Communications
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PHY 418: Statistical Mechanics I
CommunicationsA key factor for success in this course is to have good communications, both between me (the instructor) and you (the student), as well as among you and your fellow classmates. I cannot stress enough how important it is that you make contact with your classmates to form study groups to work on problems together and learn from each other! In all your communications, no matter on what platform, you are expected to act in a polite and respectful manner to your classmates and instructors, and to adhere to the student code of conduct. Virtual interactions are held to the same standards that apply to in-person interactions on campus. See the Student Code of Conduct for further information. The communication platforms we will use in this course are: Zoom is a video conferencing application that we can make use of when a virtual meeting is more convenient than meeting in-person. The Zoom app runs on most computers and mobile devices. The Zoom link to meet with Prof. Teitel can be found on the Blackboard site for the course here.
An old fashioned but tried and true way to stay in touch is via email. If you wish to email one or several of your classmates you may use the Blackboard system's Email capability. Note, you must be logged into the Blackboard system to use this email capability. You are also welcome to email me directly at stte@pas.rochester.edu, or to email our TA, Sean, at skelty@ur.rochester.edu, if you have questions. However I ask you to consider, instead of email, posting your question on the class Slack channel so that everyone can see your question and the replies. If you have a question about something, chances are one of your classmates has a similar question. If your question is a more personal matter, however, then please directly email me. If you have questions about how you were graded on one of the Problem Sets, please email the TA.
The class has its own Slack channel PHY418-S23.slack.com. Slack is a multiperson chat and work group application, where everyone can see all the messsages on a give topic on the same page. Each topic unit will have its own channel. Students may also create their own channels for interactive group work with classmates, that will stay out of the prying eyes of the instructors! Slack can run either through you web browser, or as a stand alone app on most computers and mobile devices. Note: since we are using the free version of Slack, all messages posted become unavailable after 90 days. A discussion of some of the features of Slack may be found here, here, and here. Pictures! To help everyone get to know each other, please upload a small headshot of yourself to Blackboard, Zoom, and Slack. To upload a picture to Blackboard, from your Blackboard Main page click on your name at the top right hand side of the page. This will display a drop down menu. Choose the Settings link, and from the menu that appears choose Personal Information. In the resulting page choose Personalize My Settings. There you will see the option to upload an image for yourself. To upload a picture to Zoom, login to your Zoom account on rochester.zoom.us, click on the Profile link at the top of the left hand side of the page, then click Edit on the right of the top item. There you will see how to upload your headshot. In the same screen you should also set your Zoom name to your full first and last names. This is used to label your Zoom frame. The headshot will appear when your camera is turned off. To upload a picture to Slack, click on your picture at the top right of the window and choose "Edit profile". There you can set your full name, display name, and upload your headshot.
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