Getting help

If you have a situation in the course and need help. This is the page for you.

This course is set up so that there are lots of ways to get help and specific methods for certain situations.

N.B.: Please don’t email the lecturer to get help except in exceptional circumstances. Direct messaging the lecturer or your tutors on Teams is not appropriate and you will not get help that way.

Getting Help in Specific Situations

Here’s a short list of help you might need:

• can’t attend a lab: see the lab page
• help with an extension: see the extension policy
• help understanding the assessments: see the assessment page
• help finding or understanding marks and feedback: see the assignments section of the FAQ
• help appealing a mark: see the appeals policy
• help dealing with a bug: ask on the forum
• help understanding course content: ask on the forum
• help understanding assignment requirement: ask on the forum
• help with your gitlab repos: ask on the forum

Almost all questions you could have in this course have documentation on this website or should be asked on the forum. Please don’t send emails or Teams chat messages regarding any questions that are listed above.

General Advice for Getting Help

1. Read the website: make sure you read the course website. You should know the course policies and have read the frequently asked questions (FAQ).

2. Attend your weekly lab session: your tutors are there to help you, but you can only get their help by showing up in person or online.

3. Ask good questions on the forum. This way, your questions benefit others as well and you can get answer from the other students as well as lecturer and tutors.

4. Private messages should go be asked as private questions on the forum or emailed to the course convenor if it’s for their eyes only. We don’t encourage private questions, but we understand there are some exceptional situations where a direct line to your tutors or lecturer is required.¹

Other Helpers

Here are a few more places you can go and people you can talk to.

Course reps

• COMP1720: Kira Jackson () u7294958@anu.edu.au

• COMP6720: Gennie Nguyen () u7616055@anu.edu.au

• COMP6720: Aishwarya Naickar () u7616624@anu.edu.au

These fine folks are here to listen to your concerns or issues confidentially, you can contact them over email.

If you want to be a course rep, get in touch with the course convenor.

ANU Computer Science Students’ Association

• Go here: cs.club.anu.edu.au

The ANU computer science students’ association is an august institution providing social activities, support, fun, and community. The best way to join in is to join their Discord or IRC chat servers with the above link, or just show up in the common room.

The CSSA are incredibly happy to help you. If you need help, want to explore a topic, or need a cheap second-hand computer, these folks can help.

Feeling lost

If you’re feeling lost, that’s ok. The most important thing to remember is that the lecturers and tutors really want to help you out, so make sure you let us know if you have any questions.

It’s a proven fact (with science!) that there’s often a gap between a student’s “felt” proficiency (how much you feel you know) and actual proficiency (how much you actually know) during the course:

So if you feel like you’re struggling, you may well be at the “bottom” part of that yellow curve, just before the moment when it all comes together. Hang in there!