Notes about Corona situation

Dear Students,

I am aware that there is a high level of uncertainty about how your studies in general and this course in particular will work in the upcoming fall term this year. Here is a quick summary, more information on our reasoning can be found below and on gitlab.

All lectures will be online
- We will use Zoom links that you can find on Canvas.
- As a backup, we aim to make videos of the lectures available.
- While the intention is to have attendance during the lectures, the recordings can hopefully help in case of trouble some internet connections.
Group work and group supervision will be through video conferencing and online communication. We will provide gitlab project workspaces.
It will be possible to successfully participate in the course completely remotely.
- This may require additional effort, since group work is an important part of this course.
- We will provide additional training and support.

This is to keep our commitment to all students (especially: international students) as well as to keep everybody safe in this difficult situation.

Please support us by approaching us and your fellow students in a positive and constructive way. Our teaching team will do the best to provide you with good support throughout the course.

Best regards,

Eric Knauss

Key concepts of risk assessment

We have explored the risks in relation to co-located supervised group work and co-located workshops. Based on this risk assessment, we have discarded both options for this fall.

Inability to arrive in Gothenburg in time

Travel restrictions might make it impossible for students to arrive on-site in time.

Actions

We aim to make sure that the course can be passed without attending local events

Likelihood of infected or vulnerable persons coming to meetings

Generally, we must assume that even those who do not show symptoms can infect others. This general risk is thought to be addressed through social distancing and personal protective equipment.

A key concept is that students may come to class or other events, even if they show symptoms or are vulnerable, since they might fear the consequences of not coming (such as failing class or disadvantages when aiming for a good grade).

Actions

We aim to make sure that the course can be passed without attending local events
~~We are currently considering whether or not to~~ We will not offer rooms for supervised group work.
- Pro: If students aim to meet, we might be able to provide a more controlled environment.
- Con: Remote participants will feel excluded; no guarantee that it will be safe.
~~We are currently considering whether or not to~~ We will not offer workshops also co-located.
- Pro: Much more effective (especially creativity workshop)
- Con: Not inclusive, puts remote-only participants at a disadvantage

Events to consider

Below, we systematically analyse communication and coordination events that we expect to be relevant for this course.

Event	Description	Trigger (Schedule/Event)	Channels	Access	Comments
Lectures		See timeline (1-2 per week)	Zoom	Links provided through canvas.	Mitigate bad connections through recording lecture and making available as a video, consider a backup notification, so presenter can be reached if presentation does not work.
Group work		Weekly activity, see details below	Slack?, gitlab, Zoom, box	(?) group's gitlab project, Canvas group	Can we control it? How to provide supervision? Can we suggest Slack? Zoom, gitlab, box should be available.
Workshops	Hands-on work	See timeline (3-4 per course)	Zoom	Links provided through canvas.	Zoom meetings with breakout rooms. Box with online editing? Check participation.
Meetings with course representatives		3 (2 during course)	Zoom	Individual invites	Zoom meetings, notes on gitlab and canvas
Exam		See timeline	Canvas, email, Slack?	Q/A through email and Canvas, forum with frequently asked questions.
Presentations		See timeline	Zoom	Links provided through canvas.	Zoom, check participation, moderate questions
Course evaluation meeting		See timeline	Zoom	Individual invites
...

Details about Group Work, with contact to Teaching Team

Activity	Trigger (Schedule / Event)	Communication Media	Comments
Weekly (informal) supervision	Scheduled	Zoom	Ask groups to create a chat room (for example slack) and to invite the supervisor
Regular meetings with supervisor (formal supervision)	Individually scheduled, 1-2x per release cycle	Zoom
Requirements Engineering Cafe	weekly	Zoom	Meet, drink coffe or similar, discuss random topics of RE field and course...

Details about Group Work, without contact to Teaching Team

These events are mainly up to the group. A team agreement might explicitly mention them to improve clarity.

Activity	Trigger (Schedule / Event)	Communication Media
Finalizing submission for R1, R2, R3	???	???
Regular coordination meetings	???	???
Informal collaboration ("Hej, can you help me with x?")	???	???
Informal coordination ("I am blocked by y not being done yet. What now?")	???	???
Initial meeting

Note: Relying here on previous research work.

Kai Stapel, Eric Knauss, Kurt Schneider, and Nico Zazworka. FLOW Mapping: Planning and Managing Communication in Distributed Teams. In Proceedings of 6th IEEE International Conference on Global Software Engineering (ICGSE ’11), pages 190–199, Helsinki, Finland, 2011.