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diff --git a/docs/ta/vg151_lab1.md b/docs/ta/vg151_lab1.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..45698df --- /dev/null +++ b/docs/ta/vg151_lab1.md @@ -0,0 +1,142 @@ +# VG151 — Lab 1 + +2022-09-21 + +Last night I held my very first real lab this semester, lab 1. + +The single worst thing is, it had to be online. Fall semester last year +was offline, but this one only lasted four hours before campus imposed +a lockdown and forced us online. I cannot overstate how disruptive this +is. I was about to speak shit of some people but my lawyer advised me not +to. + +## Gather All Students Challenge (Impossible) + +Before the lab I needed to ensure everyone was on our self-hosted Gitea +and Mattermost in the department server. They were not. It simply was not +possible to get everyone to follow steps as simple as clicking an invite +link, even if we four TAs together held three lab 0 sessions last week to +help them sign up on each of them. We even sent a Canvas annoucement. +Guess how many didn't listen? + +5 out of 83. + +Yeah, it's natural to forget things in the first days of university, +especially in such turbulent times. But guess how many remain unreachable +even after we sent them a personal email? + +2. + +_Well guess you don't care about this course then_ + +As a result, at the beginning of the lab, several homework groups were +lacking a member. There are supposed to be four. One even lacked two. + +## Attendance and Atmosphere + +Attendance was not great. I expected 27 students; 15 showed up on time. At +the peak there were about 20. + +I tried using sketches and puns to cheer up the atmosphere, but you can't +really expect anything online. I was virtually talking into a vacuum, but +I don't mind. I am not paid enough to. + +## Git, Gitea, and Getting everyone confused + +Online labs are just _amazing_. Nothing feels better than helping +a clueless student to figure out what an error message means. Via Zoom. In +the chatbox. Where a message takes a dozen seconds to write and another +dozen to read. Just _fantastic_. + +I asked every attendee to set up their git repos and follow a tutorial +that past TAs wrote. It's about submitting a hypothetical homework, h0. +I spent half an hour demonstrating, then gave them another half hour to +follow it. The git part involves: + +- `git clone` +- `git checkout` +- `git add` +- `git commit` +- `git push` + +And gitea: + +- Opening PRs +- Assigning teammates +- Reviewing PRs +- Merging PRs +- Releasing + +Rudimentary, yes, but most of who I'm talking to were completely fresh to +git. So many students had zero idea what I was doing, let alone what they +should do. + + + +Unfortunately this was the best I could do, so all I could say is, you +gotta follow the tutorial I sent you. + +Fresh students often struggle to understand how placeholders work. For +example, one student asked me why they got an error on this step: + +``` +git checkout -b <your_student_id> +``` + +I checked and sure enough, they thought these angle brackets were literal +ones. Fortunately this sort of misunderstanding usually happens only once. + +Update: another student did the same on the Wednesday section. + +While each group was trying out git and gitea on their own, I closely +inspected all their repos on gitea. A common, obvious mistake is that +some of them were using arbitrary strings as branch names, whereas it says +"your student id" in the tutorial. This was my fault; I used alice and bob +in my demonstration for "simplicity", but quite the contrary, it misled +students. + +I was in charge of 7 groups. At the end, two were very close from +completing everything; others had varying levels of success. Many +individuals hardly did anything at all. (They _might_ be doing things +locally, but come on.) + +## Rule 0 of online labs: no one will speak + +Absolutely no one unmuted their microphone. I believe I was the only one +that ever spoke. Kinda expected that, huh? + +Anyway, I survived an awkward interaction via chatbox, and ended the lab +leaving most attendees still confused. + +I also made a mistake when explaing the difference between `A'` and `A.'` +in matlab. I thought they both transpose `A` because I am an inferior +being constrained to the real number line, unaware of the complex plane. +Apparently `A'` is the complex conjugate and `A.'` is the real +transposition. + +## Acknowledgement + +At the end of the lab I got this one PM though: + + + +Technically this isn't an RC, but I'll take it. Thanks! + +I would like to thank Manuel, Mack, Menako, King and Fly for their support +in my first lab. I would also like to thank +[Boming](https://boyanzh.site/) for Joint-Teapot, an automation tool that +helped me with chores that would otherwise have to be done manually 21 +times. + +## Conclusion + +Lessons learned: + +- If students will use a document, keep it on the side of my screen while + I demonstrate anything and constantly remind them of where I am +- If I need to demonstrate a gigantic heap of steps, I'd better partition + them into ingestible chunks +- I should probably go harder on the students and force some of them to + show their work +- Do not simplify things too far |