One of the most useful sources of help when you have a problem is to ask a fellow student. There are, of course, limits to what you should ask of your peers; or to what you should answer if asked. The communications skills and teamwork experience gained from working with your fellow students is of great value, but so is the learning that takes place from figuring out something for yourself.
When it comes to assignments you should be careful when discussing problems with your colleagues. The department very takes a dim view of plagiarism. You should avoid any detailed discussions of algorithms for use in assignment solutions with your peers as this can lead to implementations that are not sufficiently original to be considered your own work. Obviously you should never ask to see, nor show anyone, the actual source code of an assignment solution.
One easy way to get a question about this unit answered is to post it on the discussion group: teach.comp2031.talk. You should also read the news group teach.comp2031 to keep up with announcements from the lecturer. Note that these news groups are available only on the ANU news system. Which is to say, you need to set your NNTP server to newshost.anu.edu.au if it isn't already.
For most problems you will want to contact your unit lecturer, Jim Grundy. Check out his home page for information about how and when to contact him.
Your tutors are not payed to spend time helping you out of class, so please don't ask them to.
That said, there are some specific things to do with laboratory classes and the marking that the tutors do, for which it is best to approach your tutor directly. These are:
If you don't know what laboratory class you are in or who your tutor is, that information is available from the laboratories page. The best way to contact your tutor is to see them at your next laboratory class, but if you have a problem that can't wait then their contact details are below. Remember, you should contact your tutor outside of class time only in relation to the above mentioned problems and only if it can't wait until your next laboratory class.
Matthew Bryant Matthew.J.Bryant@student.anu.edu.au John Embling John.Embling@mehta.anu.edu.au Alexei Khorev Alexei.Khorev@anu.edu.au Jim Grundy Jim.Grundy@anu.edu.au Thom Larner Big_Thom_Larner@yahoo.com Rhys Newman Newman@syseng.anu.edu.au
The only reason you will probably have to contact the office staff in relation to COMP2031 & ENGN2003 is to collect an assignment. Assignments are normally returned to you in your first laboratory class that is at least two weeks after the assignment was due. If you miss that lab, your assignment will be available from the office from the following week.
The department office is located in room N340 on the third floor of Computer Science and Information Technology Building. This is building 108 in quadrant 2 of the campus map. The office is open at the following times on week days.
0900-1100 1130-1230 1330-1600
Feedback & Queries:
Jim Grundy