Tips For: Assignment Coaching Help Request

The goal in creating a ticket is to include enough information so that we can provide the help that you need in our first response. Otherwise, time and effort will be wasted on requests for more information and clarification. Please use the tips below to make the message body and the attachments to your email as effective as possible:

Item	Instructions
Message Body	Please begin by stating unambiguously which assignment you are working on. If you have started work on the assignment, include the work that you have completed so far (see below). In your message, describe what questions or complaints that you have about the current state of your work. Is it a program that is not working? Then, what are the symptoms? Describe what inputs lead to these symptoms. Or, are you having a problem with a design document or plan? If so, what questions do you have about the current state of the document and the correct next step?
Attachments	If you are a student in one of my coding courses (IS430, IS455, IS439), the best way to get help with coding problems is to zip up your coding project in its current state and attach it to your email. Do not send us screenshots, or individual files (.py, .sql). We plan unzip your coding project and run your code on our computer to reproduce your symptoms. So, we need you to send us the zipped coding project. Please Note: If you will be attaching a .ZIP file to your email, please use your personal email account rather than your University email account. The University email server removes all .ZIP file attachments even from outbound emails. So, your .ZIP file will be lost. The email server for your private email account probably does not follow the same practice. If you will not be attaching a .ZIP file, then choose whichever email account is most convenient for you. If you are experiencing problems trying to attach files to your ticket, I recommend that you play my tutorial Attaching Files to HelpDesk Tickets. If you are a student in one of my non-coding courses (IS446), you may just need to attach a single document to the ticket. If this is the case, convert the document to PDF format and attach the PDF file to your email. The document will be attached to the ticket automatically.

Item

Instructions

Message Body

Please begin by stating unambiguously which assignment you are working on. If you have started work on the assignment, include the work that you have completed so far (see below). In your message, describe what questions or complaints that you have about the current state of your work. Is it a program that is not working? Then, what are the symptoms? Describe what inputs lead to these symptoms. Or, are you having a problem with a design document or plan? If so, what questions do you have about the current state of the document and the correct next step?

Attachments

If you are a student in one of my coding courses (IS430, IS455, IS439), the best way to get help with coding problems is to zip up your coding project in its current state and attach it to your email. Do not send us screenshots, or individual files (.py, .sql). We plan unzip your coding project and run your code on our computer to reproduce your symptoms. So, we need you to send us the zipped coding project.

Please Note: If you will be attaching a .ZIP file to your email, please use your personal email account rather than your University email account. The University email server removes all .ZIP file attachments even from outbound emails. So, your .ZIP file will be lost. The email server for your private email account probably does not follow the same practice. If you will not be attaching a .ZIP file, then choose whichever email account is most convenient for you.

If you are experiencing problems trying to attach files to your ticket, I recommend that you play my tutorial Attaching Files to HelpDesk Tickets.

If you are a student in one of my non-coding courses (IS446), you may just need to attach a single document to the ticket. If this is the case, convert the document to PDF format and attach the PDF file to your email. The document will be attached to the ticket automatically.

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