Organization Tips (for this course or in general)

Read the Syllabus seems obvious but many students don’t. You don’t need to memorize it, but reading the syllabus gives you a general idea of the assignments, the grading process and expectations.

Browser Toolbar for each resource in the course, add a bookmark to your browser toolbar. For this class, you have Canvas, a direct link to Piazza, Github and this video for destressing - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGeKSiCQkPw

Class Discussion & Announcement site the syllabus will tell you which site is used for class announcements and discussion. Bookmark this site and become familiar with it. For example, in this class, we use Piazza. You are responsible for all class announcements and information posted on Piazza. If you post a question on Canvas, you may not get a response for a few days as it is not checked regularly. If you are not familiar with Piazza, read the best practices for using Piazza (coming soon).

Read the Schedule to get an idea of when the assignments are due: weekly (for this class), every other, etc. and when the exams are open and (more importantly) when they close. If you have trips planned during the semester, now is the time to find out if they conflict with exams.

Due Times know what time assignments are due and what time that is relative to you – ET, UTC (this class) or AoE? In today’s international world, if you are not familiar with time zones, you should get up to speed on that quickly. Know your time zone (as well as the impact of Daylight Savings Time) and how it relates to the course and others.

Add a Taskbar Clock you can add the time zone of the due dates to your Toolbar Clock. For example if I hover over mine, it gives me local time and UTC.

Web Calendar if you use a web calendar, add the assignments with multiple notifications. For example, my Google Calendar had my GT assignments in Yellow with alerts three, two and one day off – it can be annoying but it helps my sanity

Slack join the course’s Slack channel. Even if you never post, you can find lots of good information from your classmates just reading through their comments. It’s also a good way to get to know fellow students whose names will pop up in future courses.

HonorLock do the onboarding first thing. Avoid problems when you’re trying to study for or take exams. It takes ten minutes or less and then it’s done.

Wall Calendar if you like physical calendars: I have a four-month white board wall calendar mounted above my desk. At the beginning of each semester, I set up the next four months. School assignments are written in red dry erase. I also number the weeks for courses that refer to the weeks in their assignments. When I submit an assignment, I erase it from the board as a sign that it’s done so I won’t inadvertently think it’s still due.

Updated: 2024-11-21