Below the expected uses of the newsgroup are clarified by me, Dan:

  1. The newsgroup is intended for certain specific purposes only. It will be monitored by the TAs. If there is anything that is important to bring to my attention, they will let me know. It is primarily intended for posting position papers, joint communiques for RPEs and to allow for overflow discussion of RPEs (people who were not called on to speak in class).
  2. As indicated in the Communication section of the Structure document, any questions about assignments should be brought directly to my attention at dberry@uwaterloo.ca with a cc to the course e-mail address cs492@student.cs.uwaterloo.ca. Likewise, questions about RPEs should be sent directly to Ben Armstrong, the TA handling RPE e-mail at b8armstr@uwaterloo.ca. So these two types of queries should not be posted onto the newsgroup. If anything arises that is critical to bring to everyone's attention, we can use the newsgroups or e-mail directly to you to achieve an ultimate "broadcast".
  3. There is no requirement for students to be posting to the newsgroup. Having no postings on the newsgroup (other than uploading your RPE position paper and joint communique) imposes no penalties whatsoever. Your class participation grade is going to be decided primarily on the basis of your attendance and discussion during lecture slots and attendance and discussion at RPEs. You cannot recoup a good grade by failing to attend and sending along a posting. The newsgroup is where you can voice your opinion if you have additional thoughts, prior to or following the RPE or (as mentioned) if you had wanted to say something but we were unable to give you a turn to speak.
  4. Other possible uses of the newsgroup are to bring to the attention of the class an interesting, current social issue that we have not had time to discuss in class or to continue discussion on an item that was already raised, especially if we were unable to give you a turn to speak.
  5. Discussing assignments on the newsgroup is not advisable. In particular, each of you is expected to do your own work in deciding what you want to say, how you want to cover your points, etc. If you are unclear about requirements, ask us in class or send e-mail as described above.

We have migrated to a Piazza newsgroup. For help using Piazza please see the Piazza Support page.

To join the course Piazza group, click on the link: piazza cs 492 and use CS492 as the access code with your UW email address as your Piazza login (e.g. jsmith@uwaterloo.ca).

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