Course modality for this semester
The semester March--June 2020 will be given online. We will use the flipped classroom method, which requires that you study the course material with a script that I prepare. We will discuss the material in regular conference calls. In the following more details about how this works.
At the beginning of each week I will make a new part of the lecture and a new exercise list available at this webpage. I will announce the appearance of the new material by email. We will have a conference call every Thursday at 10:30--12:00 where you can ask questions about the course material. I will send you the details of how to enter the conference calls briefly in advance. Feedback to the lecture notes (mathematical corrections, typos, et cetera) is very appreciated!
You should create solutions for the exercises until Friday of the upcoming week. A scan or photo of the solutions (well-readable as one pdf file, preferable no jpg) should be sent to Xia (xia.xiao@impa.br). Of course, typed solutions are very welcome! The solutions should be created individually. Xia will correct roughly half of the solutions, and I encourage you to indicate to Xia if you want to see corrections for certain exercises. This is particularly adviced if you have doubts about certain solutions. Usually Xia should be able to respect your wishes, though there might be some situations where this is not possible.
Here are some tips how to make the best use of this new learning situation.
(1) A good way to digest the material of the script is to prepare you own personal version of the lecture notes, as if you were taking notes of an actual lecture. This allows you to think about the details in proofs with the necessary care and time. As a complementary source of learning you can search for online lectures. There are plenty, and usually you find many related to the topic(s) of the running week if you search for the section title(s) in Youtube.
(2) I encourage discussion groups by email and conference calls in small groups (e.g. via Skype, Jitsi or Whatsapp). Exchange your contacts. This will also help you for creating a social network that replaces the social contacts that you would have in normal times.
(3) The material for the conference call should be your doubts around the lecture notes. To make the best use of our joint time during the conference calls, I suggest that you first discuss your questions with your fellow students. This has the advantage that you will find out which doubts are more relevant---some questions might be shared by others while other questions can be answered by your fellow students. Please send me your questions before the conference call, so that I can already start with some material!
Lecture notes
Lecture notes for Algebra 1 (complete version, June 25, 2020).
Exercise lists