Assistance
Need help? The Department of Computing and Curtin University offers assistance to students in a variety of ways:
- Contact your Lecturer
- Contact your Tutor(s)
- See the Senior Tutor
- Call the Tech Staff
- FAQ Wiki
- University Counselling Services
Contact your Lecturer
Generally your lecturers may reserve part of their teaching week for student consultations. You should consult your unit outline for instructions on how to make an appointment with them (diary, e-mail, telephone). During this time, you may request additional help, guidance or support - for assistance relating to that unit.
Please note that unfortunately for security purposes, the lecturers' offices are generally located behind secured doors. This means that you should call them first from the internal phone, located in the Level 3 or 4 Foyer (Building 314), prior to your appointment. There is a phone number directory with your lecturer's number there too.
Contact your Tutor(s)
Each unit you study with the Department, will pretty much have tutorial or practical sessions. This is where you get a chance to put theory into practice (implement what you learnt in the lectures). These sessions usually run in the Level 2 (Building 314) laboratories and are controlled by Departmental tutor/demonstrators.
These tutors/demonstrators are paid to guide you through each weeks tutorial/practical. This is a great chance to ask any unit based questions and get sound feedback on your progress.
Please note that you cannot hassle the tutors outside the tutorial times! (this includes sending them e-mail). They are only paid/hired to help students during the specified tutorial sessions.
Senior Tutor
The Senior Tutors are people that are hired by the Department to assist all students with any Department of Computing unit. Focusing on 1st and 2nd years, the Senior Tutor can provide one-to-one help and assistance with any form of learning.
The Senior Tutors can also help you with coding or implementation problems. This can be very handy when your assignment won't compile for some strange reason :-) You should also note that your design and algorithms are required when requesting help. Simply saying, "my code doesn't work, can you fix it" - will not get you immediate help.
The Senior Tutors are available certain times during the week. Please make allowance for the Senior Tutor to have meal and tea breaks.
Senior Tutor Schedule - see the timetable on the door of 314:231. Note : Room 314.231 is opposite 314.217 (Lab 217), If the door is closed, then knock and the Senior Tutor will see you.
The Senior Tutor's are available during the times described to answer any Computing Science related questions that you might have. If they are free at that time they will help you immediately, otherwise you can add your name to the list and they will find you as soon as they are free.
Important Notice
To promote correct design techniques and procedures, code implementation assistance in Senior Tutor sessions will be restricted to those students who can show both design (in pseudocode or as appropriate) and adequate documentation.
In other words: Failure to provide both design and documentation will mean you get no help from the Senior Tutor with your code.
Design queries and general or technical questions will still be answered without restriction.
Tech Staff
The tech staff are the people that run and maintain the resources that you use in the Department, they are the ones responsible for your account and the linux boxes. If you have a really serious problem regarding your account, they are probably the ones to talk to.
Please note that the Tech staff are not the people to contact if you need help regarding classwork / assignments. They deal exclusivly with account problems. Please use them as a last resort, and make sure that you have tried all the previous forms of help first, as the tech staff are generally very busy.
Call the Tech staff from a foyer phone on 7817.