General Information:

Instructor:   Katia Obraczka (katia "at" soe "dot" ucsc "dot" edu)

Office: E2 323 

Office Hours: TBD

Classroom: Thimann One

Zoom: https://ucsc.zoom.us/j/92906202571?pwd=OGVZeE1uNWhZVm5vZWY3cXl5aWJhUT09

Class Time: Thursdays 5:20-6:55pm

TAs: Andrea David (andavid "at" ucsc "dot" edu)

         Lakshmi Krishnaswamy (lakrishn "at" ucsc "dot" edu)

Course Description:

This course is designed to help students transition into graduate school. It covers a variety of topics relevant to being successful as a researcher as well as a teaching assistant. Topics related to teaching include responsibilities and rights of teaching assistants and students, available resources, academic integrity, campus safety, conflict resolution, active learning strategies, leading discussion and lab sessions, presentation techniques, maintaining class records, electronic handling of homework, grading, etc. Topics related to graduate research include use of library and online databases, technical writing and presentation, reading and reviewing technical papers, etc. Students will also be exposed to faculty research projects and opportunities, exercises to develop inquisitive and critical thinking, problem identification and proposal development, and professional development. Course delivery is mostly via seminar style talks and panel discussions. These may be supplemented by occassional lectures. This course is required for all graduate students and must be taken in their first Fall quarter.

Grading:

◊ Grade option: S/U only

◊ Grades will be based on quizzes and assignments

◊ Rubric:

Quizzes (drop lowest grade): 30%

Assignments: 70% (must get satisfactory grade on all assignments) 

Student Responsibilities:

Students enrolled in this class are agreeing to the following:

. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: All work turned in as reports, assignemnts, attendance verification MUST be individual. If any work claimed by a student to be his/her own is found to be shared with and/or authored by other students, that will be considered a violation of academic integrity, will not be tolerated, and will be handled accordingly. For more information on UCSC's academic integrity policies, visit http://www.ucsc.edu/academics/academic-integrity/index.html.

. Students are responsible for checking the class Web page frequently for announcements, updates, schedule changes, etc.

. Students are responsible for submitting assignments on time. Late submissions will NOT be accepted.

. Class attendance is mandatory. Because this is a graduate class, students are expected to participate actively in class, and that's hard to do if they do not attend class regularly. A Zoom link has been set up for the class. Students can attend a maximum of 2 classes online. 

Class Bulletin Board:

. Sept 29: Lecture recordings posted on the class Canvas page by clicking on the YuJa tab and once on YuJa, under the "My  Media" tab.

Schedule (tentative):