Working from home during Covid-19

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suresh
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Working from home during Covid-19

Post by suresh »

Do share your experiences while working from home! Anecdotes, observations etc,
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by arjun2761 »

Virtual happy hours in the evening are quite popular with full turnout whereas the virtual coffees in the morning are getting spotty participation. :D
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by Varma »

We were in a conference call with about 30 people (almost 2/3rd of the attendees are dialing in from India). It was about 10 AM IST, a girl from India was doing a presentation and every so often a Bollywood song would play annoyingly loud in the background for a few seconds. After a couple of minutes, the organizer makes the customary announcement of, "can you please mute your speakers if you are not talking"....and the presenter goes, "I am sorry those background noises are from my side. It's the garbage collector who comes door to door and plays the music to announce his arrival. It's going to go on for a while. If it is too distracting, we may have to reconvene in 10 minutes. I can't do anything else" :D

- Varma
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by jayakris »

Good to know that there are garbage collectors!
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by sameerph »

Garbage collectors are very much there in Mumbai but nobody is coming home to each flat as it used to be before lockdown. One has to go and drop the garbage at the gate of the society or buliding whichevr way it. Same with food delivery although not many are ordering due to fear of getting infected from food delivery vendor. Couriers are not working.

So, since no food delivery and no household help, work from home also means work for home too a lot. ;)
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by suresh »

I have conducted two online tutorials for my class using Google Meet. Attendance was rather low -- 25-30 out of 100+ who should have shown up. The first one started off disastrously with my browser crashing when I tried to screen share something. Then, it wouldn't let me upload it again. Took me 20 minutes to sort things out. I was expecting that my students would have bailed out. But they came back online and we had a regular session. They are all stuck to the rules -- switch off video and mute audio unless you want to ask something. Questions were asked via chat or when I deliberately paused for them to ask questions. Interestingly, they interacted more than did when we did this in a real classroom!

Yesterday, I recorded my first lecture for the class. Created slides and used vokoscreen on my Linux (Ubuntu) laptop to record the window with audio. Then used ffmpeg to cut down the size of the video file by 50%. Lectures are of short duration (20 minutes or less).
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by gbelday »

Surprisingly, it’s been pretty smooth for us. The team is located all over the world (80% in Frankfurt, London, NY, Gurgaon) . The ones in India do complain about spotty internet access from their homes. Personally, I could get used to this :) More sleep, less travel and no 2 hr commute everyday!
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by jayakris »

I have been teaching two courses, a 125-student freshman UG class, and a small 8-student graduate class, both on Zoom Pro. Have had no issues. Actually I realize that it is easier to write things on a piece of paper with a document camera than to write on a white board in a big classroom! I like it. I am an old-fashioned professor who still writes on the board (I can't teach from power points at all).
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by suresh »

jayakris wrote: Wed Apr 08, 2020 6:54 am Actually I realize that it is easier to write things on a piece of paper with a document camera than to write on a white board in a big classroom! I like it.
I agree! My class is 900+ and hence no live lectures.
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by suresh »

At IITM the teaching part of our semester comes to an end today. The last 4/5 weeks were done in online mode. The students will be evaluated only after they return to campus. Students will have time to digest the material at their own pace. Efforts are on to help final year students graduate ASAP. In an amazing effort, the IITM admin (and Faculty advisors) contacted each and every student of IITM to get their feedback! Students who couldn't answer surveys were called on their phone. If that didn't work, their parents were called.

For me, online teaching was a huge challenge given that my class size is around 900. We did things asynchronously and tried to keep video sizes small so that someone with a 2G connection on their phone should be able to follow the course. Time will tell how well this method worked. For me the lectures took 10-20 times longer to create than giving a simple online lecture. I am plain tired and looking forward to doing my research again.
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by jayakris »

God, that sounds like an awful lot of work, Suresh. Get some rest. For me it was no problem. Replaced the board with a document cam and teaching the class on Zoom. Have 5 more weeks to go, as we're on a quarter system.
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by Omkara »

Don't know where to begin but it's tough. Markets are open. So I have to work. My wife has work. My almost 7 kid keeps shouting she is bored. Wife cooks. I do dishes and jhadu pocha. It takes 2 hours to cook, 15 mins to eat and then 1 hour to tidy up the kitchen. At least we both are having deep sleep post long hours.

The kid is getting neglected. Too much tv time. Unfortunately neighbours got stuck in jaipur. Their kid and mine are friends. Had been here it would have helped.

But in the end, I haven't found so much time either with my wife or kid ever. My wife has improved amazingly with her cooking. She was good but this regular cooking has added a finesse that's hard to describe. Me and my daughter bond on a different level these days. I play all her silly games with her.
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by prasen9 »

Omkara wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 6:50 am Markets are open.
Which market do you work in? :p
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by Omkara »

prasen9 wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 7:13 am
Omkara wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 6:50 am Markets are open.
Which market do you work in? :p
Indian stock markets :tomato:
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Re: Working from home during Covid-19

Post by prasen9 »

Omkara wrote: Sat May 02, 2020 7:50 am Indian stock markets :tomato:
Ah, stocks of what? cattle? Do you sell livestock or after butchering them? :p
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