A student's advice for a reading group in introduction to computational complexity

Oded Goldreich

• All students should try to read all the weekly material they agreed upon. (Note: Sometimes, this can and will diverge from Oded's outline on his homepage. I recommend sharing with Oded if you make big changes to the plan).
• The goal of each meeting is to discuss the reading: go over challenging or confusing points, highlight ideas you found particularly interesting, etc.
• But how are the meetings actually carried out? Each week, a different person is assigned as a kind of moderator for the discussion. At the beginning of the meeting (after check-in, see below), they ask their fellow students for topics they found more interesting / challenging, or anything else to add to the agenda. They then devise an ad-hoc plan for the meeting. They try to moderate the discussion such that the plan is carried out. Some more points on the moderator:
  • As a moderator, it helps to have a big picture of the week's material in mind. This means that if you are a moderator of a certain week, even if you did not get a particular proof, you should still know it exists. This holds for all students always, but doubly so for the moderator.)
    (ODED: Actually, if the moderator or any other student did not get any point, then this point should definitely be discussed. If it remains unclear after the discussion, then you should contact me.)
  • The moderator does not need to know the material perfectly. They are certainly not expected to present the material to class or anything of that sort. Conversely, the moderator does not own the meeting all students do; the moderator merely serves an administrative role.
  • There is no need to stick to the plan if there are interesting developments along the way. The goal is to moderate the discussion, and avoid scenarios such as a student being left behind, or two students going off on a tangent that dominates the discussion and excludes the rest of the class.
  • In light of this, I suggest that when you are a moderator, you actively keep in mind the personalities and backgrounds of your fellow students. For example, if there is a student that has more experience with the material, invite them to clarify elusive points, but make sure other students can express themselves too. If a student tends to dominate the conversation, be sure to moderate the discussion in a way that includes others. If a student is shy, try to give them opportunity to speak (but do not pick on them). (This point is hard to carry out in the first few meetings, when students are still getting to know each other.)
  • Our assignment of the moderator was done in an arbitrary rotating fashion. Whatever you choose, I recommend keeping the moderation-load balanced.
• The significance of having a small and uniform group is in making sure no student gets left behind. This includes students with less experience who might have a hard time keeping up with advanced tangents, or students with more experience who get bored going over basic points.
  (ODED: I think it is a mistake to be bored of "basic points" or when you think you know the material well; firstly, you rarely do, and second one often benefits from revisiting things that one knows (esp., from the different perspectives others have on it, from the need to re-think and articulate, etc)
• Given the unique and partial experience that is virtual learning, I recommend starting each meeting with a 5-minute check-in: go around in some order and share something about your week. It does not have to be about research, the material of class, or anything related to school. Maybe you read an interesting book, or have just been feeling inexplicably sad. Share it if you feel comfortable.
  There are many reasons why this is a good idea when thinking of students as human beings. In the narrow context of achieving a fruitful discussion, this is helpful because it is an explicit acknowledgement of the fact that each student brings with them *all* of their experiences from the past week, not just those related to the subject at hand.