UCSB CS Open Lab

This website is for you if:

  • You are a TA/ULA/Instructor for one of the courses listed below:
    • 5A, 5B, 8W, 9, 16, 24, 32, 40, 111, 130A, 130B, 138, 148, 156, 165B, 171, 176A
  • You would like to hold office hours for that course (LA, TA or even instructor) in one of the classrooms in Phelps: 3525, 3526, or 2510.

When these rooms are used for shared office hours, we call this “UCSB CS Open Lab”.

On this site, you can find:

  • Open Lab Times - A calendar of when the rooms have been reserved for open lab hours.
  • Signup Instructions - Instructions for TA/LA/Instructors to sign up for office hours slots
  • Links to web pages for each course that you can publicize to students
  • All Open Lab Hours - Master Google Calendar showing all of the office hours being held in open labs
  • General policies and information pertaining to the scheduling and use of the “open labs”.

Overview of the UCSB CS Open Lab concept

The CS department has allocated space in three departmentally controlled classrooms especially for “open lab” hours.

The idea arose when we needed space for undergrad LAs to hold office hours, and the TA trailer was already overcrowded. Since then, we have discovered that it can be helpful to hold all or a portion of the office hours for a course—not just LA office hours, but also TA, and sometimes even instructor office hours in these spaces.

Currently, this option is available for all of the course that are part of the LA program (i.e. 5A, 5B, 8W, 9, 16, 24, 32, 40, 111, 130A, 130B, 138, 148, 156, 165B, 171, 176A).

While you are not required to make use of this space, we want to encourage you to consider doing so. Some of the benefits:

  • Eases crowding in the TA trailer, making that space better for the other courses in the program
  • More space for LA/TAs and students being helped to spread out
  • Opportunities for students from different “generations” (i.e. first, second, third, fourth years) to interact with one another and form community.

Note that courses using ULAs are not required to use the open lab space for their office hours. Here are some alternatives:

  • Holding office hours in the TA trailer
  • Holding office hours on Zoom
  • Holding office hours in other spaces (as arranged for by the course instructor)