ORIE 4741: Contact

Communication

The course website is http://people.orie.cornell.edu/mru8/orie4741/. We use zulip for Q&A.

Our discussion forum is a place for students to post and answer questions. Your instructors and TAs will ensure that questions are usually answered within 36 hours, but we expect most questions will be answered by other students. The discussion forum should be used to ask logistical questions and conceptual questions. Keep your posts (both questions and answers) at a high level, in English. If that isn't sufficient, then your question is better asked in office hours.

Do not post any source code related to homework or project problems on the discussion forum. Posting of assignment solutions or hints is not permitted and could violate Academic Integrity. For detailed help with installation issues or debugging, please visit TA or instructor office hours instead.

The discussion forum is best used to ask questions whose answers will be useful to many students. If you have questions that are likely to be specific just to yourself - especially if they fall in the category of technical support or debugging - we ask you to take those questions to office hours. But if you can phrase the questions in a way such that they are of broad interest, you are likely to find other students thanking you for them and answering them quickly.

Grades will be posted on Gradescope, and regrade requests can be made on Gradescope for up to 2 days after an assignment has been graded. Do not post questions about grading, grades, or regrades on the discussion forum. Such questions will typically be closed without answer by instructors.

Emails

• The best way to communicate with instructors is synchronously, e.g. in office hours or after class. We ask that you always try to use this option first. Synchronous meetings are more efficient, more effective, and more fun.

• We ask that you refrain from sending direct email to instructors’ NetIDs, except for the purpose of coordinating meetings.

• If you do send an email to an instructor, assume that it will take about five days to receive a reply. If you need a reply sooner, you always have the opportunity to ask questions after lecture and during office hours. Emails about issues that could be handled in person might not receive a response.

• Neither email nor the discussion forum is an appropriate channel for discussion of grades. Such discussions should occur in office hours (in Zoom office hours, we will split off in a private room to discuss) or in a scheduled meeting.

• If you need an exception from a course policy, ask in office hours or send a private message to @staff on zulip. Note exceptions will be granted extremely rarely.