Hi folks,

if you're receiving this letter then you're either registered or waitlisted for CSCI 265 this fall.

I'm Dave Wessels (David.Wessels@viu.ca), and I'll be teaching the course this fall. I'd like to welcome you to the course in these rather strange and trying times! I'm glad to see I know a great many of you already, and am looking forward to getting to know everyone else in the class.

If you look at the course website ( csci.viu.ca/~wesselsd/courses/csci265) you'll see some of the course details are posted already, hopefully I'll have the rest of it ready well in advance of our start date.

The plan is to have all course activities carried out in a virtual setting: there will be no face-to-face lectures, labs, or office hours this term. I'll post details as the summer progresses, but the general idea is as follows:

If you're planning travel/accommodation for the fall semester, note that students will not need to be in Nanaimo for CSCI 265 this fall.

Students will, however, need access to a laptop, stable internet, and the Zoom client (to be able to watch the videos/Zoom sessions) as well as an ssh tool to be able to connect to the csci.viu.ca servers to carry out their lab/project work. I'll post short videos introducing the use and availability of ssh for the major platforms. Note that at this point I do not believe the CSCI labs (102/115) will be physically accessible, but the university might make some access to Windows PCs available elsewhere on campus.

For the (many) students on the waitlist, we're trying to get a third section of the course opened up. With a third section and pre-requisite checking we hope to be able to register everyone who meets the course pre-reqs.

I also wanted to let you know that our student services and supports, such as counselling and advising, as well as a variety of virtual activities and events will be available in the fall. The University has put together a FAQ for students that is being updated as new questions come in, and questions may also be directed to universityrelations@viu.ca.

I hope we can make this year's CSCI 265 a great experience for all involved. Please, please feel free to email me if you have any questions or concerns (David.Wessels@viu.ca).

I'm looking forward to "seeing" everyone in September, have a great summer!

dave