DISCUSSION FORUM GUIDELINES

Throughout this course, there will be opportunities to communicate with your

classmates via discussion boards. These provide a great opportunity to ask questions
about ideas from the lectures, discuss problem-solving strategies, and share
comments on the course itself.

Be aware that the course staff will be monitoring the discussions infrequently. They are
intended mainly as a way for our students to communicate and collaborate with each
other.

Please follow these guidelines as you participate in these discussions:

1. Always be respectful to other students and to the course staff. This is a

challenging course. We want all students to feel safe and comfortable posting
questions that they have. Please be polite in your own posts, and don't belittle
others in your replies. Harassment, foul language, and other inappropriate content
will not be tolerated.

2. Do not post answers to homeworks and quizzes. Posting solutions doesn't just
allow students to cheat; it actively keeps people from learning the concepts those
assessments are meant to teach. Lecture exercises and recitation problems, since
they are ungraded, can be discussed more freely, but even in this case it's often
more productive to point fellow students in the right direction than to take them to
the end of the problem.



This also means you shouldn't ask for solutions to problems; for instance, 

"What's the answer to Problem __? I've been trying for half an hour and can't seem
to get it." 

could be rephrased as 

"I'm stuck on problem __. I assumed these things and have tried these blocks in my
program. Is there a strategy that I'm missing?"

Posts like this are both easier to respond to and more informative for the students
who post them than a simple request for an answer.

3. Before posting, check to see if someone else has posted something similar.
By participating in or "up-voting" another thread rather than creating your own, you
help guide others with the same thought to the same discussion, it more likely that
your question will get answered or your comment will get addressed.

4. Use descriptive titles. Make sure the title of your post says what the post is about.
It's easier to respond to a post with a descriptive title than a post with a vague title.
For example, use a title like "Question about Quiz 2 #1" instead of "Question".

5. Label your posts as Question or Discussion correctly. When you create a new
post, you can mark the post as either a Discussion or a Question. Marking your
posts correctly helps keep the course discussions organized. Marking a post as a
Question lets other students and the course staff know that you need help with a
 concept. Marking a post as a Discussion lets other students and the course staff
know that you have an idea that you want to share with the community.

6. Use the word "Staff" in posts that need course staff attention. A good title
might be "[STAFF] Possible mistake in Quiz 2 Question #1". Posts that require staff
attention are usually limited to mistakes in the courseware. Remember that the
course staff will be monitoring the course infrequently, so it may take a while for us
to get back to you.

Posts that do not follow these guidelines will be removed by the forum moderator.