As in previous semesters, there will be two sections of CS/ECE 374 in Fall 2021:Lecture sections AL* and discussion sections AD* are all associated with Section A; lecture sections BL* and discussion sections BD* are associated with section B. Students must sign up for one lecture and one discussion, both associated with the same section A or B.
- Section A will be taught by Dakshita Khurana and Jeff Erickson.
- Section B will be taught by Nickvash Kani and Yi Lu.
All responses below are specific to Section A. The Section B instructors may adopt diferent policies.
Short answer: Both.The university plans to offer as much in-person on-campus instruction as possible, but we recognize that a significant number of students in CS 374 will be unable to return to campus in August. At least in Section A, we expect to offer in-person lectures and labs, which students can join remotely via Zoom (with back-channel discussion over Discord). All lectures are most lab presentations will be recorded for later viewing.
All students who are registered for Section A (either AL1 or AL2) are welcome to attend Section A's lectures, either in person or remotely. However, we must ask interested students who are not formally registered for Section A to either attend lectures remotely or watch the recorded videos. Similarly, we must ask students to attend only the lab sections for which they are formally registered.
In the interest of fairness, we are also tentatively planning to hold all Section A exams online (with Zoom proctoring). We also tentatively plan to hold most Section A office hours online. (Room capacity issues have been a problem for years, even before the pandemic.)
It is not clear whether Section B is planning to follow similar policies; that decision must be made by the Section B instructors. Officially, only in-person lecture and labs are available for Section B.
Each student must register for exactly one lecture section and exactly one discussion section; moreover, the three-letter codes for these sections must start with the same letter (A or B). (These restrictions should be enforced by Banner Self-Service.)The university maintains separate online and in-person lectures and labs to comply with federal student visa regulations. International students are strongly encouraged to ask ISSS for guidance in choosing which section to register for. Here is a summary of my limited understanding of the situation, based on conversations with the CS academic office. (I am not a lawyer—in particular, I am not your lawyer—and this is not legal advice.)
My understanding is that the restrictions on international student registration are are legal requirements, which are out of the university's (and in particular the instructors') control, and subject to change at any time. In particular, the registrar does not have the necessary information to enforce these restrictions automatically (for example, via Banner Self-Service).
- International students living outside the United States must register for lectures and labs explicitly designated "Online"—lecture AL2 and lab AD0—or risk losing their student visa status. We anticipate that 10–15% of the students in CS 374 will fall into this category.
- International students living in the United States must register for lectures and labs explicitly designated "On campus" (that is, not explicitly designated "Online") and to actually attend those classes in person, or risk losing their student visa status. We anticipate that 15–20% of the students in CS 374 will fall into this category.
- Domestic students may register for either type of section. Moreover, domestic students who register for the "online lecture" may still attend live lectures, and domestic students who register for the "on-campus lecture" may still attend lectures remotely.
In terms of course content, the online and on-campus sections for Section A will be identical. The online lecture will consists of a live Zoom broadcast of the in-person lecture; similarly, the online lab section will include a live Zoom broadcast of the 9am in-person lab presentation. On-campus and online students can ask questions (and chat with each other) during lecture via Discord, and they can collaborate in labs via Zoom. The homeworks, quizzes, labs, exams, and grading policies will be identical; graders will have no idea which students are in which category. (Section B will use different homeworks, exams, and so on than section A.)
The two sections are being run completely independently. In particular, the two sections maintain disctint Gradescope sites, so students in Section A and Section B cannot collaborate on group homework solutions, and the two sections may use different grading rubrics, even if homework questions in the two sections happen to be identical.
As of mid-July, 383 students are registered for section A (303 in AL1 + 80 in AL2) and 135 students are registered for section B. We have requested enrollment limits of 400 students in Section A (AL1 + AL2) and 200 students in Section B. If registration has not reached these final limits, more seats will open up.The CS department makes seats available in large CS classes in stages, in part to keep registration in multiple sections balanced (to minimize time conflicts for students who register later). According to the department's published registration schedule, most seats in 374 should open up on August 2, except for seats reserved for transfer students. If any of those reserved seats are unclaimed, they should be made available on August 23, the first day of Fall instruction.
Meanwhile, we strongly recommend watching the CS Advising Piazza for announcements about more seats becoming available. We also recommend keeping an eye on Self-Service.
Finally, please be patient with the academic office staff if registration changes take longer than expected to take effect. All changes in registration limits or restrictions must be submitted manually, one section at a time, by a single human being, and then must be approved at the campus level manually, one section at a time, by another single human being. (Why can't that process be automated? Because Banner is a bag of angry rabid weasels. With intestinal problems.)
We do expect both sections to reach full capacity by the first day of instruction, August 23. See the next several questions.
No. The CS department does not have the human or technical resources, especially during the ongoing pandemic, to deal with a waiting list or with large numbers of registration overrides. In past semesters, when instructors have run their own unofficial waiting lists, they caused significant stress for the instructors, the academic office staff, and the waiting students.Similarly, I plan to ask the academic office to close Section A registration at the start of the Fall semester. If you drop one lecture section in the hope of adding the other, or even drop one lab section to add another, you are likely to find yourself locked out completely. If you need to change lab sections, ask the CS or ECE academic office for help.
No. Each section (A or B) has a total registration cap, which includes both on-campus and remote students. Registration is limited by the number of qualified and available teaching assistants, by the number of students we can reasonably accomodate in each lab section, and by instructor teaching loads, and only secondarily by physical room capacities. Once we're actually full, we're actually full.
Only if you have a time conflict with both the A and B lectures and the instructor of the other conflicting class gives their permission. The CS department does not have the human or technical resources, especially during the ongoing pandemic, to deal with large numbers of registration overrides.Requests for overrides can take several days or weeks to be processed by the CS academic office, especially during the spring and fall semesters. (Banner is weasels.) Please be patient.
Please contact the CS academic office. In the worst case, you may need to wait to take 374 next semester.
Please contact the CS academic office. In the worst case, you may need to wait to take 374 next semester.
Probably not. This class is a graduation requirement for all fifteen species of Computer Science major and for all Computer Engineering majors. For this reason, CS and CE majors have absolute priority for registration. (I believe the CS and ECE departments have negotiated a small number of seats for EE majors; ask in the ECE academic office for details.) We anticipate that at least section A will reach full capacity before registration opens to non-computing majors.The CS department restricts registration in all CS courses by cohort (semesters enrolled, not class standing) to help ensure that students can complete their degree requirements on time. For regularly admitted students, “on time” means “in four years”. In particular, the CS department holds some seats in 374 in reserve for incoming transfer students and for students who need to retake 374 for any reason. Students who want to take the class earlier have lower priority. (Students who need to graduate early because of significant financial constraints or other extenuating circumstances are strongly encouraged to speak with advisors in the CS, ECE, or Grainger CoE academic offices.)
The CS department does not have the human or technical resources, especially during the ongoing pandemic, to deal with exceptions to these policies.
No. The CS department is strictly enforcing the CS 173 (or Math 213) and CS 225 prerequisites. You must already have credit for both classes — either by taking them at Illinois, by passing proficiency exams, or by transferring credit for an equivalent class at another institution — before you can register for 374. Proficiency exams are typically offered just after the start of each semester, so CS 374 registration is almost certain to be closed before Fall proficiency results are announced. See my previous comments about graduating early.