Help

COS 126 is a challenging course. Below you will find some of the various ways you can get help in COS 126. If you are falling behind, be proactive. Contact your preceptor as soon as possible and schedule a meeting with them. In the meeting, review the material and make a plan for success in this course. If you don’t feel comfortable talking to your preceptor, contact the course instructors as soon as possible to arrange to get some help. We will be happy to meet with you.

Ed Discussion. Ed Discussion is where will make course announcements. Please make sure you monitor Ed! It is also an online forum where you can ask and answer short questions. The course staff monitors this forum regularly. We strongly encourage students to answer posted questions! Answering your peers’ questions is not only a terrific way to help the COS 126 community, but also a great way to learn the course material. Please do not post your assignment code on Ed, even in private posts.

Instructor Office Hours. For more substantial questions about the course materials, you should attend instructor office hours. You’re welcome to attend any instuctors’ office hours. Some office hours are in person and some are on Zoom. Please check the calendar. Office hours can be used for help on assignments, for questions about course topics, or even general advice on computer science. We expect, however, that you have attended the appropriate lecture and attempted the corresponding precept exercises before going to office hours.

Intro COS Lab. The Intro COS Lab, located in Lewis Library, is staffed by undergrads and is available to help you debug your code. Please make sure you have first made a reasonable effort to identify the bug and isolate the problem. This also means you should have attended the appropriate lecture and attempted the corresponding precept exercises before going to the Intro COS Lab.

Tutoring and More at McGraw. If you feel you need a peer tutor, please visit the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning.

McGraw also offers Academic Life and Learning Strategies Consultations. These are hour-long meetings between a student and a learning consultant (juniors and seniors). You can use these appointments for any questions or problems related to academics.

McGraw is also helping students to create their own, student-led, study groups (as well as many other amazing resources). Information can be found here for up to date information. McGraw offers many additional resources!