On this page:
✔️ Getting help at Hours
✔️ Getting help through Piazza
✔️ Student Help Hours (Schedule)
✔️ Meet your instructor
✔️ Meet your TAs
✔️ Getting to know you Prof at hours

Getting help at Hours

Student hours (also called help hours, office hours, or simply hours for short) are an opportunity for you to engage with your professors and TAs outside of course meeting times. They’re a place where you can receive support, resources, and chat about the course, department, or major.

TAs are a wonderful resource and support system– use them often and wisely. TAs are not your instructor so if you haven’t attended class or done the readings, don’t expect them to teach you the material. There are three main uses of attending TA hours:

While working:

You can hop into hours just in case and do your work during that time so that if a question pops up you can ask.

With a question:

Your question must be clear and specific– for example, saying “I need help” is not a question, instead say “What is part 4 is asking me to do?” or “I’m getting a seg fault in this function. I’ve narrowed it down to these three lines of code.”

When stuck:

Tell us what you are confused about and what you’ve tried. Don’t know where to start? Tell us what you’ve brainstormed. Code isn’t working? Tell us what you’ve done to debug.

Getting help through Piazza

Piazza is a discussion forum where you can ask and answer questions. Think of Piazza as a collective knowledgebase– the more you use it, the more we all learn! It’s a great place to:

• Ask clarifying questions
• Share resources
• Help your peers
• Get help with debugging

To get help with debugging:

1. Make a private post
2. Tell us what the error is
3. Tell us what you’ve tried to fix it and where you’ve narrowed down the error to
4. Attach your code file(s)

If you’re feeling shy, you can ask questions anonymously!

Hours Schedule

To join an hours session, log on to your URI Zoom account and join this meeting.
Trouble logging in? Watch this 30 second video demo.

Mondays:

11:00am-1:00pm ET (Denno)
1:00pm-2:00pm ET (Alexander)
2:00pm–4:00pm ET (Denno)

Tuesdays:

11:00am–1:00pm ET (Denno)
1:00pm-2:00pm ET (Alexander)
2:00pm–4:00pm ET (Denno)

Wednesdays:

11:00am–2:00pm ET (Denno)
12:00pm-2:00pm ET (Alexander)
4:00pm–6:00pm ET (Denno)

Thursdays:

11:00am–2:00pm ET (Denno)
12:00pm-2:00pm ET (Alexander)
4:00pm–6:00pm ET (Denno)

Fridays:

12:00pm-2:00pm ET (Alexander)

Async help:

Remember you can ask questions and contribute to our collective knowledgebase using Piazza! You may also email Alexander.

Meet with Prof:

If you’d like to meet 1:1 with Prof Chávez, you may schedule a time using Calendly.

Meet your instructor

My name is Victoria C. Chávez (they/she) and I’m excited to be your instructor for this course! You may call me Victoria or Professor Chávez, whichever you prefer. I am excited to get to meet you all and I’m looking forward to this semester!

I was born and raised in Chicago, I’m Guatemalan, and I now call Rhode Island home. I have a Bachelor’s in Computer Science and a Master’s focusing on Computer Science Education. I’ve worked as a Software Engineer at Twitter and Microsoft, and I’ve taught middle, high school, and college level Computer Science courses. This is my last class at URI as I’ll be leaving to pursue my PhD.

A note on pronounciation: The correct way to say last name is with a hard “ch” (like in “chimichanga”) and with emphasis on the “a” not “vez”.

Meet your TAs

Alexander: I’m a Computer Science undergrad and am minoring in both Digital Forensics and Cybersecurity here at URI. Outside of programming for my internship and class, one of my favorite pastimes is reading a good book. If you can’t attend my help hours, feel free to email me and I will do my best to get back to you.

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Denno: Hello, my name is Denno Louis. I am a rising junior at the university. I enjoy playing basketball, coding games, and working out. Stop by my hours for any coding questions.

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Getting to know your Prof at hours

You can ask questions about the course material and assignments, but you can also engage in informal conversations with your professors to help establish a connection– which will help you should you need references or recommendations for jobs or school!

Never been to a professor’s hours before? When attending hours with professors, make sure to first introduce yourself and say what class you’re in– most of us teach multiple courses! You can stop by to simply introduce yourself without staying long or you can stay and chat. Here’s a list of things all professors are happy to talk about:

✔️ Course material
✔️ Assignments
✔️ Career
✔️ Research
✔️ College
✔️ Other course suggestions
✔️ Suggestions for additional learning (i.e., things you can do outside the classroom)

Here are some things I personally enjoy talking about:

✔️ Life
✔️ Existential crises
✔️ Dogs & Pets (show me your pets!)