Communications
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PHY 418: Statistical Mechanics I
CommunicationsSince this is an online course, a key factor for success 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 when students are physically 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 will make extensive use of. Each Wednesday from 10:25-11:40am, EST, I will host a live Zoom discussion session to answer questions and discuss material in the topic unit of that week. We will also make use of Zoom for office hours for myself (Prof. Teitel) and the Teaching Assistant (Maida). The Zoom app runs on most computers and mobile devices. The Zoom links for our course can be found on the PHY418 Home Page on Blackboard. There is one link for the Wednesday Discussion Sessions, and seperate links for office hours. When you connect for an office hour, you will first be put into a waiting room until the instructor admits you to the discussion. You can get to the Blackboard PHY 418 Course Home Page by clicking on any of the Zoom links throughout this website. But you must first be logged in to the Blackboard system. The Discussion Session Zoom link remains active throughout the semester. If it is not one of the times when we are using it for a scheduled part of the course, you are free to invite classmates to join you on this Zoom meeting link for discussions. Or, as a member of the University, you may go to the University's Zoom site, https://rochester.zoom.us/, to set up your own Zoom account so you can schedule your own meetings. You may request the pro version of Zoom when setting up your account so that your meetings will not have a time limit. 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 by clicking on Email. 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, Maida, at mtariq3@ur.rochester.edu. However I ask you to consider, instead of email, posting your question on one of the class' Discussion Boards. See more about the Discussion Boards below. When you post to a Discussion Board, the entire class can see your question and the reply, and so the entire class can benefit from the discussion. If it 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 course has several Discussion Boards hosted by Blackboard. Use this general Question Board if you have a general question about the course. Each topic unit has its own Discussion Board for that topic, as well as Boards for you to post your responses to Discussion Questions that you will find in the Unit Notes. You may find the links to these topic and question Discussion Boards on the webpage for the particular topic unit, or by clicking on Discussion Boards. Note, you must be logged into the Blackboard system to use the Discussion Boards. The class has its own Slack channel PHY418.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. 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 this 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. Here you may find Technical Information and Support for using Blackboard and Zoom.
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