Note: if you are a prospective OTIS student,
read the syllabus instead. More useful, less bragging.
In the unlikely event that I’m a social gathering like a party or family
gathering, people will sometimes ask me about my teaching.
Invariably they ask, “so do you do like 1:1 meetings or group lessons?”.
Then I have to explain, no, I have 400 students, there are no synchronous meetings at all.
The core of the program is literally a
Python web server that serves PDF files.
Then it sounds less impressive.
I guess when people hear I’m a teacher, they expect me to teach classes,
and it’s a bit embarrassing to explain that I’m not a teacher in that sense anymore.
But the purpose of OTIS isn’t to make Evan sound cool at parties;
the purpose of OTIS to be effective for the students.
So this …
Here’s a snapshot of what running OTIS looks like these days.
Starts from last Sunday afternoon until Monday lunch.
Timestamps indicate when the action was completed (rather than started).
Sunday 13:04: Process a late financial aid request from someone who forgot
to request it earlier.
Sunday 13:14: Edit OTIS website
to clarify that if you haven’t had your registration approved within 48 hours,
then you should email Evan to ask.
Sunday 13:15: Process a student who wants to drop the fall semester and
come back to re-join in the spring.
Sunday 13:55: Answer a question from a student on Discord on applying
AM-GM on the inequality that I was trying to do in my head when I failed my
driving test 11 years ago.
Sunday 14:04: Fix a reported typo in the problem statement of
China TST 2015/2/3
in the OTIS …
Makes it feel a bit more rewarding to complete problem sets, I think.
Also gives me the chance to plant Easter eggs everywhere,
which is always a lot of fun ;)
