Zoom in CS 106A

June 21st, 2021

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Overview

CS 106A will be using Stanford Zoom to facilitate remote lecture this quarter. We will be relying on it for all class sessions, including Lecture, Office Hours and Section. Please make sure to have Zoom installed by the beginning of the quarter.

This handout will summarize all the relevant details for the use of Zoom in CS 106A this quarter, including links to the Zoom meetings and passwords wherever relevant. We ask that you do not share the links or passwords with others, since it’s important to maintain the safety and integrity of our classroom boundaries.

Lecture

Lectures will be held as Zoom Webinars on Mondays,Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays from 1:30pm PST to 2:30pm PST as Zoom webinars. Attendance is not required, but we recommend that you try to attend if you are able to do so in order to be able to ask questions and ensure you don't fall behind in the class. Note that if you join significantly earlier than the 1pm lecture time, you will be placed in a waiting room until the lecture begins broadcasting.

Lecture Webinar Zoom link:
https://stanford.zoom.us/j/96674372174?pwd=cVZYQndtSmtIbE5OUmlULzdpc0Z3dz09
Password: 930945

Note: You will not be able to access the "live" class webinar from Canvas; you’ll have to use the link above to watch the class lectures live. Canvas will only show previously recorded lectures (usually a few hours after the live class has finished).

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Office Hours

Juliette and Tara will be holding weekly office hours throughout the quarter for you to discuss any questions you might have about assignments, course material or simply Computer Science and life in general. This quarter, we will be holding two different kinds of office hours:

Individual office hours: one on one office hours in which you can get help on particular problems you are having in the assignments or in which you can discuss personal circumstances with Juliette or Tara. To participate in these office hours, simply join the Zoom meeting during the scheduled window and you will be placed in a waiting room until your turn comes.

Group office hours: office hours held in a group of students and led by Tara or Juliette. High-level assignment help and conceptual guidance will be provided during these office hours. This also is a good time to come and get to know Tara or Juliette. To participate in these office hours, simply join the Zoom meeting during the scheduled window.

To attend an office hours session, join the corresponding Zoom meeting (all times in PsT):

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The LaIR

Logistics

1. To sign up for help at the LaIR, which runs for our course Monday/Wednesday from 5-7 PM PST and Tuesday/Thursday from 7-9 PM PST, you can signup for help using the remote signup link.
2. For each LaIR shift, you can sign up any time in the 30 minutes before the shift starts. All requests submitted during the early sign up period will then be randomly arranged, and we'll let students into the queue based on this until it's full. If you sign up during the early sign up period, you will receive an email when LaIR opens letting you know that either you've been placed in the queue or letting you know that you didn't make it into the queue. During some LaIR hours, we have more students try to sign up than our capacity to help, meaning we will sometimes have to turn some people away. If you don't make it into the queue, you will have priority for the next time you sign up early. If at any point during the LaIR shift the queue has additional capacity, the queue will reopen for you to sign up to get help.
3. More LaIR logistics coming soon.

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Section

Once section assignments have been made, we will add information here about where to find the Zoom meeting information for your section.

Section norms

Mute when not talking: Try to remember to mute yourself when you aren’t talking. This will help everyone to hear the section leader and reduce background noise.

Camera on! If possible, please turn your camera on during section. We want section to still be an interactive experience, and having your camera on helps a ton with this! However, we also realize that this isn’t possible for everyone for a variety of reasons, so this isn’t a requirement.

Participate: Section will still include participation! Zoom has multiple tools to help facilitate participation:

• Chat: The chat feature allows you to let your section leader know that you have a question and your section leader can then “call on” you. Alternatively, you can just type your question into the chat without having to unmute yourself. There’s also the option to send your question just to your section leader (rather than to the whole section) if you would prefer.
• Non-verbal feedback: Zoom has a number of non-verbal feedback features to communicate with your section leader, such as raising your hand, answering yes / no, go slower, go faster, etc. You can find these by clicking on “Participants” and the non-verbal feedback buttons will be at the bottom of the participants panel.
• Polls: Your section leader may include polls in section. This doesn’t really require anything special of you; the poll will appear on your screen, and your section leader will give you some time to answer the question(s).
• Feel free to also jump in if you have something to say! The above features can just help let your section leader know that you have something to contribute.

Section FAQs

My microphone isn’t working! What should I do?

The Zoom invitation includes a phone number that you can call from a phone. You can use your phone as the microphone and audio source for your call rather than your computer’s built-in microphone if necessary.

What should I do if my internet is slow or lagging?

Consider temporarily turning off your video stream and only maintaining the audio stream. Sometimes, running the web camera on your computer will use up the Internet’s bandwidth in a way that might make communication challenging. Turning off the video should improve communication quality and consistency.

What do I do if I don’t have access to my computer for a section?

You can still join section by calling in from a phone (the number is listed in the Zoom invitation). However, you won’t be able to see anything that’s being shared. If you are in this situation, let your section leader know as soon as possible so that they can record the section so that you can watch at a later time if you are able to access a computer.

Is it possible to have closed captions during section?

Zoom doesn’t support live, automatic captioning, but we have some workarounds we can use during section, including screen sharing through Google Slides. If your section leader isn’t already using closed captions, let them know that this would be a useful feature for you. Additionally, your section leader can record the section, and the recording will have closed captions.