Executive Summary

• This is your first topic with assignments in it!  Read the logistics carefully and watch the videos so that you understand how the course will work!

What will we be covering in this class and how does it all work online and hybrid?

• If you somehow got to this page without doing the quick online course tour, make sure you complete that.
• Start by reading the detailed course logistics page (separate page from this one! I broke it into two to make it more mobile friendly!)
• After that, proceed with the videos and readings below and the course layout and organization and topics and grading should all be covered!

Quick Class Overview

• Watch the video giving you an overview of class.  Note:  Every video in class will also have a link to a pdf of the slides just below it in case those are useful for you.  For complicated topics, I will also provide both video and text explanations.  I do not do that for the introduction .
  •  Link to the slides 
  • Link to the DeepFake video I reference in the overview video

Important Links module

• Please note there is a special module on the homepage that has links to all of your critical course-wide pages
  • Weekly announcements (these will be posted to slack as well)
  • Overall course schedule
  • Class code of conduct
  • Syllabus

What is this project you speak of?

• Note, there is an entire module dedicated to the projects!  This is just a quick overview.
• The video below gives a demo of the project system and explains the kinds of projects we will be completing this semester.

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Syllabus & class expectations

• Watch the class logistics overview video to learn how the class will be structured
  • Link to the slides
• Watch the syllabus highlights (two videos) AND Read the syllabus
  • Part 1:  Grading
    • Grading slides
  • Part 2: the rest of the rules (including Don’t cheat!)
    • Syllabus part 2 slides
• Read the full syllabus
  • Complete the syllabus quiz
• Realize the syllabus and code of conduct and weekly announcements etc are all linked on the important links page!

Code of Conduct

• Read the code of conduct
  •  Complete the code of conduct “quiz” (this is not really a quiz, just agreeing to follow the code of conduct)

What is a grading declaration?

• You should have noticed in the syllabus that I listed something called a grading declaration.  These are drawn from a philosophy called Ungrading (you do NOT need to purchase or read the book, I’m just linking to it in case you want to learn more than you do from the quick reading below.  If you really like the idea, there is an crowd-sources open-access book on Ungrading also!).  While we are not doing full ungrading this semester, we do use many of the approaches to improve your learning experience.  For example, rubrics are an ungrading technique where you know exactly what points are assigned for what and you choose how many you want to achieve.  They are also useful for grading transparency!  We will also make use of something called grading declarations.
  • Read about completion declarations
  • Complete your first declaration on the course tour (called “Module 0: Course Tour“)

Bug hunting

• No online class is every fully perfectly put together.  For each module, there will be extra credit points for the first to find bugs where bugs can include broken or wrong links or anything on the webpages or quizzes.  Most likely bugs will be links to last year’s class accidentally not updated in this year’s pages so keep an eye out for accidentally getting redirected to ai-fall2022!  Project bugs have separate track for bugs – this is only for the class content itself.  To earn the extra credit, you must
  1. Be the first to report report the bug to the #bug-reports channel
  2. Have the bug be verified by Dr McGovern or the TA (e.g. if you report a broken link and it isn’t broken, it isn’t a bug)

Class discussions

• Set up your account in slack via the link in canvas.  Make sure you use the name you wish to be called but please don’t use your online or gaming nickname (e.g. I need to know who you are, not “AINerd4”).  The name needs to be identifiable somehow with your canvas name.
• Introduce yourself in the introductions channel.  Answer the following questions:
  • Who are you?
  • Why did you enroll in this course and what do you hope to get out of it?
  • Answer the questions embedded in the overview video
• Learn how to use emojis and wave at your fellow students virtually in slack
• Learn how to use threads in slack.  Reply to other students on their introduction thread.  Reply to at least 3 of your fellow students by Wednesday.
• Complete the slack grading declaration on canvas (called “Module 0: Slack introductions“)

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