This course has many resources available, developed over the years that we encourage students to make use of. At the same time, we recognize the diversity of resources can be overwhelming, and provide a brief overview here.
Website: Long before we had online lectures, piazza, canvas, UCSD online, this website was the primary resource for the course, and is essentially complete. Please note that there are tabs/links on top of the page.
- Schedule/Slides: This tab has lecture slides (PPT and PDF) and related reading already available for all of the full lectures presented in class (with a full syllabus/schedule).
- Assignments and Resources: This tab has information on assignments, framework code, deadlines, assignment submission, as well as a number of links to resources of interest. Please read the instructions for assignments and submission carefully. Note that the actual text of many assignments is now hosted on UCSD Online.
- Online Lectures: A supplementary resource of shorter online lectures for parts of (mostly first half) of the course, essentially identical to what you'll find on UCSD Online. They are adequate to do homeworks (except for homework 3 - curves that is not included here or on UCSD online). But, they are shorter than in-class lectures (or Canvas recordings), and do not cover all topics. They should be viewed as a supplementary resource.
- Information: Some basic information about the class, policies, grading, communication, lectures, office hours, TAs, books.
Piazza: We use piazza as the discussion forum for the class. While this adds one more website to deal with, we find most users prefer it to the in-built discussion formus on Canvas or UCSD Online.
Canvas: Canvas is the official LMS in use by UCSD. However, this course largely uses this public course website, Piazza for discussion, and UCSD Online. We do make use of Canvas to be compliant with various university mandates and primarily for two purposes.
- Assignment Submission is done and graded (with gradebook) on Canvas. This can be confusing, since you will also be submitting to UCSD Online for feedback, but must then make an official submission on Canvas with the feedback link, since UCSD Online is not authorized for detailed grading of on-campus students, and we need to ask for additional information such as source code.
- Lecture Recordings: Second, we will post full lecture (and discussion) recordings of the Winter 2022 class that was largely similar on Canvas. We have decided not to post lecture recordings of this class to avoid confusion since podcasts are less complete. In-person lectures may have a bit more content, such as 5-minute videos.
UCSD Online: UCSD Online is a great resource; we use almost the same materials to run a successful Massive Open Online Course on edX. You will use UCSD Online for the following purposes.
- Assignments and Auto-Feedback System: Many of the assignment descriptions are hosted on UCSD Online, as noted in the main Assignments page (except for HW 3 - curves, a separate standalone grader is provided for this purpose). Critically, the automatic feedback system for both image and code grading operates there, and you can use it to submit and get feedback. It is very important to note that after you're done, you must make an official submission on Canvas, with the feedback links. Please see the Assignments tab for full details.
- Assignment Hints: While it is optional, I highly encourage you to read the assignment hints on UCSD Online from previous students, which in many cases provide a step-by-step approach with common mistakes and fixes. These can provide a better tutorial on the skeleton code and assignment instructions as well.
- Supplementary Material: While optional, UCSD Online has supplementary material such as shorter videos (also see the Online Lectures tab, and a few problems. Note however, that the class lectures are longer with more topics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q:
Where are the lecture slides?
A: Lecture slides for all in-class lectures are on the
Schedule/Slides tab, in PPT and handouts PDF (with a full schedule and syllabus).
Q:
Where are the lecture recordings?
A: Lecture (and discussion) recordings for the remote class lectures
from Wi 2022 will be posted on Canvas. That is largely similar to
this year's class and has more information than podcasts (which we
will not do to avoid confusion; you can find podcasts from previous
offerings if you really want).
Q:
What about Online Lectures? What are those vs in-person lectures?
A: The
Online Lectures tab, and
UCSD Online, has shorter segments of online lectures on many (but not
all) topics. They are adequate to do most homeworks (except homework
3 - curves, which does not have online lectures posted) and are a useful
resource, but shorter than the in-person lectures. See above for in-person
lecture recordings of all topics, including curves. The online lectures have
their own slides and transcripts, available in the
Online Lectures tab or on UCSD Online.
Q:
Where are the Homework Assignments and what are deadlines?
A: Start with the
Assignments tab.
In many cases this will simply direct you to the assignment writeup on
UCSD Online (or provide a brief PDF of additional information, beyond
what is on UCSD Online).
Please do also look at the detailed
assignment hints on UCSD online, where available. While
optional, they can be very helpful.
Q:
Why does the class need 4 websites (main website, piazza, canvas, UCSD Online), with an additional standalone grader for homework 3 - curves?
A: Mainly to find the best solutions for various aspects, partly for historical reasons. Long long ago, we just had the public website and a discussion forum like Piazza. Then, we added standalone autograders/feedback as a valuable resource for students. With the launch of the CSE 167 MOOC, it was simpler to replace most standalone autofeedback systems (and even assignment descriptions) with just using a private instance of the course on UCSD Online (except homework 3 curves that for historical reasons was never included in the MOOC). Access to the online version of the course also gave students access to assignment hints and supplementary material. Finally, formal assignment submission and in-class lecture recordings are most easily handled on Canvas. It's impossible to do all this on Canvas; it simply doesn't have the capabilities UCSD Online does. At the same time, UCSD Online doesn't have the authorization or capability to be a primary platform for in-person UCSD students. And we want best features of our public website and Piazza discussions.