Our Gradescope quizzes allow for unlimited retries as an open environment to think, receive feedback, learn, and try again. You can submit your answers as many times as you want; we will only grade the final submission. Correct answers will reveal the answer explanation (all other answers will not), so you can keep trying until you see the answer explanation.

Due dates: Each concept check is due at at the beginning of class on the day of the corresponding lecture.

Late policy: After the initial deadline, you can submit your concept check up to a week later for partial credit (capped at 50%). Each concept check is equally weighted.

If you find any concept checks particularly challenging, please reach out to us. We want to help you!

Live lecture

Software Tools

If you want to watch the video live, you should be able to use Zoom in some form or another. It would be best to have a video feed if watching live so that you can see the slides and annotations in real time. If you must call in from your phone, you should also try to have the slides up on your computer to follow along.

You can also download the videos from Canvas after the lecture ends and watch them without an internet connection.

Watching asynchronously

For some of you, attending live lecture may be difficult—because of timezones, personal commitments, or other reasons. We will not take attendance during lecture.All live lectures will be recorded and posted after the class meeting, so that you can watch through Canvas. But if you are able to attend lecture, we really hope that you can make it! :-)

We encourage those of you watching asynchronously to post on our lecture threads in the discussion forum! We are happy to support all types of learning this quarter.

Lecture resources

We will have both blank slides (before lecture) and annotated slides (after lecture) for you to review.