How to Run the Content Team
This guide will tell you how to be a CSM 61A SCM. It is not required reading for CMs and other contributors to the repository.
This Wiki is supposed to be a substantially complete reference of everything you need to know to run the content team from a technical standpoint. It is a work in progress, and should be updated regularly to reflect the current practices. However, past practices may also be maintained in the repository so that future semesters may benefits from the knowledge of past failures.
To learn how to run the content team, you should read this entire Wiki, starting with this page. It's long, but it's not that long. You should also update this Wiki during the semester because there will surely be some things that are out of date.
This repository contains everything needed to make worksheets for CSM 61A. Ideally, you will have had experience as either a content mentor or a member of course staff's content team before taking on this post, as using the repository can have a rather steep learning curve.
Please keep the repository well. At the end of the semester, all irrelevant branches should be deleted, and all irrelevant issues and pull requests should be closed.
The SCMs are chiefly responsible for creating all worksheets for the course subject to the approval of the SMs and coords. They are also responsible for spearheading all other content related initiatives, such as slides and guides, which may vary from semester to semester.
All SMs, including SCMs, are required to
- lead a weekly meeting for your family, which for you is the content team
- attend weekly SM-coord meetings where course governance is discussed
- assist in JM/AM application interviews and deliberations
Additionally, you will be responsible for reviewing CM applications, conducting CM interviews, and hiring and onboarding CMs at the beginning of the semester.
Ideally, you will be available on Slack/Ed to answer any questions mentors/students have about the worksheet.
The coords have ultimate authority for everything the course does, including what is in the worksheets distributed to mentors. In practice, the SCMs are almost entirely responsible for worksheet creation. Everything from what gets covered when to the specific verbiage to use in problems is your responsibility to create. You, of course, may ask the coords for help whenever you need it, but the coord role is not a technical one, and they may not be able to help you with questions of how the repository works. You should always consult this wiki first.
At least two weeks before the beginning of the semester, the CSM 61A coords should reach out to you to set up a meeting where you will be onboarded. At this meeting, you will discuss your role, goals for the semester, content calendar, and any other logistical considerations.
If you do not have experience with the content team, you would also ideally meet with the previous semester's senior content mentors to get a technical overview of content processes.
You should be in regular correspondence with the CS 61A course staff content team. You should set up a meeting with the CS 61A content TA before the beginning of the semester to discuss the content calendar and what should be covered when. At that meeting, you should also create some way (group chat/slack/etc.) of keeping in touch with the course staff content team throughout the semester. Ideally, at least one of the SCMs would be on course staff and on course staff's content team to make this process smoother.
Occasionally, course staff will change content plans mid-way through the semester. Sometimes, you may also have questions about whether the questions you plan to use on the worksheet are identical or similar to those used on the homeworks/labs/discussions. Therefore, you will have to check in with the course staff content team throughout the semester.
The busiest time for an S(C)M is the beginning of the semester, which is when various recruitment related tasks take place. You will be responsible for helping in JM/CM/AM interviews and deliberations. In spring 2023, the recruitment calendar for SCMs looked like the following:
- Week 0 (end): CM written application review
- Week 1: JM/CM interviews
- Week 1 (end): CM deliberations
- Week 2 (beginning): JM deliberations
- Week 2: JM onboarding
- Week 2: CM training (run completely by SCMs)
- Week 3: content mentors begin working.
- Week 4: JMs begin regular sections.
Because JMs begin teaching in week 4, weeks 2 and 3 are "one-time" sections weeks run by SMs (not SCMs). There are no sections of any kind during week 1.
The recruitment calendar is subject to change each semester; check-in with the coords about their plans in this regard.
An internal combustion engine is an incredible machine. Hundreds of parts work together in synchrony. Each turn of the engine provides the momentum necessary to kickstart the next turn and the next, in a cyclic, periodic process that harnesses incredible power. But as anyone who has tried to start a gas lawn mower knows, getting the engine turning in the first place is the hardest part.
The content team's workflow is similar. Many members of our team must come together to work in a cyclical and periodic process that can produce great things. The greatest challenge of the semester is setting the workflow in motion at the beginning of the semester when CMs are new.
The exact workflow for a single worksheet is detailed elsewhere in this Wiki, but just know that it consists of three weeklong stages:
- Writing: the worksheet content is created. This is where 90% of your work is done.
- Review/buffer: the worksheet is sent to reviewers for review. Their feedback is considered, and the worksheet is revised. The worksheet is presented at the SM-coord meeting.
- Deployment: the worksheet is taught to mentors.
Worksheets are named for the week where they are deployed; therefore, mentor02 is the worksheet that is taught during the second week in the semester. Because of this timeline, you must begin work on the worksheet two weeks before the beginning of the worksheet's deployment. That means that if sections begin during week 2, you must begin writing the worksheet during week 0 (the week before the semester begins). Here is a visualization of how that workflow shapes up in that case:
(Note that mentorXX is always deployed during week XX? That's no coincidence.)
Because one worksheet is deployed each week, the weeks layer together so that you have one worksheet in each of the three stages each week. (Students who have taken CS 61C will recognize this as "pipelining".)
Now, let's think about how that schedule shapes up with mentor recruitment. In spring 2023, CMs started work on the worksheets during week 3. Therefore, the first worksheet they could write was mentor05. mentor02, mentor03, and mentor04 therefore all had to be written completely by the SCMs. Additionally, it may take some time for worksheet review to come into full swing, in which case the worksheets will not be subject to external review, and you will just have to be careful that you are not introducing too many errors.
Again, all of this may be different for your semester. After talking to the coords, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- When will sections start? Given the structure of our workflow, when does work then need to begin on the first worksheet?
- When will CMs be onboarded? How many worksheets will the SCMs have to create by themselves?
- When will worksheet reviewers be able to start working? Which worksheets will they be able to review?
Now, for a cautionary tale: do not start the content workflow late. In fall 2022, our first worksheet was needed for week 2, and we started work on it days before it was needed. Here's what our first weeks looked like: 
As you can see, we spent weeks 2 and 3 working on double time to try to catch up. These weeks were also very busy for recruitment reasons. This was not fun to deal with. Don't think that because you don't have to have the first two worksheets reviewed that you can afford to shorten the first few cycles of the workflow. A moment's thought will show that this will still result in you doubling up on writing, which is not good.
Major contributors: Gabe Classon